8 ms·
Wooden combination lock
- ak39 11y agoAwesome. How long does it take to achieve skills of this calibre in woodwork?
- vailripper 11y agoMatthias is fantastic at engineering things and then building them out of wood, but I consider it very different than true woodworking. To me, the level of craft of someone like Sam Maloof is on an entirely different level.
- function_seven 11y agoAlthough Matthias does have metal tools, they're just items he hasn't gotten round to wood-ifying yet. The man is truly unique among wood-workers. If he were given the task of building a suspension bridge, he'd make the damn cables out of wood if he could. (And he'd probably succeed at it, too).
- monk_e_boy 11y agoWood is pretty easy to work with, if you have some nice tools (these are also pretty cheap to buy second hand.) Once you know what wood you like working with (I prefer something like oak, pine is too soft. Cheery is lush. Apple is also nice...) you just need something sharp to cut it with, a saw, a knife, some drills. Add some sand paper and off you go.
- MatthiasWandel 11y agoI don't really know. I have always tinkered with wood. Could be comparable to becoming good at computer programming.
- cliffwarden 11y agoHe's truly a hacker... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBmnQN78aZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBmnQN78aZU
- starshadowx2 11y agoCan we please have scaffold jousting and racing now?
- erikpukinskis 11y agoI think you are looking for this: http://burningman.org http://burningman.org
- biturd 11y agoEven more "HN applicable", a wooden calculator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- MatthiasWandel 11y agoHi, it's Matthias here (I built the lock). Got any questions for me?
- aidos 11y agoJust checked out both the lock and your scaffold video. Amazing projects. I don't have any real wood working skills (though I hacked together some window boxes out of a wooden pallet last month). Every time I see a project like this posted I get really inspired and wish I spent more of my life learning this craft. How would you recommend a complete amateur get started?
- MatthiasWandel 11y agoI get asked that not infrequently. So I wrote about it a while back :) http://woodgears.ca/beginner http://woodgears.ca/beginner
- aidos 11y agoAmazing, thanks - looks like a great resource. The only power tools I have are a drill and a jigsaw, so it looks like I was on the right track :) Edit I could watch these videos all day. So much interesting content - and very much in the spirit of this website (Hacker News). For example, this clip of deconstructing and hacking the doweling jig is brilliant. https://youtu.be/jFPLFyxkhzc?t=2m51s https://youtu.be/jFPLFyxkhzc?t=2m51s
- Programmatic 11y agoI was pretty impressed with the circular saw lap joint, myself.
- rawnlq 11y agoHey you have a typo on your webpage: http://woodgears.ca/ http://woodgears.ca/ "Send me email: (Frequencly asked questions)" By the way is this your full time job? I imagine making one high quality article a week is pretty intense. The stuff you do is very cool! (just curious since you seem to have a software background and I am interested to know how you managed to transition to doing a hobby full time =P)
- morgante 11y agoThis is an awesome educational tool: the large size makes it really easy to see and understand how combination locks work.
- agumonkey 11y agoAll these rotating pieces reminded me of Sussman's talk on watches http://video.mit.edu/watch/an-electrical-engineering-view-of-a-mechanical-watch-9035/ http://video.mit.edu/watch/an-electrical-engineering-view-of...
- ImprovedSilence 11y agoWow that is a fantastic lecture! Shit brings me back to the undergrad days.
- marincounty 11y agoJust happened to be waiting for a Elgin 883 movement to finish drying from a clean/rinse cycle. Killing time on HN, and I happen to run across this referral to a video. Watch repair can be fun, and it really doesn't cost a lot to get into on a hobby level. There's lots of books on watch repair, and most are out of copyright. The debate of mechanical watches comes up every so often. That Bulova watch he takes the Balance Wheel out of will literally last a life time with proper care. In the video, he mentions he doesn't know how the Bulova Accutron 360 gear is manufactured(you need to inspect it with a 30X scope). I have always been curious about this topic. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate the info. I know about watch lathes, and hand turning. I don't know how the factories mass produce these gears, what machines they use.
- owly 11y agoVery cool!
- bhudman 11y agoI try to visit his site every Friday. I like his no nonsense videos.
- mullingitover 11y agoI'm skeptical of a security mechanism that can be defeated with a match and some lighter fluid. However, as an art piece this is impressive.
- mhuffman 11y agoThat is pretty much every building a lock is meant to secure, no?
- MatthiasWandel 11y agoWell, in that case, spend $5 and buy a padlock.
- penguat 11y agoThe point of a lock is twofold (in most cases* ). First, to discourage casual/opportunistic access. Second, to make unauthorised access evident. I believe this lock meets those criteria, albeit at a minimal level - but it's purpose is to educate, rather than to directly secure. * In specialised cases the expectation is that the lock will also take a finite amount of time to get through, which may exceed that of the door, allowing for a response to alarms, for example. In other cases a lock may be designed such that the contents would be destroyed by any action which would defeat the lock.
- alinenache 11y agoperfect world http://waltherpragerandphilosophy1.blogspot.com/2014/12/buyers-in-perfect-world.html http://waltherpragerandphilosophy1.blogspot.com/2014/12/buye...
- vvpan 11y agoNot to diminish Matthias' amazing abilities, but only to highlight the challenges that go into making anything out of wood: plywood, isn't really wood per se. If you built things out of wood you'd have to worry about grain direction, because cross-grain strength in wood is very low. This adds a whole another level of complexity to the engineering process.
- MatthiasWandel 11y agoMost things I make aren't made of plywood. Yes, you have to be aware of poor crossgrain strength (varies with species) as well as seasonal shrinkage and expansion from humidity changes.
- wlmsng 11y agoReally interesting! What got you into woodworking?
- MatthiasWandel 11y agoAlways had access to my dad's wood shop. Wood is fast and easy to work with - unlike metal.
- ableal 11y agoAnd wood smells better. (I don't dislike oiled metal, but for me there's something about waxed wood that's really on the nose ;-)
- kitd 11y agoFantastic! The whole site is great. My kids have been pestering me to let them do stuff like this and I didn't really know where to start. Bookmarked.