The Ultimate Candy Cryptex!

Do you want a nice container to keep your treats?

Do you have people who's trying to take your snacks?

This is practically a sweet tooth's best friend. Just shove in all your sweets in this thing, change the combination up, and nobody will be able to steal your stuff.

As I was making this I was planning to put candy in it, until I realized-

Wait, I'm broke in candy...

Whoops. I can start to save up in candy, or I can save up my cash in there. You guys do whatever you like- but I recommend decorating the cryptex to look a bit more natural if you plan to hide away your money there!

There are quite a few things you'll need for this:

• 2 chip cans, one of them being big enough to fit the second inside
• Cardboard
• Pencil
• Exacto knife (I only have a box cutter at home...)
• Popsicle sticks
• Compass for drawing circles
• Ruler
• Hot glue
• Regular glue stick or double sided tape
• Cutting mat
• Colored paper, crayons, and anything else for decoration!

Cut out 10 circles from the cardboard. When you put your biggest can on it, there should be about 1 cm of extra cardboard around the can.

Then, for 6 of the circles, trace another circle on the inside using the bottom of your can. That gives you 6 donut shapes & 4 regular circles.

On the rim of each of the donut shapes, draw out a 1.2 x 1.2 cm square. I say 1.2 instead of 1 because a popsicle stick should be able to easily pass through that gap- and a popsicle stick is about 1 cm wide (the stick will act as a lock- you'll see this later). Then, cut out the square and the inner circle within the donut shapes. These 6 pieces will be part of the combination rings for the cryptex. The other 4 complete circles you put aside will be stay aside for later.

For the walls, divide up the height of your tall can by 6 to come up with the height for each combination ring wall.

Cut out 8 strips (6 for the combination rings, 2 walls for the 4 full circles you put aside earlier) the length of the circumference of the rings. Score them so they're more flexible and bend into shape.

Hot glue a wall for each of the combination ring and make sure to glue the end of the wall to the start (you don't want a hole in your wall).

When you're done with the 6 combination rings, glue a wall to one of the full circles from earlier and glue a second on the other side of the wall. Do the same with the remaining 2 circles. These 2 wheel shapes are the top and bottom of the cryptex.

(Note #1: If you don't have a big can, you can make one using the cardboard rectangle and scoring method. Then all you have to do is cut a circle for the bottom of the "can".)

(Note #2: If you looked at the last picture, you probably noticed some things sticking out from the centers of the combination rings. I used extra bits of popsicle sticks so the rings would fit snugly against the tube because I cut my rings in the first step a bit too loose- big mistake. I later realized the popsicle sticks would make it harder for the rings to turn and may even mess with the lock/unlocking system slightly. I didn't want to find out if that would really happen the hard way, so I took time to take out those sticks.)

Down the vertical of the can, mark and cut a slit about 1.2 cm wide. It'll be easier to see why later.

Decorate the top and bottom of the cryptex (aka the "wheels" from earlier) with colored paper. I used a bright pink.

Then, wrap the smaller can with colored paper. I used a paler blue color. You don't decorate the bigger one because the combination wheels cover it up anyways. The smaller one holds the candy and is what you slide out and hide back into the can, so you see the outsides of it.

Next, just hot glue the one of the wheels to the bottom of the smaller can, and the other to the bottom of the big can. This is going to be the top and bottom of the cryptex.

This was my favorite part! This is where you draw up the options for the code on the cryptex and decide which ones to actually use as your password.

Cut out 6 strips of paper. Then, draw 10 equal sized boxes on each strip. Within each box, write a number, letter, or even draw a picture. Be creative and give it any sort of theme you'd like.

The next and most important part is to make and keep note of your password. The picture/number/letter you would like for your password is the one you would glue right in front of the hole in the combination ring. This is because only the area with the hole is what allows the lock to pass through and so let you pull out your candy. You want that to happen only when you set your password correctly.

Pick a symbol from each of the 6 strips to be a part of the password. That's the symbol you will glue right in front of the hole as my picture example shows. I wanted purple to be one of my password keys, so that's the one that was placed right in front of the hole in the combo ring.

Glue the rest of the strips onto a combination ring, making sure your password symbol is on the right spot.

(Note: Remember that on the combo ring, the side with the rim and hole face left. This is good to keep not of so when you draw and stick your symbols, they aren't sideways or upside down!)

It's time to actually put the locks in place. We're basically sticking bits of popsicle sticks (aka our locks) in a vertical line on the small can. This is why you won't be able to slide out the small can to get your candy from the cryptex unless all the holes (which is represented by your password in a way) is lined up properly, letting the locks and your candy tube of ultimate glory slide out.

First, slide in your first (technically, add your 6th unless you're reading the code right to left) combo ring and then the small can. Make sure to slide both all the way down. Mark a line on the small can (through that small slit in the bigger can) right underneath the rim of the combo lock. Then, slide out the small can and hot glue a 1 x 1 cm piece of popsicle stick on that line. This is the first lock.

Now, add the second (technically your 5th) combo ring on top of the previous. Slide in your can again and on it mark right underneath the rim of that second ring like what you did before. Slide out the can again and hot glue your next 1 x 1 cm piece on that mark.

You then repeat this process until you've placed locks for each of the 6 combo rings. Make sure you've glued the locks in a line so that they slide down that slit in the big can properly.

Lastly, and another very important step, mark on the top and bottom (aka the "wheel" looking parts) of the cryptex where the slit is on the can/where the locks are. If you don't have these, you won't know where to line your password up. That would just make the password useless. I used 2 triangles cut out of purple paper as arrows pointing to the lining up area.

(Note: This is why the password on my cryptex reversed. I started with my actual first ring and ended with my last, thus I read my password right to left. That's why you should start sliding in your 6th ring, then your 5th and so on.)

The last step really is to make sure your combo rings don't come off. I was planning to cut out a donut shape like we did for the 6 combo rings (except I wouldn't make the square shaped hole for this one) and glue that to the top of the big can, locking the rings permanently onto the can. Since I didn't have any extra cardboard left, I cut some 3 more 1 cm long popsicle stick squares and glue them to the edges of the can to keep the rings on the can.

First try it out without any stuff in the can, just in case something goes wrong. Push the small can into the cryptex with the password done right. Then after writing down your password on a piece of paper for note, you may now trust yourself on sliding around the 6 combo rings and see how the small can refuses to slide out.

For the next part of the test, turn the rings around to make the right password and watch the can slide out! If it seems fine, then fill the thing up with as much candy as you want (or however much you have... hehe...). Then lock it up to keep it safe till later.

Perhaps the intimidatingly huge size of this cryptex may encourage me to save up at least a few treats to nibble on while I'm doing online classes :P

Hopefully you had a good time making this! Since the cryptex is so huge, there's probably a lot more stuff to hide in there besides candy, so that's especially cool.

This seemed to fit for the Cardboard Speed Challenge, so I entered it in. Yes, it would be really great of you guys to comment or leave a vote!

A comment for an earlier Instructable suggested I try a drop and spiral theme jewelry next, so I'm planning to make either a drop or spirally type of earring for a next or future Instructable. If you guys have other suggestions, I can take note and I'll try to do those too later on! :D