January 21, 2025
Description
This vault can be assembled in minutes, but may take hours to re-open! The concept of this model is that of a time capsule; place a memento inside during assembly, and over the next weeks/months/years(?!), you can spin the vault wheels as you try to unlock it.
The mechanism of this vault uses a series of planetary gear reductions. The input wheel spins the first lock ring at a ratio of ~8:1, then the first lock ring spins the second lock ring at ~16:1, and so on. To complete one full rotation of the 3rd lock ring, you'll need to complete almost 30,000 rotations of the input wheel! If my math is correct (it's not) it could take up to 2 weeks of continuous spinning to find the unlock point of this vault!
I recommend ensuring you've calibrated the flow rate of your favorite filament before printing this vault, as it uses some precise tolerances and some interference fits for assembly. It prints great on my Bambu P1S with default settings, but other printers required some calibration to get similar results.
After printing both plates, assembly of the lock mechanism starts with the top later of the planetary gear stack, and ends with inserting the input wheel axle, snapping the spur gear into place, and placing the final three planetary gears into place. Next, slide the vault door into the container, move it to the closed position, and slide the ends of the lock pins into place via the slots in the base plate. Once in place, use the assembly pins to secure the two assemblies together. If you assembled the lock rings in the aligned/unlocked position, you can open and close the vault door as desired. If you decide to be devious and assemble the lock rings in random locations, it'll be locked after you push the assembly pins into place!
Assembly instructions can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tX3mtPrzPnsWPmbxLwFj2FguAD1RC9lhUENYYMqLEOo/edit?usp=sharing
License:
Standard Digital File License