size

As Mario suggested in a comment below, the challenging thing in making crematory urn boxes is that people come in different sizes and leave differing amounts of ash. There is no one-size-fits-all formula when it comes to boxes for containing human remains.

In May, 2012 I wrote an article for the Fine Woodworking Website that describes an earlier engagement in making a crematory urn box, that can be read here.
If you can make a box, you can make a crematory urn box, and the instructions on the Fine Woodworking site will help with your box making even if you are not needing a box of this kind.

I did the vacuum lamination of the top of the boxes yesterday, as shown in the photos. I will add small lift tabs to the ends of the boxes to make them easier to handle, and these boxes are rabbeted for a 1/4 in. thick Baltic birch bottom to seal the ashes in place from underneath. If the ashes are in a sealed container, 9 in. x 6 in. x 3 in. it will fit right inside. If the ashes are loose, the bottom of the box should be sealed with construction adhesive.

Today, I'll be cleaning my wood shop and beginning to set up for the White Street Art Walk next Friday Night.

In National Geographic magazine, I was reading about an observatory built to explore the boundaries and origins of the universe. It seems that immediately before the moment of the "big bang" all the contents of the universe fit "in an unimaginably hot, dense point, a billionth the size of a nuclear particle." In post Newtonian physics, we've learned that not all is what it may appear. The contents of a man or woman's body can be reduced to ashes and placed in a box. Each and all things are held in relationship with each and every other thing. The size of our bodies, the size of our estates, and the size of our reputations are not what matter in the long term. What are cosmic profiles? What are the breadths and depths of our relationships? Who do we touch and for what reasons? Is it to empower others? If so there is no end of it.

Make, fix and create...