07
Once they’re glued up, wipe out the excess PVA and run a chiselled Teflon folder around the edge of the base to ensure that the base board is resting solidly on the bench and not creeping up the walls due to bowing or curling.
08
After the joints are dry, carefully sand the foredge joint to ensure evenness. Be careful, the PVA hasn’t cured and the joints are delicate. Place a finger or two on the outside of the foredge wall to support the joint.
09
Cutting out the cloth requires a good bit of precision to cover every bit of your tray neatly and properly. In a single-wall clamshell box, the cloth (or other covering material) is the strength of the tray. Cut your selected cloth with the selvage running around the tray, parallel with the tray walls’ grain. Mark up a margin along the two edges with a set of dividers (this covers the bottom of the base and the tray edge turn in). Pitch your dry tray on the marks, and tightly turning the tray along the bottom margin lines, mark the top and edges of the tray.
10
Put your dry tray on top of these marks and mark the top edge of the wall (this adds your interior cloth).
11
Finally, add a second margin to this mark and a second margin to the end (this will cover a portion of the interior base and the edges of the top and bottom walls). Draw vertical lines and take a 45 degree triangle and mark out the portion to be cut.
12
Cut out the obvious triangular portions but pay particular attention to two cuts. There is a ‘knick’ of cloth above the corner of the free top and bottom walls that must be left in order to cover that corner. Leave it. Also, do not cut the cloth in the corners of the foredge and top and bottom joints all the way to the mark. This cut line is marked with pencil Xs in the picture. Leave a generous board thickness. This will be bevelled later on.
