Gwenivere13
stranger
Reged: 11/30/03
Posts: 11
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Hey, does anyone know where I can find a blueprint for a cryptex? I'm kind of into woodworking and would like to build one - but I can't seem to find anything about it - let alone an actual design!
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Sephia
Supreme Goddess
Reged: 11/28/03
Posts: 876
Loc: MA, USA
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hmm...try Da Vinci's notebooks.....have any of them been translated, etc?
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"Your life is yours alone, rise up and live it" ~Terry Goodkind
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AAnnAArchy
Gifted Procrastinator
Reged: 10/20/03
Posts: 643
Loc: Las Vegas
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Quote:
Gwenivere13 said:
Hey, does anyone know where I can find a blueprint for a cryptex? I'm kind of into woodworking and would like to build one - but I can't seem to find anything about it - let alone an actual design!
I've checked all of the search engines and I can't find any blueprints to make one. Sorry.  I'll check with a couple of my omniscient friends, but I'm afraid this one might require a trip to a library or help from whomever helped Dan Brown.
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Sephia
Supreme Goddess
Reged: 11/28/03
Posts: 876
Loc: MA, USA
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I am not sure if there even are blueprints for it...Leonardo was notorious for not finishing things...
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"Your life is yours alone, rise up and live it" ~Terry Goodkind
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AAnnAArchy
Gifted Procrastinator
Reged: 10/20/03
Posts: 643
Loc: Las Vegas
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Quote:
Sephia said:
I am not sure if there even are blueprints for it...Leonardo was notorious for not finishing things...
Hey, me too! Someday maybe I'll be thought of as one of the "greats", although it'll only be referring to my big ideas and lack of follow-through. 
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EdG
stranger
Reged: 02/12/04
Posts: 11
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Codex at DanBrown.com
I'm sorry if this is not what you are looking for, but I found it at the Dan Brown web site, it's refered to as a Codex there. The hardwriting is backwards, so I'd print it out and hold it up to a mirror or something.
<edited to fix the side scroll - AAnn>
Edited by AAnnAArchy (03/06/04 09:44 AM)
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JonPayne
stranger
Reged: 02/27/04
Posts: 4
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According to some of the books listed as references by Brown, this device is a perpetual motion machine, not the cryptex. I feel it is incorrectly labeled on his website. I have also scoured the internet, and purchased several Da Vinci books looking for a drawing, but to no avail. Does anyone know how to contact Mr. Brown or his publisher? Perhaps the direct approach is called for. . .
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Honesty
newbie
Reged: 03/05/04
Posts: 39
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Quote:
by JonPayne
According to some of the books listed as references by Brown, this device is a perpetual motion machine, not the cryptex.
The most famous instance in history of a perpetual motion machine is the Orffyreus Wheel; there is no blueprint for this machine as its creator destroyed it thus taking its secret to the grave.
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I'm Idaho.
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JonPayne
stranger
Reged: 02/27/04
Posts: 4
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This thread was about the cryptex, do you have any info about it? I have searched 5 books on Leonardo so far and cannot find any reference to it. Perhaps it is a figment of Mr. Browns imagination?
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Honesty
newbie
Reged: 03/05/04
Posts: 39
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Quote:
by JonPayne
Perhaps it is a figment of Mr. Browns imagination?
Da Vinci's sketches and notes do allude to a cog-wheeled device that could be interpreted as a calculator.
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poia
The Modeleter
Reged: 01/25/04
Posts: 168
Loc: NJ
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Reading this thread made me a little curious and I asked my husband to build me a Cryptex based on what I read in the book. He tells me this:
Almost anything could be made out of wood, but as we all know (he means woodworkers, not me:) ) wood is thinner, therefore weaker. Compromising the strength it will defeat the purpose. He claims it could only be build out of marble and bras, because marble is resistant to high temperatures, and the rings, made out of bras, are easy to forge around the marble pieces. He thinks the Cryptex is build like a regular lock, inside out. In other words the Cryptex turns the lock around the key. Each ring represents a notch in the key.
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"OK, so what's the speed of dark?"S.W.
Edited by poia (03/07/04 02:03 PM)
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Demon_Wolf
stranger
Reged: 03/08/04
Posts: 2
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It would actually be really easy to throw some aluminum stock into a mill and go at it. I bet i can do a 3-d design for you because i have the thing turning circles in my head right now. I'll get back to you on it.
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poia
The Modeleter
Reged: 01/25/04
Posts: 168
Loc: NJ
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Thanks!:) My husband drew something for me, but I’m curious on how you see it:)
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"OK, so what's the speed of dark?"S.W.
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Jakob
stranger
Reged: 03/13/04
Posts: 1
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I'm pretty sure the cryptex is supposed to be a variation of a very simple combination cylinder lock.
You can find a very simple carboard design here that you can build yourself: http://flying-pig.co.uk/pagesv/combination.html
The biggest difference is that the central cylinder would have to be made of two cylinders. One cylinder would be a glass tube with vinegar and the papyrus wrapped around (otherwise no working parts) and the other cylinder would be the teeth of the locking mechanism seen here.
Voila! C'est Cryptex!
P.S. In the book, Sophie mentions that the design for the cryptex came from one of Leonardo's restricted texts and that the name "Cryptex" was probably created by her grandpapa. My guess is that this is a fictional element of the story and not a historical Leonardo invention, although it is believalbe enough that it might be!
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Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati.
Edited by Jakob (03/13/04 06:20 AM)
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Billy
stranger
Reged: 03/23/04
Posts: 4
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Maybe Dan Brown...
MADE IT UP!
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Train1725
stranger
Reged: 03/26/04
Posts: 2
Loc: MA
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After reading DaVinci Code of the flight home from Ireland, the way to make a wooden cryptex popped into my head. My version dosent contain the vinegar element though. Basically it comsists of a series of wooden rings, 2 for top and bottom, and the middle ones for however many letters. All but the bottom have circle cut out (like a donut), the top one having a smaller hole. The letter rings have a recess cut with a router along the inside wall of the "donut" ceneter at the middle of the thickness, leaving material above and below. A hole is drilled along the inside edge, through the recess, at the desired letter. Four dowels are drilled into the bottom ring, the"letters" are stacked on top, and the top is glued to top of dowels. Now, a long rectangle of wood is notched to fit itto the recesses and rests in a shallow hole in the bottom piece. A top piece of handle is attached to this "cylinder". AS the letter are turned, the holes will line up with the pieces of the cylindar, allowing the entire cylindar and top piece to be removed.! I have looked at the flying pig website, and it is pretty much the same thing, but this is what popped into my head on that long flight, I plan to make some as gifts for my child and nieces and nephews. Maybe to seel at fairs? Any questions? think i got it right?
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toroggo
stranger
Reged: 03/31/04
Posts: 1
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I too do woodworking, and just from the description in the book of a cryptex I drew up a design based on the workings of the combination on a simple cable lock for a bicycle. On one end of the cable is a male toothed part which fits into the female part on the other end of the cable which has a series of 4 outer rings with numbers on them. To lock the cable you insert the male end into the female part, push them together and spin the rings. To unlock you line up the correct numbers and pull it apart. As I understood the workings of the cryptex in the book, the internal cylinder (male) containing the message and would slide out when the correct 5 letter word was spelled on the outer alpha rings (female). Given 5 rings, each ring would have to have an internal groove as well as an open space corresponding to the correct letter for that ring and the cylinder would have to have 5 pins in a line to fit in each of the 5 grooves. This would keep the cryptex locked until all 5 rings were in the correct place at which time all the internal openings in the rings would be lined up, just like the bicycle lock, and two parts can be separated.
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JonPayne
stranger
Reged: 02/27/04
Posts: 4
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Care to share a sketch of your idea?
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Train1725
stranger
Reged: 03/26/04
Posts: 2
Loc: MA
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Exactly..although you need a space inside to hold the message. Alos, i think i figured out a way to include a vinegar vial or something similiar. Om the "male " piesce, in betweem the handle and the "teeth", attach a vial with a stopper. Attach the stopper to the Teeth part, and the vila to the handle, then insert stopper into vial and insert into the lock. When you tries to remove it, if you were wrong, the vial would pull out of the stopper and spill the vinegar. If you were right, the tightness of the stopper would allow you to pull out the entire "male " part !
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dominic
stranger
Reged: 05/06/04
Posts: 1
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Read the comments about the cryptex. Really doesn't matter if it's real or not. Just imagining a brite person in DaVinci's time devising the most complicated device of such sort or even now doing so. Let's have a contest: come up with the most ingenious device which most resembles Dan Browns description but underneath, a 3rd millennium complexity. I'm most reminded of course of the German's device to send messages in WWII, forgot what it's called. Maybe even Dan Brown based his cryptex on that device.
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poia
The Modeleter
Reged: 01/25/04
Posts: 168
Loc: NJ
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I hope my memory is good...:) I think the device's name is Enigma...
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"OK, so what's the speed of dark?"S.W.
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Illuminati
stranger
Reged: 05/18/04
Posts: 2
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A cryptex is basically a bunch of blocks of wood or stone piled up on each other. if youve read the book then you would know that youde need a word to get in. carve a crevice behind the letters. you need a large vial of viniger that is taller than the blocks stacked on top of each other. The vial's glass should be fragile. on the tip of the vial there should be a lump so that the vial will slide when aligned with the crevices. slide papyrus over the vial and close it. rearrange the blocks into random order and your done!
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Thomas_Wing
stranger
Reged: 05/21/04
Posts: 3
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Those still interested in the cryptex mechanism theory can find a paper model for the device at this adress : http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/pagesv/combination.html. Sorry if someone posted this already, I didn't really take time to read through the 3 pages of this discussion !
As a side note : The German cipher machine was Enigma indeed ! nobody could crack it until the brit codebreakers would come up with a solution to test as fast as possible all the potential permutations...Virtual cipher machines, the prototypes for our computers  alas, these are probably lost : as with all the machinery and research made at the Cryptology dept. in those days, I think it has been destroyed. Sad u_u...
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DeMolay
stranger
Reged: 05/21/04
Posts: 1
Loc: MA-land of tax & bills
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You can try any Masonic grand lodge, you must be a member or at least have a friend who is one to go check it out.
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poia
The Modeleter
Reged: 01/25/04
Posts: 168
Loc: NJ
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I think you're going to like this site: http://www.xat.nl/enigma/
)
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"OK, so what's the speed of dark?"S.W.
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Thomas_Wing
stranger
Reged: 05/21/04
Posts: 3
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You were right Poia, I love it ^^ Thanks for the site + information.
Back to our topic now, the Cryptex. As soon as I receive the download link to the blueprints from the shop above, I'll save it to my private webspace and post the url here for all to download. I should add that these blueprints are merely those of a children toy, and that there are a few differences between this paper cryptex and the DVCode one (for example, the number of dials). At least it will prove good starting material to begin with !
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JustinN
journeyman
Reged: 05/25/04
Posts: 83
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Whew... Finally I got my membership to work. I have been trying to reply to this thread for a couple months now (I had to use a new e-mail account).
As for the Cryptex security box... I actually make them and have been making them for months. I have made them out of Wood (Oak, Mahogany, Purple Heart, Bloodwood, Ebony, Walnut, Teak), Metal (Brass, Chrome, Aluminum), and Marble (White, Black, dark and light Green).
I don't use the glass vile part as that would not have much practical use as it could only work once and there are much easier (and cost effective) ways these days to secure documents, but I could make them with this feature.
My pieces are more art than practical.
Anyway, just thought I'd let you all know that there is someone out there who makes these boxes.
Justin
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JonPayne
stranger
Reged: 02/27/04
Posts: 4
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Can I buy one from you?
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AAnnAArchy
Gifted Procrastinator
Reged: 10/20/03
Posts: 643
Loc: Las Vegas
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Do you want to post some pictures of them in the gallery...or do you have a website where we could see them? I would have no idea how to make one...or probably even use one, but I think they're really cool. I'll bet it's something my dad, the retired engineer/woodworker would really enjoy working on.
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JustinN
journeyman
Reged: 05/25/04
Posts: 83
Loc: Seattle, WA
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I have some pictures, but the ones I have are more like snap shots my friend took to document the creation process and prototypes (tools and scrap materials everywhere, hand holding up various parts, etc). Plus he used some compression software to send them to me and I just have the viewer and can't decompress them.
However, I have three that I am finishing up this weekend and I plan to take pictures of these for my website - cryptex.org (which I also hope to finish this weekend). I would be happy to post pictures of these three here if you like.
I have been meaning to get some professional photos taken, but I can never keep them around long enough to get a large enough sample group together at one time to justify a professional photo session.
Justin
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JustinN
journeyman
Reged: 05/25/04
Posts: 83
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Yes, I do sell them, but I'm hesitant to talk about that here as some discussion boards discourage posts that could be considered advertising or marketing. I only brought it up because several people seemed interested in them and I wanted to let you know there is someone who makes them.
If you want more information, you can e-mail me at JNevins234@msn.com and I'd be happy to talk with you about them. I hope to have my website up soon (www.cryptex.org), but I have been so busy making them I haven't had the time to finish it.
Justin
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amaranta
stranger
Reged: 05/26/04
Posts: 1
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sheesh.finally stumbled upon a site like this. im currently so engrossed with da vinci code.i read it everywhere.trainstations,inside the train, fastfood...everywhere! my boyfriend's worried bout my faith. hehe! love the book. good work, brown!
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AAnnAArchy
Gifted Procrastinator
Reged: 10/20/03
Posts: 643
Loc: Las Vegas
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JustinN <<Yes, I do sell them, but I'm hesitant to talk about that here as some discussion boards discourage posts that could be considered advertising or marketing. I only brought it up because several people seemed interested in them and I wanted to let you know there is someone who makes them.>>
Normally it would be discouraged, but this is a pretty informal board and there are lots of people who are interested in what you do, so I don't have a problem with you advertising. It's not like we're selling them. Then, I'd have to beat you up.
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Thomas_Wing
stranger
Reged: 05/21/04
Posts: 3
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Hullo again, all.
Just to keep you up to speed on the wooden cryptex project (now that I saw Justin's work I ca |
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