4 sides, a bottom and a lid, plus brass washers and pins — ready to go!

Very happy that the glue up for the presentation box went without a hitch.  Glue ups can tend to be stressful so careful planning is a must; especially for someone like me who’s been accused of even pre-worrying!  Here is a view of the pieces laid out.  You can see the two brass washers that’ll be installed between the lid and the side of the box.  The hinge pin is made of 3/16″ brass rod and is already installed in the two side pieces.

The trick with assembling a project like this is that everything has to come together all at the same time.  The procedure was to apply liquid hide glue to the pins of the back piece and the corresponding tails of the side pieces.  Next the washers were placed on the pins and the lid and bottom inserted in place as the joints were pushed together.  After that subassembly is almost put together the process is repeated with the pins/tails of the front of the box and things are quickly aligned, joints are bottomed out, checked for square, and then clamped to dry overnight.

Here are a couple of pictures of the box along with the block plane I’ll be using tomorrow to level out the pins and tails.  Can’t wait to see the luster of the Monkeypod wood once it’s been prepared for the multiple coats of shellac followed by Liberon Black Bison Wax.  Although working with this material was challenging I think my client will be pleased with how the grain pattern of this box will shimmer.  Also received shipping notification that the 100% wool felt is now in Salt Lake City so it should arrive here on Monday.