Flag Display Case

My brother blessed me with the honor of making a display case for our Dad’s flag presented at his memorial service for his service in World War II.

I was also given the honor of making both of my parents’ burial urns. For part of Dad’s urn, I used some sugar maple that Dad had cut for firewood, but thought it was too pretty to just burn. He had resawed it with his chainsaw and given us several short pieces for cutting boards to make for his grandkids. There was a little left over that I used for the sides of his urn. I used the left over pieces from the resawn ½-inch sides of the urn to make the plywood for the back of the flag display case.

For the inside ply, I used oak.

I glued the maple ply to the oak ply first. I sandwiched the glue-up between two ¾-inch slabs, and ended up attempting to balance it in the center with all the clamps around it. It was a real fiasco!

For the outside ply, I used the resawn pieces from the sides of the case.

I determined that using the corner of my workbench with cauls would be an easier method to glue the final walnut ply.

To make the routing safer on the frame, I routed the profile before resawing it.

I wedged a 1/8-inch thick piece in the kerf to saw the final side.

I realized after cutting the sides that one side had some bad indentations. I ironed it with a damp presscloth which totally removed the damage.

I used 45-degree angles on the main body where the joints don’t show, but the face frame was made with 22.5-degree angles on the bottom using this protractor jig on the disc sander after cutting on the band saw.

To glue up the case, I made a hinged jig.

And here is the final photo in its new home.

L/W