Make a secret hollowed-out book

I love hollowed out books. They make excellent hiding places or they can be used as unique and tricky double gift wrap. “Ah-ha, it’s a book wrapped up in a book!” I’ve built hollowed-out books before, using the time-honored, frustrating, and very time-consuming hobby-knife method. This time, I decided to speed things up (by hours!) using my Dremel Multi-Max oscillating tool.

Since this made cutting so much quicker, I was also more willing to cut multiple chambers inside the book. Use this method to build a hiding place for your electronics, jewelry, and secret plans for the midnight raid on the cookie jar. It could also be used to make a unique project box for one of your electronics builds.

Materials:

An old hardcover book (I got mine at a thrift store for $2)
Secret items
Dremel Multi-Max oscillating tool with flush-cut wood blade
White glue
Small paintbrush
Pencil
Ruler
Clamps
Hobby knife
Safety goggles

Download the Project PDF
(Right click to save the PDF to your desktop.)

4 Responses to Make a secret hollowed-out book

josiahritchie.myopenid.com on October 6th, 2010 at 2:19 pm said:

I found having a mask was also good for keeping all the book dust out of my nose. Perhaps this is more important for different types of paper.

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greg on October 6th, 2010 at 2:19 pm said:

… without the dremel. Instead i spent a few hours with a craft knife making the hidey hole. It was part of a christmas present for my other half.

have a look at http://www.accomplished.org/2010/02/07/magical-love-book/

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ToddW on October 6th, 2010 at 2:29 pm said:

I have a friend who had a roommate. The roomate got into some “legal” trouble and the police came to search their house. Part of the search included fanning every single book in my friends 1000+ book collection. This project is very cool but don’t think you will use it to get away with anything. Apparently, people who search houses for a living know all of the tricks! Also, check out potiential roomates.

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Tim on October 6th, 2010 at 3:04 pm said:

Someone on reddit claiming to be a professional concealment designer described a way to make a hollow book that’s a bit harder to identify than this project: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/bs8bs/iama_professional_concealment_designer_i_make/c0odsn6

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