First ascertain the size you wish your box to be of. Then cut off your
stuff, but take care to cut it a quarter of an inch longer than the
size of your box from outside to outside. Should you want it deeper or
broader than the length of a deal, the widest of which is generally
only eleven inches; suppose, for instance, you wish your box to be
18 inches deep, and you have only 9-inch deal to make it with, you
will of course have to join two together, or make what is called in
carpentering a _gluejoint_. First, then, after you have cut off your
stuff, take your jack plane and “scuffle the rough off,” then put your
board edgeways into the bench-screw, and take your trying plane or
long plane to get the edge of the deals that are to be glued together
perfectly straight and even; and lastly use the joiner plane, which
will take off a nice uniform shaving of the whole length of the board.
Proceed exactly in the same manner with the other board to be joined
to the first. Then, after having made each thoroughly smooth, clap the
two together and see if they will lie close in every part; if not you
must plane them till they do, taking care to plane the edges perfectly
square, or at right angles to the surface of the board, for if you are
not careful in this particular, when your boards are glued together
they will be of this form. When you have joined them properly for
glueing, let your glue be nicely hot and not too thick, and hold both
edges of the boards together so that you can with a brush put the glue
on both at one time, put the two together very quickly, let one of them
be in the bench-screw, and while there rub the other backwards and
forwards until the glue sets, which it will soon do if well joined. Let
the whole dry, and then the glued part will be as strong as any other
part of the board.
After your sides, ends, bottom, and top are thus prepared, you must
then plane them up nicely, so that they are perfectly smooth and
straight. Use first the jack plane, then the trying plane. When this
is done you have to proceed to a nice little job, namely, to dovetail
the corners together so as to form your box. In this process much
depends upon the planing and squaring of the stuff, for if you have not
done this nicely the dovetailing will be very imperfectly performed.
Assuming that everything has been well done, then take the two ends of
the box, and see that each is perfectly square and true to the other.
Then allow one-eighth of an inch more than the thickness of your sides,
and set out the ends, squaring it over on both sides, which when the
dovetails are cut out will form the inside of the box.