The Makings of a Book Safe

This is my first instrucatable, and I hope you find it helpful.
I wanted to make a booke safe, and in the past I would begin by cutting pages out into a box shape page by page, BORING!!! there must be a faster way and I found a way to do this.
First I must say thanks to 2 inspirational instrucable teachers. These people helped me with this instrucable and I created my own version from their ideas: Re-design and mmarrington. Thanks guys.

I want to show you how to make a book safe with easy to get material and tools.

To begin this Instrucable you need to find a book that has the correct thickness and size for you to create a book safe. I used a wonderful history book from a second hand store. Cost me $2 Canadian.

Tools that you will need:
Ruler
Drill
Drill Bits
Paint brush (hobby style)
Jig Saw
Jig Saw blades
Two, 2 feet of 2X4 wood
spare plywood, a 4X4 would be nice

Material you will need:
Book
White glue
Crazy Glue
Wax Paper
Weight! Anything that is flat and Heavy.

I began by deciding what I wanted to cut out and what I wanted to keep. Once I decided that I placed wax paper between the first few pages and the pages I wanted to cut. I also placed wax paper at the bottom. I wanted the last few pages to be visible from the top so I made sure to seperate these pages.

Once I have seperated the pages, I grab the white glue and hobby paint brush and begin to paint on the glue to the pages I want to keep together. White glue is awesome b/c it dries clear. After you are done spreading the glue around the pages add weight to the book so that the pages will look straight. In about 20 min (depending on your humidity) add another coat. Let sit over night and add another coat.

Couple hours later begin to work on the body that you want to cut out. Measure your Jig Saw plate from blade to end. This will tell you how close to the binding you can get. (this is a suggestion only).

Once you have measured your box size, get a ruler and draw lines. I decided I wanted a 1" border wall and that's how I made my cutting lines. This is the cutting path.

IMPORTANT! find your Jig Saw and look at your cutting blades. You want to use a fine wood cutting blade. Get your measurer and measure the width of the blade. This will tell you what drill bit you will need.
I used a HSS drill bit and went 1/8th bigger in diameter then my jigsaw blade.
Seperate your hard cover and pages that you want to keep from your cut out pages by folding them 180*.
Place cut out pages over plywood (can put over 2X4 with extra piece of plywood that was 3/8 thick. This was to lift the cut out pages higher to take tension off the binding).

I drilled four holes, one in each corner.I tried to make sure that the point/centre of my drill bit was NOT on my lines. I wanted the radius of the drill bitt, not the complete diameter of the drill bit. Meaning I wanted the edge of drill bit on my lines. To accomplish this, start drill slowly and when you begin to dig in, add speed to your drill by pulling in the drill trigger.
Then I took the pages and moved them onto 2- 2X4that were higher then my jigsaw blade. This way my jigsaw blade could cut through and not hit anything underneath, wrecking my blade or project.

NOTE**: You should have good ventilation or a good N95 dust mask. When the Fine wood jigsaw blade is cutting, fine dust (heeps of it) will be produced and you don't want to breath that stuff in. hack hack!!
Take your time cutting this out. I cut the line closest to the binding last because I wanted to make sure that the book woud stay together.

Once you have cut the pages out, seperate them from the book. combine bottom hardcover and saved pages to your cut out. Get white glue and paint brush and begin to apply 3 layers of glue to the INSIDE of your book and your pages including the image on the bottom that you saved. I went overboard and reglued the outside as well just to make sure that everything was tight. don't forget to add weight! Paper loves to swell with moisture!

Before I glued the back hard cover to the cut out pages I tried to trim what I visually didn't like. I used a utility knife with the blade all the way out. I used a big knife, not a small one.

i noticed that my book binding had seperated from my hard cover. I used crazy glue to re-attach them at this point. I took a piece of 2X4 wood for back support, small drible of glue to the binding and then to the hard cover, pushed the 2X4 in so that the pieces would connect and left it there for about ten minutes.

An afterthought: I should have glued all the saved pages together and glued them to the bottom hardcover so it would be stronger. that way when I glued the inside pages to the bottom saved pictures, I would have a continues and stronger backside.

Now look in and see if you are happy.

I was happy with the way this turned out and have it on my shelf were I keep items that I don't want other people to find.

Thanks for looking

TBO.