We left yesterday's blog with the first of the side members clamped to the inverted baseboard for the PVA glue to stick. This was the inner of two pieces that together make up the 12mm thickness of the side pieces. I believe that Chris laminates the two pieces together first, makes up a carcase and then offers up the baseboard top. I decided that because the boards were to be irregular with a number of them having curved edges that I would stick one side member to the baseboard top, let it set for 24 hours and then add the second member. For the first board, I butted the baseboard top to the clamp blocks and stuck down the inner skin on to the baseboard top, on the basis of aligning the side member to the edge of the baseboard top. In practice it doesn't really matter which is stuck down first, and as will be seen later, sometimes sticking down the outer member first is inevitable to maintain alignment with an adjacent board.

Before going any further though, I have to say that it would have been a much more difficult task to create the side members accurately cut and with the right angle of mitres without one of these. It cost me £400 and has proven to be one of my most used and versatile tools.Thoroughly recommended! However, it makes a lot of wood dust, so use a mask and I have shrouded mine in a plastic sheet carcase to enclose the dust. Back to the construction.

When the inner skin of side member of the first board was set, I measured and fitted the outer skin to make up the 12mm required thickness. To spread the glue and allow it to seep into the grain, I lightly sprayed a mixture of water with a few drops of washing up liquid on to the mating surfaces of the inner and outer ply skins before being clamped together to set for 24 hours. While being clamped and after the 24 hours I used a steam spray over the curved members to relieve the stress inside the two curved skins. The risk of doing this is that it might weaken the glue. In future I will steam any curved members before glueing them.