Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/23/a-build-your-own-casket-kit.html
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$599 to build your own pine casket? Now that’s funny. You can buy a pine casket for about $250 and it even includes a body bag.
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Pretty sure i can buy everything for cheaper than even $250. Hell if i want to go full hipster i can go salvage some old wood palettes 
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Oh yeah, building one is cheap. $599 to build what costs $250 to buy pre-built, is just another rip off scam predicated on the fact that people may not know the actual value of it.
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Designing a metal-free casket is no small feat, and requires a lot of specialized tools not available to the home builder. To say nothing of not having to load test it.
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The one linked has a shot of their cover page for the instructions and it calls for 100 screws, which i presume are metal. But yes, if one wanted to do one without metal it requires for specialized tools for joining everything together.
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Some times it is the process, not he saving money that appeals to building things.
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I have an idea to start marketing personal time capsules to be included in caskets for the eventual time when you are dug up. Historical overview of your time, as well as personal experiences and possibly small mementos.
Any rich venture capitalists who want to help me make it real?
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Screws are used in the construction, (holding glued pieces together), but aren’t necessary for structure. And again, tested to 1000lb. That’s no small design task.
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We bought one of these for our great great great grandmother but they forgot to include the final nail in the kit. She’s still wandering around here somewhere.
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Of course, there’s always that one piece that doesn’t get included or gets lost.
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Just great. First the bad guys make you dig your own grave, now they’ll want you to build your own casket, too.
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Where? Um, asking for a friend, who needs a couple, for… um, reasons.
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Yes, where can you purchase a $250 casket? It would certainly help disadvantaged folks to know this.
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I’m going the wicker route to put my basket weaving degree to good use.
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Here you are
Saw? Check.
Hammer? Check.
Tape measure? Check.
Nails? Check.
What are these specialized tools you speak of? And load testing? Load testing? Really? OK sure Aeroplane, If you or your loved one is that large, yeah, you might have to spend close $500 on a pine casket. Gotta drop in 3 more peices of wood and a few more nails when making your “box o’ dead” after all. It’s a box. It’s a wooden box.
Nice! And no metals, I notice, but that plywood should easily pass a drop test.
Thanks!
Using nails is a metal-free casket is… cheating? I think that’s the term? 
The specialized tools I’m talking about are all the dado cuts, CNC routing, etc that make a metal-free, non-leaky, sturdy, and minimally aesthetically pleasing box possible. While that $250 option you linked certainly has its uses (the copy mentions using it for dignified disaster response, which is a worthwhile and perfectly suited application) is basically a body-bag carrying device. If that’s all you want, a couple of re-purposed pallets would do the job and those are usually free on craigslist.
The whole conceit of this particular coffin is that it’s metal-free and carbon negative (again, the sapling planting part of this is no doubt a big part of the cost), suitable for interment in conservation areas where presumably there would be no embalming fluids/etc allowed in cadaver preparation either. The low-cost nature of it is incidental, but isn’t necessarily the manufacturer’s main drive. If you look on their site they have a wide variety of wooden caskets, but this is definitely their “economy” model.
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Cutting the required pieces without appropriate tools and experience wouldn’t be much fun; but between pretty solid glue options and no obvious restrictions on pegs and grooves is it really all that serious by joinery standards?
As with most things engineering the optimal solution is likely much more impressive and clever than the cloud of brute force options; but if you are just shooting for a passing grade that isn’t your problem.
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