Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 26

MAKE MONEY

By Tom Parker

Sometimes it costs more to buy it than to make it from the money itself.

Photography by Tom Parker

Combination Lock

SIMPLE COMBINATION LOCKS ARE based on a shaft with rotating disks. I made this one out of 5 quarters, 2 half-dollars, and a penny (plus an odd assortment of scrap metal, nuts, and bolts). It looks complicated but it’s actually very simple.

For illustration purposes, I made the drawer front out of ⅜"-thick clear acrylic (A) so you can see both inside and outside the drawer.

The drawer lock works like this: ...