A Memorial Box for Memorial Day

[jteneyck]

First, thank you to all our service men and women, past and present, for all you have done to serve and protect this country and many others.  

My friend's best friend died a few weeks ago and he asked me to make a cremains box for her ashes.  Sure, of course.  He gave me no input as to what he wanted so I made this from a small piece of curly maple I had and some Sapele and walnut veneer.  



I cut the corner bevels on my tablesaw and then refined them on my shooting board with the bevel attachment.  



The finish is just rattle can lacquer.  

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

John

[Halfathumb]

First, thank you to all our service men and women, past and present, for all you have done to serve and protect this country and many others.  

My friend's best friend died a few weeks ago and he asked me to make a cremains box for her ashes.  Sure, of course.  He gave me no input as to what he wanted so I made this from a small piece of curly maple I had and some Sapele and walnut veneer.  



I cut the corner bevels on my tablesaw and then refined them on my shooting board with the bevel attachment.  



The finish is just rattle can lacquer.  

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

John

John, Thanks for sharing. The box is beautiful. As a veteran this is my favorite holiday, although gut wrenching at times.

Jim

[KyleD]

Nice wood combination and I see your CNC made an appearance in the box. I think the blacked out letters show up much nicer than if they were left the natural wood color. What kind of paint did you use for the letters? Did you just paint them in with a brush and sand the top for any paint outside the letters?

[jteneyck]

Nice wood combination and I see your CNC made an appearance in the box. I think the blacked out letters show up much nicer than if they were left the natural wood color. What kind of paint did you use for the letters? Did you just paint them in with a brush and sand the top for any paint outside the letters?

Thanks.  I used India Ink for the black in the lettering.  I've used it in the past after first sealing the wood with shellac, etc. but I recently bought a roll of Oramask (similar to shelf paper) so I tried it.  I shot a coat of shellac and then a coat of rattle can lacquer to the top, then applied the Oramask after it was good and dry.  



You can see how cleanly it cuts with the V-bit I used to mill the lettering.  Then I applied the India Ink and used an artist's brush to make sure it got into all the corners of the lettering.  After it was dry I peeled off the Oramask.  Picking off the tiny island pieces was a bit of a challenge but not too hard.  The Oramask did a great job of keeping the India Ink out of the pores of the wood.  I'll definitely use it again.  

I sprayed a couple more coats of lacquer and the top was done.  

John

[KyleD]

Thanks for the explanation, John. I use india ink to blacken parts of jewelry boxes such as wooden hinges and tabs to lift the top. I can see it working well for infilling letters. Finishing and masking the top before machining the inscription makes sense. India ink penetrates too much to use it to infill then try and sand it out of the top.