How exactly do you hollow out a book as a hiding place?

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You would need to have a book that was already made as a hiding place not make your own. The pages would be cut out at the manufacturer and bound like a normal book.

I would choose a large book and simply cut each page or several pages at a time, using a craft blade.

I made one some years back for hiding weed. All you need is a scalpel or box cutter, a thin guide, such as a piece of square wood or plastic, and some of that white glue that sets transparent.

First you want to glue the last 5 or 6 pages together, and glue them to the back of the book, then with your guide and cutter you cut in from the end of the book working towards the start of the book.

You cut out all the squares except the last 5 or 6, and glue them to the front cover, that will be used as a cover. Alternatively, you could leave the first 20 or 30 pages without cutting, so that you can show it off as a working book with pages that turn.

You will need to be patient, as you will be cutting about 500 pages for it to be big enough, and if you rush it, the holes wont line up and it will look ugly. A precise millimeter ruler can be used to make sure your guide is in the same position every time.

Some books work better than others, ideally hard backs with a wide spine. If you use the wrong kind of book it can make it go all out of shape.

EDIT: be sure to not apply too much glue, as it will separate the pages too much, and make the book thicker and strange looking. Ideally, you wont use any glue on the outside edges of the book.

I’ve never done this, mind you, but I don’t think I’d screw around with the x-acto knife. Since I already have one, I’d use my very sharp Japanese chisel and a mallet.

So I’d pull back the two covers and any pages that I wanted to keep intact, then clamp the block of pages to be hollowed to a wooden cutting board. I’d mark my cutout lines, then work around the lines tapping the chisel with the mallet.

I just tried this (using an old catalog) and found that a firm tap of the chisel could cut neatly through 150 pages. This would make quick work of an otherwise tedious job. And I’m also sure that I could maintain a nice, neat vertical wall in the cutout more easily.

Maybe you could use one of thesePower%20ToolsFinishing%20Tools_-5EEU8&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=5EEU8&ef_id=UU5dZgAAAM2ag12u:20130325210521:s while keeping the pages firmly clamped, then the glue, as @poisonedantidote suggested above, or varnish, or epoxy.

@Espiritus_Corvus If you are going to use power tools be careful, that is what I tried first time round, and it burned the book. A power tool will be ok so long as you don’t lose your patience and try to cut too many at once.

If you want a different kind of hiding place, a very large cylindrical candle can be hollowed out from the bottom with ease. You can use a toilet roll holder and some paper to line the hole to prevent wax or its odor spreading to anything you hide in there.

The best part about this hiding place, is that you can always seal it back up once what you want hidden is in there, or stick it down on a plate with a couple drops of melted wax.

If you want to get more technical and interesting, you can melt your own wax and pour your own candle, you could even add some metal dust to the wax if you did not want an x-ray machine to be able to see inside of it for some reason.

I’d have a hard time just finding the book I’d be willing to sacrifice. Even Bibles are (ironically) sacred to me.

Maybe you should just negotiate a price with @poisonedantidote and send him the book/s and candle/s that you want him to hollow for you.

I would use a sharp stanley knife with a ruler.

Exacto knife or a box cutter. I’d use a fairly non-descript older book.

@thorninmud I really respect that you did the experiment. :)

A wood router seems to work very well. It only took a couple of minutes to do this And Also see All closed up with valuables here

Old Reader’s Digest hardbacks are readily available at yardsales and used bookstores. There plenty of thick, badly written hardback novels at the same venues. Easily sacraficed for a good cause.

If I were to do this, the book would have to look like it belonged on my bookshelf.

Cool, @thorninmud and @gondwanalon: direct experimentation. Thank you.

As always, I do appreciate all helpful comments. I’m not sure how serious I am at the moment, but I’m thinking about it.

@Jeruba Don’t forget your hiding place book after you’ve make it. After a while I would likely forget about it.

There are a bunch of tutorials online that will walk you through the steps, most using the craft knife method. Alternatively you can buy them, already made for you.

I’m thinking that if someone got really ambitious, you could hollow out a whole shelf of encyclopedias and provide a door for a person to hide inside. Of course, ventilation and plumbing would have to be provided.

@CWOTUS: I’d have no trouble sacrificing any of Ayn Rand’s novels.

@gailcalled God knows their thick enough for the job too :P

minus several points for stupid grammar error >_<

@CWOTUS A copy of “Twilight” shouldn’t be too much of a sacrifice, surely?

Well, that’s true enough, @downtide. The sacrifice there would be buying the damn thing in the first place.

^^ And then the horror of having it mixed in with all your other books. Contamination!