Todays Project - What did you do today?

[PixMan]

While not so much a "today" project, this day was the "presentation" and end use of the product.

It's a vessel (urn) to house my dad's ashes, today interred at the Massachusetts National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne MA.

It started out as a simple sketch of a simple box, and that's what it remained throughout. I considered having it all screwed together with socket head cap screws, then decided upon split roll pins so there would be no visible fasteners. I didn't have the inclination to photograph every step of a simple process. It was just to mill the parts square and parallel, drill for the pins, and assemble.





Now assembled (except for the top cover) I took finish cuts with a flycutter to minimize seams.



After that was done I didn't have time to engrave anything, and considered that my dad was not a guy for fancy things anyhow. So instead I gave it a quick polish with some Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish with a foam pad on my Porter Cable 7424 Random Orbital Polisher. Literally two minutes per surface and it looked pretty good.



Yesterday I went to the funeral home and had them transfer his ashes into it in preparation for today's ceremony. I brought a soft mallet, a block of poplar wood and a cloth with me. Once his ashes were in it, I pounded the top down firmly. No one can get into this thing without significant damage to it. I then gave it a final polish for the ceremony. Just a one minute job and complete alcohol wipe down for fingerprints.

Today me, my brother, my older sister (and her husband) along with 10 of his 14 grandchildren got together and laid him to rest, so to speak. The urn was my tribute to my dad, made in his shop with his tools by me. Thanks to Russ for a donation of much of the material. My dad would have killed me if I spent too much on it!