By that point I realized I didn't want
to do any further work on those tools. Initially, I wanted to do
this work in a machine shop, but every shop I called refused to let me
do the work myself.
I decided to continue the work at home,
in our shop, using our Shopsmith, and the tools Rebecca and I have used
in the past, together.
December 3: The exact outline for
the cavity was marked on the base piece, and tonight I removed the
majority of the cavity wood, staying away from the outline, and only
drilling to 2.25" depth. To give you some idea of the density of
this wood, the base, with most of the cavity wood removed, and the top,
currently weigh just over 12.75 pounds. The drilling took nearly
eight hours.
While working, I cut my
hand pretty badly. Appropriately, my blood is inside of Rebecca's
urn. In a way, it makes me feel as if I am with her.
In the next day or two, I will use a
plunge router and create the cavity to 4" by 11" by 3.25" deep, creating
approximately 152 total cubic inches of cavity space. I may go
slightly deeper to increase the capacity of the cavity. After this
work is done, I'll have days of sanding work to do. Rebecca's urn
will be as perfect as I can possibly make it.
December 8: Six more hours were
spent with a large Forstner drill bit and the drill press. This
time, I went right to the line, and drilled to 3.25" depth. A
router won't be used, as the cavity is now the right size. With
the additional wood removed, the base and top now weigh 9.5 pounds.
One tremendous problem remaining is sanding the entire urn to be
perfectly square outside, and especially the ends, which are completely
out of square.
December 10: Squaring the urn is now
completed on two sides, the top, and bottom. This required over
twelve hours of work. From this point forward, all sanding work
must be done with the top and base attached, as if it were, again, one
solid block of wood.
Squaring
was much more difficult than I imagined, as I had to use very coarse
silicon carbide grinding disks on the sanding wheel, attached with
contact cement, and the guide fence. The disks flew off regularly.
I discovered that no other type of sanding material will work on this
type of wood - it must be automotive emery material - "sandpaper" just
clogs up in seconds, and is totally useless.
The
squaring work required hundreds of passes to achieve accurate results.
Both ends still require squaring, but now I know I can do this, so I'll
find the emotional strength to work on it again tomorrow. If I had
a 14" tablesaw, this work could have been far easier, and even more
importantly, far more accurate.
I began
using the pad sander on the sides, top, and bottom with 100 grit emery
paper, and many of the imperfections have been sanded out, but plenty
still remain. As the sanding continues, which will probably take
another twenty hours, these slight imperfections will sand out, and the
surfaces will eventually be completely acceptable to me.
December 10
Addition:
I did more work tonight. Now the ends are squared to the rest of
the urn. They're flat and true now, square with the top and sides.
I decided to use the table saw with the fence and miter gauge, and take
off less than one sixty-fourth of an inch per pass. I did this
eight times - four on each end. I also made the first pass with
the pad sander on the ends. I'm glad I went back out to the shop.
The major work is now finished, and very soon, I'll add the retaining
screws and hardware to hold the top to the base, but a lot more sanding
still remains, and all sanding must be done with the top attached to the
base.
December 11:
Today's work consisted of six or seven hours of sanding the ends, using
the dual action pad sander and 100 grit automotive paper. They're
coming very close, and many of the imperfections are sanded out. I
know I should rest for a day, as this work is exhausting me, but I'll be
back outside sanding again within a few hours.
December 14:
Yesterday I tried to put the threaded brass inserts into the base which
were to hold the top on. They went in at a slight angle, and I
wasn't able to straighten them. I didn't know I should have first
tapped the wood for the inserts. Today I removed them, enlarged
the holes in the base, and filled the holes with liquid steel, which
will require a long time to fully cure and harden because of the depth
of the holes and the lack of air. After three or four days, I
should be able to drill and tap into the steel for the screws which hold
the top in place. A lot more sanding still needs to be done, and
it's nearly time to go to a finer grit sandpaper.
December 23:
It took the steel this long to (appear to) harden, but I've been
very depressed during this time, and couldn't do any work. Today, I
drilled countersink holes in the top so the screws and washers will be
hidden. Soon, I'll drill and tap the threads for the screws.
December 29:
Compared to my crude "woodshop" work, the machine shop was the real
answer, which I knew in my heart all along. As the pictures below
show, I went to a machine shop, and did this the right way. I was
allowed to do the work as I promised Rebecca I would, and it was the
most productive day since work on her urn began. I probably wasted
over 100 hours with all the previous squaring and sanding work, but
every second of that time was my own way of expressing love for Rebecca.
So, in that way, it wasn't wasted time at all.
The tool I
used is known as a vertical milling machine which is accurate to one ten
thousandth of an inch. (.0001) The milling table can be moved left
and right, forward and backward, and up and down. This machine
also had a digital reference readout, indicating the exact location of
the milling position, as well as automated power feed, which I did not
use. I did everything by hand.
I drilled
out the liquid steel, which had never fully hardened, tapped threaded
holes into the wood base, then screwed in .500" threaded steel rod.
I milled off the excess threaded rods, and milled the top surface of the
base completely flat. I also milled the inside of the top
completely flat. Then we clamped the top square, marked the holes,
drilled pilot holes, and tapped threads into the steel rod for 8-32
screws. Finally I milled the entire urn perfectly square on the outside,
with the top attached. It's nearly impossible now to see where the
top and base join. This is exactly what I wanted. It finally
looks correct, just like one, solid block of wood. From the very
beginning, I wanted to use machine tools, not woodworking tools, and it
finally materialized. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Russell,
Steve, and George for allowing me to do this work properly, and to do it
myself. I had to ask many questions, but the labor was my
responsibility.
The last
two pictures above show Rebecca's completed urn. It's been sanded
with increasingly fine grades of paper and has two coats of wax applied.
December 31:
11:45 a.m. - Rebecca Is At Rest
Rebecca's ashes are now inside her urn.
This was something very emotional and personal that I had to do alone,
in our empty house. I waited until exactly the same minute as
Corey died to begin. I'm grateful I made the cavity too large, I
couldn't have tolerated the trauma if it was too small. The camera
flash caused her ashes to appear bright white. In reality, they're
grey. The complete weight now is 12 pounds, 4 ounces.
Rebecca saved the flowers which I gave
her on our wedding day. I found them in our wedding album, still
folded in the old wax paper. Rebecca's flowers are placed inside
her urn, also.
My work is finished, I've done the best
I could. I believe Rebecca would be proud. I've shown love
and respect to the only woman I've ever loved and respected.