Planing the sawn side of a thin bit of wood (about 15″ by 6 1/8″ by 1/4″) presents some challenges as the wood will buckle if clamped in the width or length, and there's not much edge to grip anyway.
My snazzy solution is to use double sided sticky tape to make a temporary full width depth stop, significantly thinner than the piece being planed.
My snazzy solution is to use double sided sticky tape to make a temporary full width depth stop, significantly thinner than the piece being planed.
Given the cupping of the board, the new side is now the flattest and so will become the reference surface.
Next to shoot a square edge:
Then cut to length:
Note I have left some saw marks, they will be on the inner surface and will be cleaned off with a scraper after the joints are cut.
This morning I went in to sort out the issue of the base. I decided to take some thin 3ply and veneer it to look like proper wood, so on with the glue pot. The traditional glue pot is for me the very symbol of doing things properly. It is, after all, the only glue that has been product tested for 5000 years.
Then cut out the base from 3-ply. Top tip: scribe the cutting marks deeply and the bandsaw won't cause breakout:
And select the veneers.
The only plain veneers I had in stock are cherry, left over from the canteen, so cherry it is.
Veneering with hot animal glue is all about speed, so there was no time at all for shooting pics. One side has one full width veneer, the other has two bits butted together. Preparation took a while, but execution only a few minutes. Both sides are done and under weights to dry:
Of course, after all this, I noticed some commercial cherry ply in the wood-pile, so this was all unnecessary, but let's face it, if this was about need, we'd use another shoe box, and besides, my cherry ply is in every possible respect way better!