Maybe it's the COVID blues or it just took me a long time to adjust to teleworking full time and not leaving the house every single day. Whatever it was, it seemed to have sapped my motivation to spend time in the shop. However, The Wife recently asked me to make another pet urn box, this time for her half sister's pup. She only just connected with her last year along with her birth father. It's been a heckuva thing.

Anyway, I wanted to do something a little different than the last batch of boxes, so I thought I'd soften things up a bit with a gently curved lid. This one will also include a keepsake tray, under which the ashes are to be interred. Wood choices are curly maple (on hand) and lacewood.		 Keela_1.jpg
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I started by making the sides at the full planned height of the box and lid, plus kerf allowance for cutting the lid free, and a plenty more for matcing the box joints back up and other fiddling. Thinking ahead to finish, I didn't want the maple to be too amber but I thought BLO would be nice on the lacewood. So I applied some to the underside of the lid panel prior to glue-up. After masking the inside surfaces against squeeze-out, I got it glued up. IMG_0399.jpg
I flushed up the proud box joints, laid out a curve for the lid and cut it at the band saw. I don't have a stationary belt sander, so I did it the old fashioned way, hand sanding down to 220g. I took some care at the corners not to sand the finger too far. I didn't want to burn through it or leave a knife edge that might chip or appear translucent. IMG_0420.jpg
Then I cut the lid free and cleaned up the sawn edges on an MDF sanding platen. The box is still over height at this point.

The putty knives? I inserted them into the gap around the lid panel so I could apply BLO without getting it on the maple, especially going into the corners.		 IMG_0422.jpg
The keepsake tray sits on a partial liner, which is held in place by complementary rabbets and a friction fit.

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