Treasure Box w/Key (Secret Hidden Puzzle) 3D Wooden Puzzles for Adults - Wooden Model Kits for Adults Mechanical Models Difficult Puzzle Box Wooden Safe Brain Teaser, Hobby Set

I was so curious about this box. In fact all the Ugears offerings are intriguing. I like to build models and sitting down with an unfinished kit, some tools, and the instructions laid out before me is my idea of a good time. Assembling this box was fun. Also a little scary because I had difficulty visualizing how a wooden box could look so intricate and yet be robust enough enoug to have a mechanism that worked. Well, it does work! Be prepared to spend a few hours with this. It took me 4 hours working straight through. Nothing broke but it is fussy business pushing some of the parts from the board. My hands are already somewhat calloused and I have strong fingernails so I did not experience too much difficult in that regard. However, near the end of the assembly the fingers are getting a bit sore but so close to the end that I had to press ahead. I followed the instructions to a t. Be sure to watch for all the guding symbols and be aware of arrows stamped on some of the pieces. Use wax on the moving parts. A hot air blower like a hair dryer can help you to melt the wax into the pieces and prevent flaky was bits from falling all over your work area. Easy does it with that, you don’t want to scorch anything. My pit worked perfectly. The box looks very nice but it is really, essentially, useless. A thief could just take the entire box. It’s a nice conversaton piece, though, and frankly, it just looks nice. I’m glad I bought it and I’m going to try the horse next. So, yeah, I’m hooked.

I love this little box more than words can describe! It is truly exquisite and the details are extraordinary. Unfortunately, I broke one of the main gears so it does not open via the gears but does open manually. I still give this 5 stars because it was my fault the piece broke. As this was my first wooden puzzle, I learned a few lessons. Be very careful when snapping the parts out. If they crack, be sure to fix them with some super glue because, with the moving parts, a small crack may break once things get moving. The directions say to use a candle to wax the moving parts. Since the gears are so tiny, I am not sure if a candle is realistic. I wish the kit included the wax. I had wax that I use for leather projects and that worked very well. BE SURE TO WAX THE MOVING PARTS! Also, some of the fits are very tight and there is danger of breaking when trying to snap them together. It wasn't until the last few pieces when I realized that if I waxed the tight fits also they would snap together with no problem. Had I thought of that earlier, it would have saved my critical broken piece. I love this so much I bought another one and I plan to paint each piece prior to assembly. These products are great--just take your time and step away if you get frustrated!

So first I'll start by saying that I really like ugears. This is my second product and they're really neat to put together and make great gifts. They're well Engineered. I mentioned I bought one previously and put it together, this one was more difficult and I would definitely say that if building IKEA furniture is your standard for putting things together, this is not your style. You'll need to have some degree of experience putting things together in order to understand what you really need to wax and how to be cautious about punching things out and how to orient things and not get them wrong, because if you get them wrong the first time they're really hard to take apart. Things like that. There are parts of the instructions on this one that aren't really clear until you get four steps in as to why you did a thing the way you did and if you did it right, this one's a bit tough. I give this one four stars because they don't give you wax with the product. I cannot reason why they would make that decision. The product absolutely needs wax, it needs to go all over the place, and other products have it so I don't understand why this one doesn't. Other than that, totally loved it.

I bought this "hidden treasures" box for several reasons. It's beautiful to look at, is incredibly cool, and opening it is a bit of a puzzle. But what I really bought it for was as a gift to someone special in my life. Spending the time and energy to build this beautiful box (about 10 hours for me) was a pleasure, and I plan on putting a ring box (perfect size for this) on the inside and giving it to this "special person" so they can admire the box and its intricacies as they try to solve the puzzle and open it, finding the ring inside. The instructions were easy to follow. You have to be very careful popping the pieces out of the boards as some of the gear teeth came apart slightly. No real damage, but be careful. It is also worth noting that the instructions call for wax for some of the mechanical parts. I didn't know this beforehand, but it wasn't an issue for me. I went to the store and bought a long skinny candle and rubbed it along the gear teeth and other surfaces where wax was called for. Seemed to work perfectly for me! My fingers are a bit sore/raw from working with the box for so long. Some of the pieces are small and require some decent force (but not too much!) to put them into the holes they need to be in. Overall, 9/10. Another thing worth noting, it comes with a small shepherd's hook tool to aid in punching out the smaller pieces, and it also comes with some additional parts which is nice. I managed not to break any of them. This was my very first project like this. Not too difficult.

This box is beautiful. The way it works is really ingenious, and no one would never know this box even opens if you didn’t say. It’s pretty enough to be just an eye candy piece. Seriously: READ THE DIRECTIONS! When it says to wax a cog, get some wax and wax the heck out of it. I started mine before I actually had a candle to use the wax from, and when I initially finished construction, the box wouldn’t open. I had to break it in order to open it and fix it. But it was repairable with some super glue and an inconspicuously placed toothpick. I would never have had this problem if I had greased (waxed) all of the cogs really well. Also, before you put the lid on, you can twist the key back and forth and make sure everything is sliding in and out of where they need to be. What broke on mine was the two smaller curved hinge pieces. They are not part of the cog works, they move on their own and are just for added stability for the lid(I think). Therefore, I forgot to check how smoothly they would slide up and down, since they didn’t move when I turned the key. I hope this helps anyone who wants to have a working model of this gorgeous box. An added tip to builders: it says in the instructions not to burn the candle, and I’m sure that this is for stupid people who would try to stick a wooden piece near a burning candle. But, if you are CAREFUL, and use a small paintbrush, the melted wax is actually kind of nice for “painting” the cogs. The paintbrush will be ruined, but they’re cheap. Also, I used a lightly scented (white sandalwood) candle. Now the box smells very faintly. Added special touch!

This box is junk, I'm not sure if it was just the kit I got or if they're all this way, but the one I got was trash. The pieces of the box seemed designed to break with the simple act of putting them together causing major damage to cosmetic parts that was difficult if not impossible to hide in some spots, while others seemed to have not been cut out at all and were left that way so they could break the part when you attempted to remove it. The instructions included are terrible, in one image it shows two pieces in place, in the next step they're gone, and then they're back in the step after that, and trying to do something the way they show you're supposed to nearly made me break the entire thing before I got past the second page of instructions. That being said I could not finish the kit, the pieces DID NOT FIT TOGETHER, and it's not a matter of using the wrong ones as they're all exactly the same size piece and should have fit perfectly according to the instructions however they do not, and it was a piece directly involved with the opening of the top of the box. Not to mention that crucial mechanical parts are even more flimsy than the decorative pieces all over it, the teeth of the gears and anything moderately thin is done for if you don't go out of your way to remove them as cautiously as possible, and even then you're likely to split the plywood and lose a chunk out of it anyway. Not worth the wood they're cut from, I'd not spend any money on this but I already have unfortunately, but hopefully my experience with it can help to save you 50 bucks and a lot of pain. I unfortunately got too frustrated with this item and broke the entire kit over my knee before I could send it in for a refund, but honestly after attempting to put it together smashing it was the best choice I could have made, even getting my money back wouldn't have been enough for me.

I really love making things with my hands so I've actually made this model twice. It's not easy to build but not super difficult. I'd rate the building difficulty at a 6 where 10 is the most difficulty. You will need to carefully removing some of the pre-cut pieces because they can break. Also, plan on using the small piece of the sandpaper paper that comes with the kit. Some pieces will fit better with a very light sanding. Rule of thumb with this kit is not to force anything that does not want to join easily. A little bit of sanding is a good idea on tight pieces and also plan to use a little bit of glue for the brackets that go on the underside of the lid. You'll see the reason for this when you go to add the top rings of the lid. The small "clips" used to hold the lid assembly together tend to push down on the pins coming up from the bottom of the lid and cause the lid assembly to loosen. Having glued those brackets to the underside of the lid with a little white school room glue or wood glue helps to stabilize the whole lid. One other pointer: On my second model, I used no wax on the gears. I found it was a nuisance to apply and it really had no effect on the operation of the gears. I omitted it on the second model and have had no trouble getting the gears to operate when opening and closing the box.

First off, if this is you're first Ugears model, forget the idea of putting it together in the time suggested. I have put one of the cars, catamaran and the rubber band shooter together, so I know what I'm talking about. Honestly, it took me two hours just to do pages 15 - 19. But don't let that scare you off. I sand every smooth side and wax all surfaces that will be touching another surface. Tools, a couple sheets of 300 grit sandpaper, candles, small X-Acto or similar knife and small pair of needle nose pliers with smooth jaws. Don't take pieces out before they are called for, there are quite a few pieces that look similar and can be easily mistaken. When taking the pieces out, don't wiggle them, push out square, it is a major cause of a piece breaking. There are some spots where laser didn't cut to hold piece in place, simple nick them with a blade. The same when assembling, don't wiggle the piece, push them in square and again, wax them up. Pay attention to the little marks that are on the pieces. Mine will be a gift for a new born niece, so my daughter designed a name plate and it's fitted behind the frame. Take your time, pay attention to details, sand and wax and you'll have a nice piece. Cheers! Trouble Shoot closing problem: I found that the top didn't completely close when key was inserted. I found that some sanding is required. See photo. Last thought, if down the road, you find that it sticks a little, sprinkle talcum powder into the moving parts, shake it around and tap excess out. Finished treasure box.