Today I glued the 4 sides together. For this, I elected to use a thin CA glue. I like Starbond CA. They have several viscosities and a few varieties in shades of brown plus black, plus accelerator and a debonder for those accidents that do occur. They can be handy for filling small knots. (Hint: Store your CA in the refrigerator. That greatly extends the shelf life.)
I could also have used a slow-setting glue such as the brown hide glue I like, but I didn’t want to wait until it was dry. That would have been tomorrow. So I first dry assembled the 4 sides and applied 2 clamps. Then I applied a few drops of thin CAto all the joints. This is as thin as water. The fingers fit tightly with no gaps, and the thin CA gets wicked into all the spaces. I hit it with the accelerator and after that had evaporated repeated a few drops of CA and more accelerator.
The pads on the clamp jaws are a HDPE. CA does not adhere to HDPE or LDPE which is handy at times. I use wax paper under the work pieces as that can help prevent stray drips from gluing your work to the workbench.
The sides of the glued up box were sanded smooth using the bench belt sander and 120, 180 and 240 grit belts.
I rummaged thru my box of padauk scraps and found a piece that was almost the needed size. A little sanding made it fit.
That is all for now. Thanks for looking. Comments or questions are welcome.