Once I had cleaned up all the tails & pins and test fit it, it was time for glue up. I chose to use some “Old Brown Glue” Liquid Hide Glue. Heated it up to 120+ degrees using some hot water, and it went on very easily. Coated all the joints, pushed them in (had to use a mallet for some of them) and then clamped them up to sit overnight.
It came out pretty well, though the glue streaked a lot of the surfaces. Since I planned to clean the surfaces up anyway, it wasn’t that much of an issue.
I scrapped what I could, and then started on the tails first. Following Chris Schwartz’s advice, I used denatured alcohol to soften the pins, and then used my block plane to clean them up and level them with the rest of the panel.
After that, it was using the smoothing plane to clean up any remaining glue, any marks scraps, and get it all smooth and ready for finish.
Once done with the pin side, it was on to the tails. Followed the same process. Denatured alcohol and block plane on the end grain of the tails, then smooth plane to get it all “pretty.”
Also took the opportunity to check the bottom for square and level, so that I can put on the trim pieces of the box. So far, not too bad. I’m fairly pleased with how the tails came out (though I did do some cleanup/patching on a couple so they looked good).
Kevin