Wooden combination lock

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?

"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)

I really enjoy watching your approach to design and problem solving (and obviously your precision and craftsmanship).

Have you considered making a big-ish "regular" lock with a big wooden key (even though you'd need springs, not sure if you want 100% wood)? I think it would be a pretty valuable tool for learning how to properly lockpick (with wooden tools) :)

Also could you describe how your website analytics work? I see you're using a 1px gif to log requests. I guess this just logs to a file. How do you find out when you get a surge of traffic like from Hacker News?

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.

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.

* 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.