Now it's time to cut some stopped dado's to accept the top and bottom of your box. For the top mount a 1/4" straight bit into your table mounted router. Raise the cutter depth to about 1/3 the thickness of the box sides. Set the fence 1/8" from the router blade. From your dry fit carcass mark the top/outside edge of each piece so that you don't loose track of which side is out and top. Disassemble the box and set on the table so that the inside surface of each piece is down on the table with the TOP oriented to be put next to the router fence. You will be routing a grove in the top INSIDE edge of all four side pieces but.... They need to stop before the end of each piece. Otherwise you will have a hole in your box at the corners in the dovetail joints. Once you have done all four pieces you will need to move the router fence AWAY from the blade by just under the thickness of two sheets of the veneer that you have chosen for the lid. Route the dados again. This will account for the thickness of the veneer minus a smidge for sanding.
Repeat the process for the BOTTOM side of each piece but with a 1/8" router bit. Only run the box sides through once since the width of the Hardboard for the bottom is already at exactly 1/8". Remember to stop short of the sides!!
(916) 600-4395
SNSpencer@yahoo.com
 |
in person
The top and bottom start out as Hardboard. The top is cut from 1/4" Hardboard and the bottom from 1/8" Hardboard.
Dry assemble the case and determine the length and width of what the top and bottom should be minus 1/16". You can use a thin metal ruler inserted into the grove to make this measurment. If all was done well while routing, the groves for the top and bottom should be the same depth. Cut the Hardboard to the appropriate size and dry fit the box making any adjustments necessary to make sure that the joints line up nice and tight.
You can put the bottom 1/8" hardboard to the side for now. Lets concentrate on the top. Take your veneer and cut two pieces a little oversized for the top Hardboard. If you can match the two pieces a fellow woodworker would notice since the top, if the veneer is applied correctly, will appear to be a solid piece of wood when viewed from both the inside and compared to the outside. This is where you can display a special, highly figured, piece of veneer.
Glue the veneer to the substrate (1/4" Hardboard) on both sides and place the entire assembly into your "Press". Veneer both sides so that the top does not warp from the pulling property of drying glue and wood. In any press make sure that you put a layer of clear kitchen wrap between the top assembly and your press chaulks so that nothing gets glued that should'nt. You can use a vacuum press, clamps between two flat thick pieces of wood, or simply between flat surfaces with a lot of weight placed on top. I use the "Clamp" method, usually doing more that one top of the same size at a time. Clamping time is about two hours.
Once out of the press simply trim the veneer flush with the Hardboard sides and you are ready to start the assembly/finishing process.
One last thing... Bevel the edges of the bottom Hardboard a little with a sanding block. It makes assembly easier.
