1 old wooden pallet.  You can look in dumpsters or check your local superstores for free damaged ones. Approximately 6, 1 x 2 landscaping timbers, 1 bottle of wood glue, 1 lb box of 1¼ inch wood screws, some finishing nails, a hammer, pry bar, a drill driver with ¾ inch paddle bit or bigger, jigsaw, and a circular saw for cutting the boards.

OK, from the experience, I suggest taking time to look over the pallet you have chosen for this project.  It may benefit you to plan accordingly for the shape and size of your pallets boards.

These are the approximate measurements of my groundbreaker coffin.

NOTE: No measurements were actually used while building this prop!  Everything was "eyeballed" for accuracy.

I got this pallet from a ditch.  It was already weathered quite a bit and didn't really require any painting to look "old and creepy".

Start by disassembling the pallet one board at a time.  Take your time so as not to damage any pieces of the wood as you break the pallet down.

You will want to use a large hammer, pry bar, and a lot of patience.

Lay out the best looking boards vertically next to each other and draw out the shape you want for the front of the coffin.  I just did this with a sharpie and a scrap piece of pallet board.

Before cutting you can attach one of the 1 x 2 timbers to the middle of the coffin's front as I did to keep it all in place while cutting out the shape you drew.  Just flip the boards over after being attached to the cross timber and they will be out of the way, but keep the vertical pieces together as you cut with the circular saw.

(Photo is for reference, I did not have a picture of this process.)

If you are like me, you want to work with what you have, so I used the wider boards from the pallet to start building up the sides because they were wide and didn't fit well with the front or back.

For more depth to the coffin I used scraps of the thinner boards for additional depth.  This picture shows how I finished the sides.  The bottom boards are the scrap pieces from cutting out the front.  Since the coffin will be set back at an angle, I thought this would be fine.

You will want to do all your framing from the inside of the coffin, using the 1 x 2 timbers as brace pieces.  All the brace timbers are glued and screwed from the inside to minimize the number of visible wood screws on the outside of the coffin.

You see from this picture that I framed up the front and then attached the sides as I built.  This is the easiest way to complete the coffin.

Since this is a freebie build, I found some small ¼ inch plywood to use as shims when the boards varied in thickness.  No problem because nobody is going to see the inside of this coffin!  Continue cutting the landscaping timbers as needed for bracing until you feel the coffin is sturdy enough to support itself.

To finish the coffin gather all leftover scrap boards and cut out the back.  I took any leftover boards and laid them across the back, made a mark with a sharpie and cut accordingly.  There was not any measuring in the project.  I wanted it to look uneven and distressed, so it worked out best not to measure, just cut as you go!

It's hard to see from the pictured, but I used the finishing nails to attach the back to the sides.  I hammered the nails into the landscape timbers used to brace the sides.

Now cut out the details of the cross on the front.

Use the drill driver with a paddle bit big enough to allow your jigsaw blade to get in place for the detail cutting.

First, draw out the cross as you like it.  Center the drill driver with the paddle bit at each end of the cross and drill out the ends.

Next, use the jigsaw blade to square up the circular holes and continue cutting out the cross shape.

When finished, you will have a perfectly square cross!

By now, you should have built something similar to the photo on the right.  If not, slap yourself for ruining a perfectly good pallet for nothing!  HA! Just kidding!  It was free and your time, well, was obviously not worth it...

Hopefully, you were able to follow the plans and now you have a great prop for your haunt!  This prop can be half buried or set straight up, or at an angle for a unique look.  Now, to add the lighting.

I prefer to used a staked flood light in the rear pointed up at the top and back.  This gives off good reflection and makes all the cracks and unevenness of the coffin to really show up at night.

Color choice is only limited to your imagination.  I picked up red, blue, green, and yellow 100watt flood bulbs at Home Depot.  Green is one of my favorites!  The choice is yours.  Just plug the flood light steak into any extension cord for instant gratification!