While conventional safes can be a good place to put valuables, sometimes it’s even better to hide your things where nobody will even look in the first place. [Wesley Treat] has a build that will allow you to do just that, which secrets away papers, money, or small items within the body of a bolt.
The build starts in a proper hacker fashion, using a power drill to turn an aluminium blank against a power sander creating an ersatz lathing setup. The outside of the blank is then threaded with the aid of a socket wrench and die, to great success. A cavity is created inside and threaded internally, and a separate head is then machined to screw on top. It’s all achieved without the use of a real lathe, with [Wesley]’s power drill doing most of the heavy lifting instead. It’s great stuff.
The end result has the appearance of a socket-head cap screw, while being lighter than a typical example due to the aluminium construction. Inside, there’s room for money, matches, and more, and [Wesley] even put in a small hole so the bolt can be used as an attractive keychain.
It’s a neat build, and one that we’d love to have as part of our own everyday carry. Video after the break.
I *just* bought *this exact same thing* on Aliexpress a few hours before seeing this article, what are the odds …
The plan is to hide a small/fun/nice message on a bit of paper, as well as a tiny candy, and to use the bolt inside of the 5 axis CNC mill / laser cutter combo I am currently finishing the build of for a customer.
So maybe sometime in a few decades when somebody dissasembles, or refreshes it, they’ll find the secret, and be happy about it, and I’ll have made somebody smile, a long distance and a long amount of time away.
Maybe.
It’s all random.
Engineering is fun :)
Oh by the way, if somebody is curious, the Aliexpress page: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10000010892822.html
Oh wow I just found a second one that’s even closer in looks/format to the one in this article, crazy: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001980234379.html
If you are using it in place of regular bolt, just don’t tighten it too much or might get quite difficult to remove :)
Oh, right, thanks actually, will be caution where I use it, probably should put it somewhere it’s not actually necessary.
If you’re putting a hollow bolt with a screw-off head in place of a normal somewhere, you better hope the original bolt was fairly over-specced.
Would certainly be fun for a future maintenance to find, but You might be liable if the hollow bolt shears or the head unscrews and the CNC fails because you’ve knowing used a bolt that’s not to spec. Maybe stick it somewhere outside the working area and as an extra not in place of a real bolt.
I like the sentiment of the idea.
Another risk is that somebody does some maintenance and re-installs the “fake” bolt in a more critical position without realizing it’s compromised.
Perhaps put some ball bearings inside to raise suspicion and trigger investigation.
He looks like a cross between Tom Green and Red Green.
Haha, I only vaguely know who those two people are (a musician and a Canadian duct tape enthusiast), but I totally see the resemblance!
It’s all fun and games until someone accidentally uses it to repair heavy machinery.
But it has that tiny hole in the top part for the ring for the keys. I doubt anyone would use it in machinery unless it was an end-of-the-world scenerio.
Unless they think it is used for wire wrap.
Very heavy-duty bolts used in industry often have holes in the head for lockwire.
But steel bolts also have a fair amount of weight to them compared to this. Heck, it wouldn’t even sound like a normal steel bolt.
A hollow aluminum bolt would almost certainly be noticed before long ever being installed. It seems too obvious to be mistaken.
Not forgetting the fact that a bolt this size would have a fair amount of tourqe on it when fitting.
I’d say being hollow and aluminium it would shear the head off even spinning it in by hand.
Was going to say, better cut it with some left handed, non standard pitch threads or it might end up holding a head on an engine block somewhere. Either way, someone would be unhappy
With left-handed thread it would hold the head on an Alfa Romeo.
J. D. Truby and J. Minnery describes few more things one can do with a hollowed bolt(in their book from – now defunct – Palladin Press).
Am I the only one thinking it would benefit from some sort of actual “lock” not just a screw on head. Something to make sure that if someone who shouldn’t discover its internal secret handles it then there’s no risk of a sudden twisting of the head relative to the body alerting them that this time there’s something abnormal about a bolt? I’m not sure what sort of “lock” could have an invisible hidden keyhole to avoid breaking the ilusion of a normal bolt, bu its worth thinking about.
All about what you are wanting it for – maybe a simple latch of some sort, or just a pin that locks the two together – how visible such a mechanism is is pretty much entirely builders choice, with a little side of how much of the internal volume they are willing to give up for anything somewhat complex.
I saw a similar project that uses nickels and quarters that are milled out so that there was a small compartment it was a bit tricky to separate when they had a seemless rim.
Oh man, the stuff I could hide in there! I love it!
Geocaching anyone?