Japanese Style Pencil Case Build Process

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I didn't have much free time this evening, but it was enough to do a bit more gluing. I started by getting a sharp pencil and a steel rule and putting a mark on the top pieces aligned with either side of the wenge pieces:

I did that on all four corners, then joined the dots together to make a pair of lines showing the edges of the wenge pieces. I could then bisect those lines and mark crosses 20 mm from each edge. Those crosses then got a light touch with an awl:

After a little bit of experimentation on a bit of scrap ash, I found that drilling 4 mm with my 4 mm wood drill resulted in quite a loose fit but I could get a good fit by drilling 3 mm (to a depth of 20 mm) with a spur drill bit...

... then 4 mm (also to a depth of 20 mm) with one of my normal drill bits:

After that I got a 2 mm normal drill bit and extended the hole a bit deeper. The dowels are 4 mm diameter so they'll obviously never go into the 2 mm hole. However, I wanted to give the displaced air / glue somewhere to go when pushing the dowel in. For dowels joining pieces together I think the normal practice is to cut a groove up the side of the dowel so the excess glue could escape. For these dowels that groove would be visible on the top so I thought that a small hole extension at the bottom might do the trick as an alternative.

With the holes drilled, I used a small paintbrush to put some liquid fish glue in the holes and also on the bottom two thirds of the (25–30 mm long) dowels and then tapped them into place, doing my best to line the end-grain lines on the ends of the dowels up with the grain on the ash pieces:

While I had the glue out, I also made a little ash wedge, 9 mm wide and 1 mm thick at its widest point and tapering down to about half that. That got glued (again with liquid fish glue) into the gap in the one slightly gappy mortice and then I chopped it flush-ish with a chisel. I'll clean it up more when the glue has had a chance to dry:

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

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