Nailing the Bottom to a Finger Joint Box

Video Transcript

"Now that our glue has set up and it's not going to go anywhere, we can take the clamps off, check the box for square again. You don't have very much time, that glue isn't completely dry yet so if you are a little bit out of square, the glue will probably respond to a hammer and let's say if you are a little bit out of square, let's say if you are out of square that way you can put the box on the opposite corner and give it a smack or you can do another thing if the box is out of square is put a clamp from corner to corner and draw it square like that. This box is pretty square but if you tighten this clamp up it will push these corners in opposite directions and if it is out of square the other way you just reverse the clamp so let's assume that our box is nice and square and we are ready to go ahead and put the bottom in. Now this box that I am making today is just going to be for me to put some of the stuff from my shop in so I'm not going to make a top for it and I'm not going to get real fancy with the inside but if you want yours to be a little fancier, maybe it's a gift box or something, it is a great idea to take this bottom that we've already cut and cover it with some felt or maybe some bright material just about anything you want and use some spray adhesive or you can even use the white glue and put a thin coat, put the cloth on it, go around and cut it so that the inside is covered with material, fabric, leather, you can use almost anything and we'll put the bottom in, switch it around here. Sorry that wasn't the bottom, this is the bottom. Tap it in place like that and grab some handy little finish nails. These are a little bit longer than I need but looks o'kay. And you'll put several nails, you know one in each corner. Just nail the bottom of the box in and if you want to you can use a nail set, one of these little goodies, put it on the head of the nail and give it a pop and the nail will go down under the surface of the wood and then you can fill it and nobody will see your nail hole. But since this is just the utility box for my shop, I don't need to go through that much cosmetics. So now we've got a basic box here that is a good solid, very very sturdy box. Our next step is to do a little more sanding and we're going to clean this up and put some finish on it and we'll have some fun with different kinds of finishes."