This was a box I made back in high school just to play with a dovetail jig. It has 2 puzzles built into it. The first is the lid, that has panels that slide out, rotate 180 degree, and reinsert to unlock the dead bolts. Then inside the box is a false bottom. The front of the box has a button to open the false bottom but it doesn’t work. To make it work you have to rotate the box through the air to move a bb through a maze, when you solve the maze correctly the ball will fall down, and it sits between the button and the latch - then the button works and unlatches the false bottom. The maze in the secret lock was made by careful scroll sawing the design I glued onto it. I also added a handfull of tiny magnets in there to mess with the person trying to open it even more. Once the ball got stuck on a magnet you have to whack it with your hand to break it free. To relock the box you just turn it upside down.

I also had a moment when I learned that apparently if you hand a puzzle box to someone and say ‘try to open this’ you should specify that it’s a puzzle box… since years ago a muscly room mate tore the lid in half by prying on it really hard all at once.

Also this was before I learned about finishing wood, and it was left completely bare and got stained over the years. Another problem with the design is after enough use the lid key pieces got loose and would fall out when the box was tilted. A solution to that if using a similar design is to embed magnets in the key pieces and on the inside of the lid, so that it will lock in. Plus if using a S - S or N - N when it’s in the unlocking position, the pieces would spring out to remind you to lock it after.