The Coffin
This is not all that hard to build, that is if you have the tools required and the time. The materials list is not long and it should go fast.
The List
1 4 x 8 Sheet of 1/4 plywood
7 1 x 2 x 8 strips of pine
2 Large bags of Dacron batting
Roll of drywall tape Bottle of wood glue
1 Pint of black paint or any color that you like
3 Small metal nailing straps (Hurricane straps)drywall screws around 1 long
3 Yards of what ever color cloth you want to use.
First go down to your local lumber yard and get your supplies. I went to Home Depot for mine. I looked for the cheapest sheet of plywood that I could find. I had the building materials salesmen cut the plywood for me. After all they have a panel saw and I don't, there really is only two cuts, they are two eleven inch piece off the sheet of plywood.
Cut List for plywood
2 11" x 8' Side's
1 26" x 8' Bottom
Now how big do we make this coffin. I wanted to be able to stand in mine so that's, how tall I made it. The first thing I did was to set the height, I am 6'2" that made the coffin around 74" tall. Then I measured up to about my shoulder, right around 60" . Now you have the major dimensions all that is left is how wide to make the head and foot sections. I made mine 10" at the head and 16 " at the foot. After you have laid out all of the cut line you can cut away. I use my saber saw for this with a medium toothed blade it did a good job without a lot of tear out.
Next you will have to cut the sides, the best way I can tell you to get the length is to measure the section that you just cut and transfer that number to the side, this will leave you with enough to cut the head and foot plates that you will need.
Next to the chop saw the tool that came in most handy was the nail gun with a 5/8" nail. How I started to put this together was from bottom to top. I cut glued and nailed a piece of the 1 x 2 material to each side of the coffins bottom. This will be the foundation of the construction. As this dries cut and nail more of the 1 x 2 strips to the sides and along the top, do this to all of the six sides. Make sure that you leave yourself ample room for all of the necessary 1 x 2 strips on the sides. You may want to nail them on as you put on the sides.
After you get the sides on you will need to join the six sections together. this is were the straps come in, Cut the straps in half and bend them to match the angle of the sections that you are working on, screw them in on the inside of the coffin. Once you have them in place your coffin should be nice and strong.
I put on some side rails on the coffin, this made it easy for one person to move around. If you want to put on side rails you will need to pick the location and how you are going to put them on. the most important thing is to make sure you will have a good foundation to connect to because this little coffin will have some weight to it.
To cover the joint were the sides come together use the dry wall tape. cut off the needed amount of tape and cover it with glue and stick it on. This will do the job and takes paint well. Now paint the coffin.
After you have the paint on the main body of the coffin take a couple of the 1 x 2's and paint them (on all 4 side's) to use or trim.
Now it's time to line the coffin, take some glue and pour it all around the bottom of the coffin. unroll the dacron batting and stick it down in the glue and put a few staple's in to help hold the batting down. When everything is dry lay in your fabric, do this to your liking, put in a few staple's around the bottom to hold it in place. With the fabric laying over the top of the side's staple it all around the top of the side's. after this all that is left to do is trim out the top of the side's and cut off the over flow of the fabric.