Caskets - The Ulitmate DIY?

[Mark Blatter]

I have been thinking about making caskets, even making one for myself and putting it in storage. Anyone ever made one? I did some searching on SMC and didn't find any threads on caskets or coffins. There are places you can buy kits and plans on line though. I suppose you can buy just about everything on line any more.

[Rich Riddle]

You can buy one via Costco cheaper than you can make one. The monks in St. Meinrad make them and would likely help you out. One of their priests is a member here.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

My brother's father-in-law makes them, and I have often considered starting a business making coffins. I even did a bit of pricing of "factory-made" coffins and compared it to the cost of building them. There wasn't a whole lot of profit margin unless you could buy all the metal bits and pieces in bulk. (Handle mounts, hinges, corner moldings, etc.)

I've always said that if I am still in good enough health when I turn 80, I'm going to build my own coffin, with hopes to have to store it for 20 years or so before it's needed, but I don't want to get started this soon, as I hope to have at least 50 more years to go. :-)

[Mel Fulks]

In some states Costco sells (or did sell) caskets. I'm in Virginia which still passes unconstitutional laws and we have one protecting the funeral industry. So you have to buy from undertaker ,order on line, or have it made. Used to be common for cabinet makers to make their own coffins in their youth and people with money used to plan way ahead and commission a coffin and then store it at their own estate. The growing acceptance of cremation ,in my opinion, has also helped bring back the wooden coffin ,and a decline in metal casket sales. Once the idea that preserving a body is not neccesary takes hold the method of final attention widens.

[Mike Henderson]

I expect it would depend on how fancy you wanted the casket to be. Remember that a casket is not just woodwork but usually also "upholstery" - the inside and top is lined and some of the lining is pretty fancy. If all you wanted to do is build a casket like you see on the old western movies, that would be pretty easy.

And as someone else pointed out, there's also a lot of metal stuff - handles, hinges, decorations, etc. - that fancy caskets have.

I remember talking to Sam Maloof after his wife died. He made a casket for her and he commented "It was the best woodwork I've ever done." I wonder if he made a casket for himself.

Mike

[Rich Riddle]

I think the priest name is Monstic Father or something like that.

[Andrew J. Coholic]

I made a woman customer of mine a pine coffin several years ago. She wanted it with a flat top, as she was going to use it as a coffee table until it was time for it's intended use. The only weird part was measuring her up to make sure it was the correct size.

She was a little "odd" in other respects too, but a very smart and practical person.

[Brian Holcombe]

This topic always calls up an Episode from the fourth season of Dexter, when Arthur Mitchell, played by John Lithgow, makes a coffin for himself with hand tools. It was quite nice looking.

[Mark Blatter]

This topic always calls up an Episode from the fourth season of Dexter, when Arthur Mitchell, played by John Lithgow, makes a coffin for himself with hand tools. It was quite nice looking.

They should do an episode of NCIS where Gibbs builds one for either himself or someone else. At least they could get it out of his basement.

[Bert Kemp]

But that would take all the fun out of people wondering how he got it out :D


They should do an episode of NCIS where Gibbs builds one for either himself or someone else. At least they could get it out of his basement.

[John Grider]

Several years a go I had a good friend ask me to build a plain pine box for him in which he would be buried. I did and his wife used it as a blanket chest at the foot of her bed for several years before it was needed for its original purpose. We set the box up, him inside, on 2 saw horses in his yard. At the appointed time, his four sons, another friend, and I toted that box across a quarter mile of freshly bush hogged corn stubble to an old cemetery on the back side of his place. He had wanted his boys to hand dig the grave but they demurred and hired a backhoe.

[John K Jordan]

...The only weird part was measuring her up to make sure it was the correct size.


Reminds me of working in the Berea College wood industries in the late '60s when a beautiful Cherry casket was built. It special ordered extra long by a tall fellow, if I remember correctly. I watched a guy turn the handles off-axis - a guy told me later it was Rude Olsolnik. I understand it would be priced at $1414.14.

JKJ

[Brian Tymchak]

They should do an episode of NCIS where Gibbs builds one for either himself or someone else. At least they could get it out of his basement.


But that would take all the fun out of people wondering how he got it out :D

He did build one for Mike Franks. There were a couple episdes showing him carving the trim for the coffin.

[Roger Feeley]

you might look into caskets for Orthodox Jews. I think they have very specific requirements for the wood and how it's made. As I recall, they have to be very simple with no metal fasteners. I think the idea to to fully realize the notion of going back to the earth. The cost of entry into that niche wouldn't be much.

[Frederick Skelly]

We had a gentleman here on SMC make one for a dear friend of his family, when she passed a few months ago. He posted a thread about it with questions and pictures. It should be in the archives. If you locate it, you could probably PM him.

I've also thought of making one. But every time I do, I think of that scene in the movie Moby Dick, where Quee Qwag (sp?) has a vision that he's gonna die. So he makes his own casket. Gives me the creepin willies.

[Randy Henry]

Rockler has this plan, plus all the hardware: http://www.rockler.com/wood-casket-plan. Been trying to talk my better half into us building a set of these, but she thinks we're immortal, as she freaks out over it anytime I bring it up. I told her we could store them in the barn, and if I felt the big one coming, I could just go out and lay in it and the hard part would be done. Or, besides Cosco, Walmart also sells them online. In my research where I live, casket vaults are not required under state law, unless you die from one of a few listed communicable diseases. Some cemeteries require vaults under their own rules, as it's something else they sell the family at a ridiculous price.

[Mike Henderson]

Rockler has this plan, plus all the hardware: http://www.rockler.com/wood-casket-plan. Been trying to talk my better half into us building a set of these, but she thinks we're immortal, as she freaks out over it anytime I bring it up. I told her we could store them in the barn, and if I felt the big one coming, I could just go out and lay in it and the hard part would be done. Or, besides Cosco, Walmart also sells them online. In my research where I live, casket vaults are not required under state law, unless you die from one of a few listed communicable diseases. Some cemeteries require vaults under their own rules, as it's something else they sell the family at a ridiculous price.
The reason they require vaults is because they use a tractor with a backhoe to dig the graves. Without a vault, the tractor could collapse a grave as it's moving to dig the new grave site.

Regarding immortality, William Saroyan is reputed to have said, "Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case."

Mike

[roger wiegand]

I made a nice box for my parents ashes using pieces of wood from trees and buildings that were meaningful to them. I'll let someone else make one for mine, thanks. A mason jar would do nicely, I think.

[Mike Henderson]

you might look into caskets for Orthodox Jews. I think they have very specific requirements for the wood and how it's made. As I recall, they have to be very simple with no metal fasteners. I think the idea to to fully realize the notion of going back to the earth. The cost of entry into that niche wouldn't be much.
I believe they have to be buried on bare earth, meaning even if there's a vault, it can't have a bottom.

Mike

[Rich Enders]

Roy Underhill showed how to build a pine coffin on one of his shows. The ins and outs of grain direction and of course hand tools were interesting. I imagine this is available on U-Tubr or......?