Looks like there are some answers due to Dave and Gary. Good questions guys!The wood I used was poplar. I have about 25 Bd Ft of 5/4 rough remaining after the plantation shutters. I'm looking for uses. I would have preferred to use red oak, but used what is available. Poplar fuzzes up a little when crosscut and I thought that might give me a problem, but I think it really worked to my advantage as the bottoms of the fingers, somehow appear more flat than they really are. I think some of the side fibers somehow filled the bottoms. One of my test pieces was made in maple. The sides of the fingers in these two 12" pieces ALL fit beautifully! They are crisp and sharp, but when joined, the bottoms show the slanted cut of the wobble dado.
Joinery on the bottom - The bottoms are 1/2" poplar. After gluing up (and curing) all fingers, I just cut the bottom pieces to size, glued the edges and slid them into the box. This way the bottom actually squared up the boxes that were a little like parallelograms. None were real bad, but two were about a 32nd inch off at opposite corners. I then applied a couple of clamps to the sides for an hour or so. Didn't really need them, but did it anyway.
Did I stack the pieces for making the fingers? No! I wasn't that smart or thoughtful. Each piece was cut separately. The wooden bar on my jig is just a bit smaller than 1/4" - just kept each cut flush to the right side of the bar.
Yep, cut the dados a little deeper than 1/4" and sanded off the knobs. If you look closely one of my sanding mistakes shows on the tall side of a box. Used the SS Belt Sander.
The plans called for using white glue and band clamps. (The sides of the rectangular boxes are glued up then the angles are band sawn off, using a fine toothed blade.) I had bought my wife a gallon of Elmer's for her use in her sewing room and figured she had some left. Well, she only has a pint remaining and that is diluted 50/50 with distilled water. So I chose to use Titebond - did the gluing piece by piece. First the fronts (4" , 8 fingered pieces), then after set installed the backs. Using a small applicator put a drop of glue into each side of all fingers before assembling. This took about 2 minutes per corner, (5 minutes max per box end) (no sweat with 10 minute open time) then using calls on the inside of joints, clamped for a couple of hours. Maybe this clamping served somewhat to force the fingers into the otherwise non-flat bottoms. Probably crushed fibers, but there is enough edge joint contact to more than hold the boxes.
There is no finish on these boxes. They are just bare wood. CA glue might be a good choice, especially if there are problems in dry fitting. Seems to me a slow drying glue would be the best choice, and the amount of glue I used was not necessary. Having no experience with these, I just did what comes naturally - punted!
