The box being glued together is now to have the bottom glued on, the top fastened on with hinges, and the surfaces all finished up true and smooth.

To put on the bottom you must plane up the bottom edges square, smooth, and free from winding. Use the square and the smoothing-plane, and be very careful not to splinter the edges. There is much danger of doing this at the corners. The front and back overlap the ends, so that, while in running the plane along the edge of the front or back you will be planing lengthwise of the grain, at the beginning and end of the stroke you will run crosswise over the end-pieces, and will be very likely to splinter them at the edge. In the same way, in planing along the end-pieces you will be likely to splinter the front and back. The way to avoid this is, in the first place, to have the plane set fine, and in the next, to change the course of the plane at the corners, so as to work obliquely instead of going square across the grain of either piece.

When you have planed the lower edges true you may glue the bottom on, taking the same precautions as in the last exercise as to the condition of the glue, the heating of the surfaces, the proper manner of applying the hand-screw, and the cleaning off of the glue that flows out. In cases like this, where it is not easy to get at the glue to clean it off, it may be prevented from sticking by rubbing the surface with soap or wax, being very careful to get none on the surfaces which are to be glued together. Moreover, as you cannot easily get at the inside of the box to finish it up after it is put together, all the surfaces must be made smooth and clean before it is glued.

When the glue is dry you may finish the upper edges as you have already finished the lower ones, and make the box of the same height all round, if it is not exactly so already.

Next, finish up the sides, using as before a sharp smoothing-plane. Hold the box in the vise, with one end up, and plane off first the ends of the bottom. In doing this you are planing "end-wood," or cutting across the ends of the fibers, and must be very careful not to splinter the wood at the end of the stroke. To avoid this you must let the stroke extend only halfway across the end, and when you have thus cut down one corner of the bottom nearly enough, turn the box round in the vise and plane the other corner, never letting your plane run clear out to the edge. Plane down the other end of the bottom in the same way. As this work is rather hard, you had better, if there is much more than about an eighth of an inch to take off, cut off most of it with the back-saw. After planing off the ends of the bottom, plane off the sides of the same. The reason for not planing the sides first is, that if you should, in spite of your care, splinter them a little while planing the ends, the defects thus caused could be planed out. If there is much wood to be taken off here, use the jack-plane first, and finish with the smoothing-plane. Here also you must be careful to avoid splintering, not the bottom, but the pins of the end-pieces. Lastly, plane up the four sides with the smoothing-plane, working from the corners inwards, and never letting the plane run out. Test for squareness, straightness, and winding as you work, and set the plane very sharp and fine for the finishing strokes.

Exercise 35. Planing End-Wood

If there is any glue on the inside, it can be best removed with a chisel when it has got quite hard, provided you have soaped or waxed the surface so that it cannot stick.