Review on 🔒 Wooden Mechanical Safe Puzzle Model by David Olson

After collecting some ROKR wooden pieces I decided to try another brand of wooden puzzles (UGEARS). I picked up the Model Safe Kit to compare its build quality, instructions, locking mechanism and final product to the ROKR safe. Please note that these are not actually puzzles, but step-by-step building instructions. I don't want you to understand. In fact, if you can figure it out without a guide, then wow! :O Total time for this build: 4 hours 45 minutes Difficulty: 4/10 (would be 2/10, see notes) Overall grade: B+ (compared to C- on first few pages, see notes) I started this build and noticed immediately the quality compared to ROKR. The wood is much less finished (read: rougher), and when you push the pieces out you tend to leave splinters on the table. At the end of the meeting there were many fragments. The frames the parts were mounted in also broke easily, which actually made removing some small parts easier, so despite the minor mess that was a plus. I rated the difficulty level a little higher than usual. because of the first eight pages of instructions. While not really difficult, installing some of the very small support pieces in the box to get it in place was quite difficult. I ended up using a thick marker to press them into each hole. Considering I didn't have a lot of leverage and didn't want to break the large pieces of wood, this turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. The first seven pages took about two hours to make sure the right parts were in the right place and to install all those damn support parts. smoother. The steps were clear and the mechanism was well designed. The only annoying part so far has been the toothpicks that acted as the central shaft on some turned parts. It would be nice if metal shafts were intended for this like other brands do. The toothpicks did NOT fit the holes as intended and each had to be sanded down a bit to slide through multiple pieces. However, once that was done, everything fell into place. The code installation instructions for this part were just as complicated as for a similar part of ROKR. However, I chose the default value for this, 321. I made sure to open the door several times using this combination (see this step for very detailed written instructions) before proceeding. When the whole part was assembled I was very happy with the result. and increased my personal rating. Admittedly some of the initial instructions and fitting stuff was annoying and the toothpicks were a bit of a hindrance when sanding, but in the end it's a pretty good fit and finish of the part apart from a couple of protruding bits that I sanded down. It even has a small slot at the top for coins and money, as well as "emergency opening instructions" if someone gets stuck. Pretty nice touch! Final Verdict - At the beginning of the build I didn't think I would buy another UGEARS part, but now I think I will if I find something that interests me. It's a big "puzzle" that's a lot of fun to assemble and a handy mechanism to play with to unlock and open the door. Very satisfied! Addendum - I actually lost the block of wax they were able to provide me with (the cleaners came so I took all the parts to my office) so I used a natural cork saxophone lube. While not the same, it still offered pretty good lubrication. Let's see if it holds up and if not I'll wax the parts that will need it later. :)