Fun job I did recently for the hammondcastlemuseum in Gloucester, Massachusetts with the help of dmcphee_79.
In stories, it`s often a knight rescuing a princess from a castle tower, so as a history/art/fantasy fan, it was very satisfying to work with the staff at the Hammond Castle Museum to get this small sarcophagus out of storage in a tower, and back on view for the public. I opted not to do it in full harness.
Despite brainstorming lots of various options, many more complicated than the next, it really just boiled down to some solid crating and strong legs/arms/backs.
I took my measurements, and created a model of the sarcophagus in sketchup_official to design the crate around. The doorway out of the tower was only 25" wide, and the first set of stairs were similarly only 25" wide, so the sarcophagus had to travel on edge, and the crate needed to be sturdy but minimal.
I decided to create a sort of cradle with 2x4`s around a 1/2" ply slat crate with volara and ethafoam padding. The 2x4`s were screwed to the slats, and I also used an kregjig to screw the 2x4`s together. It made for quite a solid crate, which was especially nice as the sarcophagus had to do some fancy maneuvering to get through the first narrow doorway, and down the stairs.
I estimated the sarcophagus base to weigh around 400 lbs., and the lid (crated seperately) to weigh around 120 lbs.
Many thanks to the hammondcastlemuseum staff Al Watson, Director of Facilities and Security, and James Wilson, Facilities Associate, for assisting with the sarcophagus on the spiral staircase, and up into the courtyard.
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