Thread: Casket for a beloved one

I'm sorry for the weird post below. At first it said it was too long, then the photos didn't show (they do in my preview), then the're showing along the bottom in no particular order??
So, I'll break my journey into smaller sections to see if I can make a sensible post.

CASKET FOR A BELOVED ONE

It’s not easy when you receive the news that your beloved has only a few weeks left at best.
Upon returning home, my wife and I took both our cats into the garden and cried.


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Before you jump to any conclusions, the one with the health problems is this little tacker – Yoda.


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He was born in our yard 16+ years ago and is the last of his litter. His mum used to love going to work with me and sit on top of the ute, checking on my progress – a trait he has picked up, except my ute is now a keyboard, and the work site is a couple of computer screens.
I decided to build his casket using a feature I saw many years ago in a magazine. It was either Australian Woodworker, or Fine Woodworking. The box had “legs” for the corners at 45°. The face of these pieces had an inlay of exotic timber. The sides were simple tongue and grooved to the corners.
My apologies for not being able to give credit to the author, but please accept my kudos for a design that has stuck in the dark recesses of my mind until called upon.

Stage 1. Timber Selection.

I went through my timber stash looking for inspiration. I wanted a reddish Top, Bottom and Corner pieces. Pale sides and something to contrast with the corners for the inlay.
What I found was a Bl**dy big slab of River Redgum (one of several I’d forgotten about), a Blackwood slab from a tree that died in our back yard several years ago and a twisted stick of Silky Oak.


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My timber cut list was more of a guide based on finished internal dimensions of 400mm x 300mm x 150mm. So, looking at each piece of timber, I marked out something that could get me the finished sizes, while highlighting the grain of the various pieces.
Then it was time for my trusty handsaw to start trimming away the unwanted bits.


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A helpful hint – always compare both sides of the timber. Sometimes the other side has a lovely surprise (sometimes not!).

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Planning at 45° with a power plane, then 45° in the opposite direction, quickly flattened one face ready for dressing.

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I use a router mounted in a simple sled that rides on a pair of guiderails to dress the face of each slab. I use wedges to stabilise the timber and if necessary, a couple of judiciously placed screws to prevent any movement.

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A side note on the steel rails. When I bought the steel, I had ordered 150x50x1.5 box section. The idea was to make a lightweight contraption that screwed together and could be easily stored when not required.
When I arrived home, what had been delivered was 150x50x6mm RHS. This stuff could be used to hold up the Harbour Bridge during maintenance! As it was the Easter long weekend and everyone had gone home and I had timber to dress, I just cut the steel into manageable lengths and got on with the job. One unexpected advantage of the weight was they don’t require fixing in place.

As I finished each slab, I cut one edge straight using a straightedge and a circular saw fitted with a rip blade.


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Stage 2. Timber Milling.

From the Redgum, I now only needed one of the pieces so the other went back into stock.
The Blackwood then had the rough ends cut off and was then ripped to width. Before starting this part of the project, I bought a new rip blade for the table saw (the crosscut blade was still sharp) and new TCT router bits – this timber is HARD!


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I also gave the thicknesser blades, plane blades, chisels et. al. a sharpening.

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The effort made a huge difference. The thicknesser handled the timber with no problems – mind you, I was only taking light amounts on each pass.
Then it was time to rip each piece in half on edge. The table saw couldn’t reach all the way through, so I set up the jig saw with a blade for a reciprocating saw (I don’t own a recipro saw, I just modified the tangs on some old blades I had). Starting with the Redgum, the blade lasted about 300mm before breaking. Being a bit more careful with the second and last blade, it made it through the rest of the Redgum and about 200mm into the Blackwood before breaking.

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The next day, I took the Blackwood to a local Sawmill and asked if they could bandsaw through the rest of the way. The guy said their table saw should be able to get all the way through, just leave it with him.
Picking up the timber later on, he mentioned that it was one tough nut – checkout the saw marks.

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Before running the boards through the thicknesser to final size, I marked the grain direction on the edges and a feed direction on the faces to minimise the risk of tear-out.

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Stage 3. Tongue & Groove.

Jointing the mating edges of the Redgum, I marked the faces with chalk and a pencil line at 90° to help with registering when I tongue and grooved the boards together.


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I used a slot cutter in the router table to make the tongue and groove joint.


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I then did a dry run in preparation to glue up.


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Once I was happy, a squirt of glue, clamps and leave for 24hrs. Covered it with a tarp to stop the birds from using it as a target overnight.

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Stage 4. Corners & Sides.

I had cut the corner pieces from the Redgum before I ripped it to thickness.
This gave me 5 pieces that were about 30mm square and about 300mm long. From these, I chose the four best for the casket and the 5^th for setting up jigs etc.
To use such short pieces in the thicknesser, I have a board with a cleat fixed to the underside to help in handling and to reduce snipe. Again I marked each piece with the grain direction that gave the least tear out.


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Once the corners were the size I wanted, I used the table saw to rip two parallel cuts to define the groove of the T&G, then cleaned up the grooves on the router table. You may wonder why not just use the router table in the first place? I mean I said earlier that I had just bought new TCT router bits. Well, I did. But trying to rout a groove 6mm wide x 4mm deep in my test piece left a lot of smoke coming out. Not good. So I figured a couple of runs over the table saw and then clean up with the router table was the way to go. Worked a charm.
The next step was to cut a face at 45° across the front of the corners to hold the inlays.
I cogitated for a while trying to figure out how to cut this on the table saw. But then I thought that I still will have to plane it to thickness. So I made a simple jig to hold the corners while they are run through the thicknesser.


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Once that was done, I removed the supports, flipped the pieces over and brought them down to final size.
I then set up the sled on the saw to run another couple of grooves to form the recess for the inlay.
(View from the back of the sled)


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Then it was onto the router table for the cleanout. The first three went through with no trouble, but on the second pass with the forth corner piece – crack, smoke, no cutting! My new 12mm router bit gave up – leaving its teeth behind.

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After changing out the bit and finishing the rest of the cleanouts, it was onto the inserts themselves.
Selecting a nice piece of the Silky Oak, cutting to rough length, then ripping strips for the inlay was a comparative doddle. To assist in glue up, I clamped an upright to my gluing LVL to stabilise the stack as I clamped them together.


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After the glue had 24hrs to dry, I ran them through the thicknesser, sanded them and gave them a coat of spray finish. When that was dry, I screwed a block to my table saw sled to hold the corners at 45° and cut one end of each. Then clamped a stop block and cut them to final length.

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Next it was onto the sides. With the lessons learned regarding the router, I decided to stick with the table saw. With the crosscut blade still installed, I decided to cut the sides to length, then cut the tongues to match the grooves in the corner pieces. After which I changed to the rip blade to cut them to final width, allowing for the extra needed for the tongues for the top and bottom. I then ripped the tongues as required and gave them a sanding and a coat of finish.

At this point, my wife gently suggested a clean-up might be in order. So I put the dust collector through its paces.

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Stage 5. Assembly.

Not having a work bench per se, I make do with what I have.
Now to attach the top and bottom to the sides, I intend to route (!) stopped grooves for the tongues. So I clamped both pieces together and planed them so they were the same width and length.
Using a round over bit in the router table cleaned up the edges, followed by a light sanding and a coat of finish.
You may have noticed that I try to get a coat of finish on as soon as practical. I treat the first coat as a sanding sealer. I then sand it back, give it a second coat, rub that back with 0000 steel wool before assembly. Then a final coat after assembly, light rub with steel wool again and a coat or two of polish. Works for me.


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Setting up for the box glue up, I used a flat sheet of MDF with blocks screwed at 45° at each corner. Then all that was required was clamps from corner to corner and to pack the corner pieces to allow for the tongues on the sides.



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With the box glued up, all that was left was to rout the groove in the top and bottom to hold the sides.
Temporarily, assembling the box, top and bottom, allowed me to check and double check the location of the groove. It was to be the same distance in from the edges all around.


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I set up my fence on the router table (with a brand new 6mm bit!) then set stop blocks for both the beginning and ends of the slots. After running a test piece through and checking to see if everything was OK, I took a deep breath and ran the long sides of both top and bottom. No trouble at all.
Resetting the stop blocks to suit the short sides, I ran another test piece – no sweat.
So, picking up the Bottom piece, I proceeded to run it through. Straight away I noticed that the router was having trouble. Even though the groove was only 6mm wide x 4mm deep and the router was my trusty 2hp Makita, cutting across the grain was challenging. So once I had the bottom done, I wanted to see how it fit.
“Fits like a Glove” is an expression often used. However, in my case “Fits like a Tight Pigskin Glove” would be more appropriate. A couple or three taps from my mallet and the box popped into place.


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Before proceeding with the top, I wondered if I should move the router fence half a poofteenth to better fit the sides. But I decided that I would just plane a slight bevel on the tongue to let it engage the groove better – simple.
So I proceeded to route the last two grooves. The first protested like the bottom grooves, but on the last groove……….


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“Oh Fudge!” (or words to that effect)
In all my years I have never had a router bit try to escape!
Thinking it must have come loose, I checked. The bit was still seated in the reduction collar, the collar’s expansion slot was still in line with the slot in the router chuck. The router chuck was still tight, yet the reduction collar had somehow worked its way out of the router’s chuck.
Resetting the router, I finished the groove then went about plugging the hole left behind.
I should have waited a day or two to cool off before trying to fix the hole. Despite using an offcut that had matching grain (it was the offcut from the same board), the patch is clearly visible.


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Once I had the top in place, it looked very plain. I thought Brass screws might brighten it up a bit, but they really didn’t.
What I’m starting to think is to trim the corners at 45° to echo the corner posts.


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Then it will be onto the bedding.

Stage 6. Completion

I decided to go with trimming the corners.

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It did make the difference. I used a handsaw to cut the corners, then a block plane and sandpaper to round them off to match the sides.
I still have to finish the corners with laquer.

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For the Bedding, I usually have foam custom cut at Clarke Rubber. While I was waiting, I spotted a pre cut piece that was almost the right size in a sale bin.

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To bring it to the right size, I spray glued some rolled up newspaper to the edges.
Then I glued the silk to the foam and inserted the bedding into the casket.

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Now, I have to wait for the next trip to the vet.

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