Pet Urn-Compeletion Photos

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry I didn't post these photos sooner-I've injured one of my knees and I've been hobbling around trying to get through the list of things I need to do.

Ok, here is the finished urn out of maple and cypress woods:

Here is the underside of the lid-you can see the brass cap screwed in place and a rubber gasket. The brass cap screws down to the base and the gasket prevents the contents from coming out:

Should it not be possible to unscrew the lid at some future point, I've left a dimple on the bottom of the lathe that marks where a drill hold could be placed and the contents shaken out:

So we'll call the project done.

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News: I have a new lathe coming and it should be here in mid-July. In the mean time I'm going to work on some furniture projects that have been on my to - do list for a while: a coffee cup cabinet, a living room chair, and a coffee table so stay tuned.

Thanks for dropping by and watching the project build. There's always something going on here at the shop so grab some coffee and put your feet up. 

See you soon,
VW

Pet Urn, assembled and completed

Hi Everyone,

Well the urn is finished. I've epoxied the brass part into the body and lid of the urn and the epoxy is setting. Here's today's photos:

Ok, here are the parts of the urn: wooden top and bottom and the brass hose fittings to be epoxied into the top and bottom of the urn:

I use JB Weld Epoxy for all sorts of stuff. I've never had it fail and I think on their website there's a story about someone using it to repair an engine block in a farm tractor in Texas. Wow!
JB Weld

Here's a photo of the underside of the lid with the brass cap epoxied in place:

This is the hose portion that is going to be epoxied into the bottom in a minute:

And here is the fitting epoxied in place:

And with that the urn is complete.
I'm going to let this harden over night. On Monday I'll get completion photos for you before I mail it off.

As tomorrow is Father's Day here in the US and my birthday, I'm taking the day off!!

See you Monday,
VW

Pet Urn continued-closing the bottom of the urn

Hi Everyone,

I've enclosed the urn with a small piece of hard maple. Here it is on the lathe ready to be turned:

And here it is almost finished. I plan to lightly sand both the bottom and body of the urn again and then apply a coat of polyurethane to both:

Here it is, upside down inside my home and attached to the Nova chuck. Once it's dry and that shouldn't take too long as it's hot here today, I'll put it back on the lathe and apply another coat of poly:

In a day or two when the finish is fully applied to the body and the lid, I'll epoxy the brass fitting in place and then it will be finished.

Stay tuned,
VW

Pet Urn, continued-sanding and adding the finish

Hi All,

I've finished turning the top and the body of the urn so I sanded everything very smooth and put a first coat of clear polyurethane on both parts. Here are the photos:

Here's the top:

...and here's the bottom. I still need to make the bottom for the urn and I'll do that tomorrow after everything has dried:

Stay tuned,
VW

Pet Urn continues-working on the lid

Hello All,

I'm having some problems with posting photos here today-not sure why. But I did manage to turn a lid for the urn. I had a block of mahogany I was saving for something special but I can't for the life of me find it so I went with a similarily sized block of cypress, which is not the best turning wood. It's too soft for the slow speeds my lathe is only capable of right now. It tore and crumbled and was in general a bit of a headache to turn. I did get it turned however. It needs more shaping but I think it might work.
If I can refine the lines of the lid I will.
If I can figure out how to post photographs later, I will so you can see it.
Stay tuned,
VW

Pet Urn continued-drilling the top part of the urn

Hi Everyone,

In my last post I briefly mentioned using a brass hose fitting to create an opening in the top of the lid so the urn can be re-opened at a later date and that's what I did today. Here's today's photos:


I took the urn off the lathe so I could flip it over and begin drilling the top. In this photo the body of the urn in 5 inches high:

This is the top. The depth of the interior is 3 inches so that gave me 2 inches of solid wood to work with:

This is the hose fitting I'm going to use. It's about 1 3/4" high with the top on:

And the flange is about 1 1/4' in diameter:

This is part of the fitting that will be inserted and epoxied into the base:

Here's the urn after it's been drilled. I drilled a hole 1 1/4 inches wide by about 7/8 inche deep:

 This is the same thing only with the urn off the lathe and the fitting just sitting inside of the hole. Next I finishing drilling a smaller hole, 3/4" in diameter to create an opening into the interior:

 And this is what it looks like now. I'll place a bead of epoxy underneath the flange and sit the fitting into place:

This is what it will look like without the top:

Now the next thing I need to do is make a lid that the cap in the photo will fit into. That way the top can be screwed on and off easily. I have some mahogany in the shop and I also have a thick piece of goncalo alves wood too that turns very nicely. Either one would make a lovely top and bottom pieces so that is the next thing that I'll do.

Stay tuned,
VW