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How does 14a parse please? I can see the electronic component and i can see the 1(i) to go inside but where does the X come from?

Think about how Chinese No.1 may be interpreted as a whole to give two letters…

Got it now...thanks Jono...

Well I've solved all the clues, although unsure about 31, which I can't parse. (Am i right in thinking last 4 words are the definition?) And I've checked and rechecked my letters for each dial. But get nothing resembling a six-word message. Cross and frustrated at the time I've spent although since others have clearly solved it I can only ruminate on my own failure.

Pendragon, My dear old comrade in arms...

I know exactly how you feel. I too am eyeing my aluminium saucepans with suspicion.

Meanwhile, shuffling my dials with a stethoscope on the peter, one arrangement gave me a tempting anagram of PRC CITY on the fourth dial reading horizontally.

(BTW it wasn't an anagram in my jumble. It was spelt out, clear as day.)

Is that a red herring? Please tell me it is.

Next step is to write the dials on concentric paper circles, drawing pin in the middle, and start twiddling in the vain hope of cracking this code.

Symington: Mwahaha

Not sure what to make of the fact that you turn up to watch your victims twitch, but we love you for it .

Castafiore, 31a involves general knowledge so pop the first two words into your search engine of choice. You are correct about the definition.

Re the six-word message: I promise it's in there 😁 if it's not too much of a spoiler I could give you the enumeration...?

Sircrispin -- your anagrammed observation is not a red herring.

At the risk of being either patronising or obtuse 😆 the method of 'cracking the code' may be simpler than you think, and is spelt out precisely in the preamble...

Bon courage!

Thanks so much robt, You have given me hope - and that's all it takes. Bless you.

C'mon Pendragon! There's life in us yet.

Thanks Rbt. Have got the first 5 letters of the wordplay, although final three unaccounted for. The instruction for the safe seems to be that you put the relevant letters together, dial by dial, in clue order. And that gives me nothing that makes sense.

castafiore -- in that case you may have made the same mistake that I initially did, namely mis-parsing and therefore miscategorising a few clues. Not many, but enough to render the message impenetrable.

So double check all your parses, make sure you have exactly 8 of each device, then look for words forming... even if you have a few letters wrong, if you squint you might be able to see likely candidate words and reverse engineer around that.