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Find out how to build a handmade casket using inexpensive wood for a low-cost, earth-friendlyfuneral.

Handmade Caskets

Back in 1995, I attended the funeral of a well-loved gentleman who spent his 85-plus years living in the samemodest country home where he grew up. He was a craftsman, skilled with wood, stone and soil, frugal as old-timersoften are and simple in his tastes. But when I went to pay my last respects, I thought I'd somehow walked into thewrong funeral parlor. His coffin was huge, streamlined, made of shiny blue fiberglass and sporting more-than-amplefake gold hardware. It looked like something designed in a NASA wind tunnel. I learned later that thisspace-pod-to-eternity had cost $5,000, and that was the biggest shock of all. I couldn't have been any moresurprised if my old friend had leaped out of the coffin wearing a silver jumpsuit and sequined go-go boots.

But coffins don't have to contradict the life of the person whose body they contain. You can make a wooden coffinyourself (or hire a woodworker) — it’s really very easy. Besides saving a bundle of money, making acoffin can reflect and celebrate the life of a specific person, providing a reminder of happy things at a time whensadness holds the upper hand. The best coffins are joyful epitaphs in wood. Several coffin plans exist in the imagegallery to help get you started on making a homemade casket.

Advanced woodworkers may want to build a coffin from solid wood, and the drawings in the image galleryshow you how to proceed. But if you don't have the tools or advanced skills to build the solid wood casket, you canuse hardwood veneer plywood, following the same coffin plans. Regardless of the approach you choose,building a coffin is engaging, well within the reach of those with moderate skills, and a great way to be remindedof the need to live well now. Take it from me, there's nothing like building your own casket to bepowerfully reminded of your own mortality.

I'm focusing on coffin plans with hardwood veneered plywood for two reasons. First, it makes this project easierthan using solid wood, opening the handmade coffin option to more people. It also eliminates the need forequipment-intensive operations like milling and edge-gluing, while making the most frugal use of high-grade hardwoodforest resources. Veneered plywood also is widely available and economical compared to many sources of solidwood.

If you build a coffin for a particular person, make the inside dimensions about 4 inches wider than the shoulderspan and 5 inches longer than standing height.

Building a Casket: Plywood Primer

Hardwood veneered plywood is made of thin slices of wood, including oak, maple, birch, ash or cherry,that are factory-glued to a softwood plywood substrate. The product comes in 4-foot-by-8-foot sheets; you'll want touse panels that are 3/4-inch thick.

The first thing to consider when making a coffin is material choice. Besidesselecting a species of hardwood veneer, you also need to think about veneer orientation. The casket plans showwhat's called a 'book matched' veneer pattern. Neighboring pieces of veneer are mirror images of each other, gluedto the plywood substrate side-by-side. Other options include slip-matched veneer (adjoining pieces oriented in arepeating pattern), as well as random veneer orientations. Although most lumber suppliers stock some kind ofhardwood veneered plywood, you'll probably need to special order the particular grade, species and veneer style youwant to make the coffin with. Leave yourself time for this.

While you're at the lumber store, buy some matching veneer edging tape or3/4-inch-thick hardwood planks for making edging strips and lid trim. Plywood edges should be capped with solidwood.

Veneer tape comes in rolls that you cut to length and then glue onto the edges.Solid wood edging strips are slightly more trouble to install but absolutely reliable.

Building the veneered plywood coffin involves five simple steps: cutting thesides, ends and lid parts; applying veneer tape or hardwood strips to all exposed edges; joining the sides and endsinto a box; cutting and installing the bottom; then applying a protective finish. The difference between a goodcoffin and a great one hinges on specific tricks you need to know at each stage, and the most important involvesbasic cutting skills.

Despite the advantages, veneered plywood has one main weak point: The thinsurface layer of wood is prone to splintering if it's not cut with the right kind of circular saw blade. You can'texpect good results using the standard blades that come with most saws. Instead, look for blades made especially forcutting veneered plywood or melamine-coated sheet goods.

You'll get the best performance if you put one of these on a table saw, thoughthat's not absolutely necessary. I know a professional cabinetmaker who built more than 300 projects for publicationduring a 20-year period, all without access to a table saw. He used a handheld circular saw instead, following astraight edge, to flawlessly cut all parts, including acres of veneered plywood.

Make a few practice cuts, then prepare the coffin sides, ends and lid parts.Wait until later to cut the bottom. You'll get more accurate results if you cut it to fit within the assembledcoffin.

Clickhere for plans to make a veneered plywood coffin.

Building a Casket: Edging With Solid Wood

(You can skip this section if you use glue-on veneer tape.) There are two kindsof solid wood edges involved in this project: 1/4-inch-thick by 3/4-inch-strips for the sides and ends, and 11/4-inch-thick by 1 1/4-inch-wide bulldoze (rounded edges) strips to frame the lid of the coffin. In both cases,success depends on two things: accurately cut strips and a smooth strip-to-veneer glue joint.

Make the strips about 1/32-inch wider than the actual thickness of the 3/4-inchplywood. And hold them in place with masking tape if you don't have enough large clamps. Just keep one thing inmind: The excess strip width must extend over both faces of the plywood, creating a slight lip where the two meet.By making the solid wood strip wider than the plywood thickness, you lay the foundation for a smoothly sandedjoint.

Let the strips dry overnight, then sand them flush with the plywood using agently guided belt sander with a 120-grit belt or a random orbit sander with a 100-grit disc.

As you work, remember the veneer next to the solid wood strips is very thin— less than 1/32 inch. Ugly wood and glue lurks underneath, so sand gently. If you wear through the veneer,you'll ruin the whole piece.

Building a Casket: Corner Joinery

There are several ways to connect the sides and ends of a veneered plywoodcasket. You can use 3/8-inch-diameter by 1 1/2- fluted dowels, No. 20 biscuits or the plug-covered screws shown onthe coffin plans. Screws are especially attractive for three reasons: They don't demand special equipment toinstall; they act as their own clamps by drawing the sides and ends together; and they are ideal for casketsdestined to be shipped or stored unassembled. Few people have the space to conveniently store a full-size casket,but the individual parts are easy to tuck away on a shelf or in a closet. The coffin plans show the two kinds oftapered plugs you'll find at woodworking supply outlets: edge-grain and end-grain. Choose end-grain when you wantthe plugs to stand out and edge-grain when you want them to blend in.

Immediately after bringing the sides and ends together, check that the overallassembly of the coffin is square. Although you could use a framing square for this job, a better option involvesequalizing diagonal measurements. Measure diagonally opposite corners, then push or pull the assembled structure asneeded to bring them within 1/8 inch of each other.

Screw the sides together temporarily, and measure and cut the 1/2-inch plywoodbottom. Then glue and screw the sides together, and drop the bottom into the coffin before setting it aside todry.

You can lift the bottom of the coffin out later for finishing, though having thebottom in place at this stage ensures the homemade casket stays square while it dries.

Building a Casket: Trim and Finishing

Moldings make an enormous difference to the look of any do-it-yourself casket,and you'll see a few options on the coffin plans. As a general rule, put the largest moldings along the bottom,smaller moldings under and around the lid, and the smallest profiles simulating frames on the sides and lid of thecoffin. Using trim frames in this way is especially valuable with veneered plywood construction. The veneers aretypically so perfect that they can look boring. Frames easily add visual interest to a handmade coffin.

Personalizing your coffin is one advantage of the handmade option. Twopossibilities are incised carving and laser engraving. Create a design or initials on a computer, then print themout. Use rubber cement to glue the printed paper to your wooden coffin, then carve right through the pattern intothe surface using a sharp chisel or chip-carving knife. If you want something even easier, you can find businessesoffering laser engraving services. The inscription on the underside of my coffin lid was designed and produced 300miles from my shop, then shipped to me for lamination with existing wood parts. The only hitch with incised carvingis that it has to be done on solid wood. Hardwood veneered plywood, however, takes laser engraving verywell.

Pet Coffin Plans Free

There are many ways to finish wood, but a penetrating oil or a wiping-gradeurethane makes a lot of sense with this project. I used Minwax Wipe-On Poly, though polymerized tung oil or Danishoil works well, too. Just slather some on, then wipe off the excess after 10 minutes. Let it dry 24 hours, thenrepeat the procedure three or four times and you are done.

You can add custom cushions to the interior when you make your own coffin, ormaybe simply wrap a favorite quilt around some bed pillows.

Contributing Editor SteveMaxwellhas been helping people renovate, build and maintain their homes for more than two decades.“Canada’s Handiest Man” is an award-winning home improvement authority and woodworking expert.Contact him by visiting hiswebsite and the blog, Maxwell’s House.You also can follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebookand findhim on Google+.

Free Casket Plans

Read more about green funerals: Planning a Green Funeral at Home.