Gracie's Box: A Heartfelt Build That Went Completely Wrong

👉 Check out our products at www.RickTheJerk.com 👉 Watch our videos on random acts of kindness on ‪@rickthejerk‬ Gracie's Box: I Built My Friend a Dog Urn and It Almost Beat Me Gracie was a senior rescue pit mix, and when she passed, her mom Jenn went looking for an urn and could not find one that felt like her. So I built one. This is the whole build, including every single failure it took to get there. What started as a box joint box in cherry and red oak turned into my longest woodworking project ever. I milled the stock, dialed in the router bit, cut a test box in pine that friction fit perfectly, and then ruined one piece after another. The router bit came loose and extended as I cut. It flew out of the table twice. It snapped in half twice. The oak pins came out thinner than the cherry pins. One finished box slipped out of my hands and got dented. The table saw took a bite out of another. In the end I gave up on finger joints completely and rebuilt the whole thing as a mitered box, which made every piece I had already milled worth nothing. The box that finally came together is White Oak and Red Oak, with a flocked interior and an inside dimension sized to hold a 5 inch paw impression so Gracie's print can sit with her ashes. Chapters 00:00 The Finger Joint Disaster Begins 02:21 Coffee Might Save the Day 05:16 More Finger Joints, More Problems 07:21 Why Won't These Damn Joints Fit? 09:40 Last Chance With the Oak 11:15 Starting Over Again 14:03 The Cherry Betrayal 17:11 The Universe Hates This Box 18:22 The Router Bit From Hell 21:00 How We Got Here 25:21 Abandoning the Finger Joints 26:57 Starting Over From Zero 29:46 Oh, Come On, Rick 31:22 Making the Box Bottom 33:53 Finally Gluing It Together 38:07 IT'S A BOX 39:24 And Then I Broke It 40:00 A New Plan for Gracie 43:53 Building the Replacement 46:02 Gluing the Panels 50:24 Nothing Is Ever Square 51:21 Salvaging the Wreckage 59:37 Flocking the Interior 01:07:57 Two Months Later 01:09:00 Gracie's Final Resting Place 01:09:49 Finally, It's Done If you are looking for DIY urn ideas, wondering how to make a wooden cremation urn, or just trying to support someone through pet loss, this is the unedited version of that process, all 88 finger joints across six attempts included. Jenn, I hope this box does Gracie justice.