After plowing the grooves, it was time to cut the sides and ends to length. Which meant it was time to come up with actual dimensions. Since I wanted the bottom and the top to be made without gluing up wider panels (this was supposed to be a quick and simple one day project), and as my stock was 1x10 (actual width 9 1/4") I set the width of the box at 8 inches. This left enough stock for the sides to be 18".
I laid-out the first side, and cut it to length. First problem. I was out of practice, and the cut was pretty bad. It needed to be squared up with a plane.
Second problem. I was using one of my newer planes, a Stanley 62 bevel up jack plane. It cuts beautifully, but I had a dickens of a time getting the end square to the face. Id check it with the square, plane a bit - choice off! Huh. Plane again, and - choice off in the other direction! Now, Im not St. Roy, but this job I can usually handle without really thinking about it. What was going on?
After much frustration, I think I finally figured it out. It was the plane (alchoices blame your tools - just kidding!). I should clarify. It wasnt something the plane was doing; it was something it was making me do, or not do in this case. When I use my regular #5 jack plane, I extend my index finger and rest it on the edge of the iron just in front of the tote. On the #62, the iron is much lower (no frog) and without the iron to rest my finger on, I was not extending it. I was using a full four finger grip on the tote, and without that finger extended, my feedback was lacking; similar to depth perception using only one eye. Its weird how such a small detail can have such a huge, and incredibly frustrating impact. Im sure I could learn to compensate in time, but my solution for this project was to just extend the index finger out into space - it felt odd, but it worked.
Between the sawing and planing fiascoes, my 18" side was now shorter than 18". No worries, I just used that part to layout the opposite side - as long as they were both the same length, the box would be square.
With all the parts cut to size, I needed to create the corner joints. I was tempted to go with dovetails, but I was choice behind schedule (oh so easy to do when your schedule is not realistic in the first place) and decided I would just go with my standard pegged rabbet joint.
First, I marked the rabbets with a gauge:
Then I cut the shoulder with a dado saw - this one is an old Disston and you control the depth of cut by adjusting the bar across the blade:
I could have used a rabbet plane, but on cross grain work they require a nicker to sever the grain, and as the nicker cuts deeper than the iron the nicker cut is visible on the final joint. This isnt a big deal if the joint is hidden, but on this box it will be right on top, and I didnt want that nicker cut detracting from the clean joint.
So, after cutting the shoulder cleanly with the dado saw, I just used a chisel and mallet to split off the wood forming the cheek:
After that it was simple to clean up the cheek with a shoulder plane. Wait! Can I do that? Wouldnt that require a "cheek plane"? Oh English!
I made the floating panel for the bottom by cutting the stock to width, planing rabbets along the grain (rabbet plane) and sawing/splitting/planing rabbets across the grain:
Then, as time was running out, I got the box glued and clamped without major malfunction:
Time was up, and I didnt have a box yet. Although, that was actually very fitting for a "Me Box" - one of my defining characteristics is absolutely no "time reality" as my wife likes to call it.
I was going to have to find more time - hmm, maybe the gutters dont really need to be cleaned...
Concluded in Part III
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