09-29-2015, 07:00 PM
Made this yesterday, actually. Got to the shop at 5:30PM, shut the lights off and went home with it just before midnight.
It's an urn for my mom's ashes, which were interred at the Massachusetts National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne MA today with my dad's which were put there in July 2013.
The size is 9" long, 6-1/2" wide, 3-1/2" deep. All 1/4" aluminum plate, gifted to me by Wrustle. The bigger screws are just plugging holes that were in the plates as I got them. All bolted together with 26 M4x0.7 button head screws. The engine turning finish done by hand with a 1" diameter abrasive pad in the spindle of the Alliant mill.
![[Image: IMG_0114-r_zpsc2eohm5h.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/kenm10759/Dads%20shop/IMG_0114-r_zpsc2eohm5h.jpg)
Glad to be able to get it done in time on short notice (didn't pick up the ashes until noon yesterday) and wasn't sure it could be done. The polished one I made for my dad (vertical orientation) was all pinned together out of 1/2" aluminum plate and took almost 3 times longer to make. The engine turning and bolts cut time significantly. One end plate was 3/* thick and had to be milled. All others on this were "as rolled" finish before the engine turning thing.
Satisfying work. I'd asked the guy at the cemetery before he'd seen it if he'd seen hand made, machined urns before. He said he had, once. A friend of a former NASA engineer had made five round urns in the shape of the US Delta rocket booster cones. When I handed that one to him, he said he was "blown away" by the look of it. Good enough for me.
It's an urn for my mom's ashes, which were interred at the Massachusetts National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne MA today with my dad's which were put there in July 2013.
The size is 9" long, 6-1/2" wide, 3-1/2" deep. All 1/4" aluminum plate, gifted to me by Wrustle. The bigger screws are just plugging holes that were in the plates as I got them. All bolted together with 26 M4x0.7 button head screws. The engine turning finish done by hand with a 1" diameter abrasive pad in the spindle of the Alliant mill.
Glad to be able to get it done in time on short notice (didn't pick up the ashes until noon yesterday) and wasn't sure it could be done. The polished one I made for my dad (vertical orientation) was all pinned together out of 1/2" aluminum plate and took almost 3 times longer to make. The engine turning and bolts cut time significantly. One end plate was 3/* thick and had to be milled. All others on this were "as rolled" finish before the engine turning thing.
Satisfying work. I'd asked the guy at the cemetery before he'd seen it if he'd seen hand made, machined urns before. He said he had, once. A friend of a former NASA engineer had made five round urns in the shape of the US Delta rocket booster cones. When I handed that one to him, he said he was "blown away" by the look of it. Good enough for me.