Now that the sides are the correct length, it's time to cut a channel for the plastic top. My plastic measures .212" thick so I'm making my channel about 1/16" larger. Why this much? Well, when the time comes to put a clear finish on the display case, there will be some buildup in this area so I want to make sure I have enough clearance. Plus, with the bottom piece being bowed, I'm not sure what will happen once all the side pieces are glued in place.
 

The Bow is Back

See what I mean, the bowing condition is easy to see here but I think some of that will go away once I glue things together. When I clamp the sides to the bottom, almost all of the gaps are gone, which is a good thing. However, what I don't know is, what if the glue fails in the future making this channel uneven? 

BTW, the shorter piece has the channel travel from end-to-end, but the longer ones don't exit on other side. I stayed away on the opposite side by about 1/4" so it looks nice on the outside.
 

Now that the outside pieces fit, I'm machining the dividers to length and adding the dowel holes for them.
 

I've found out while working on Tracey's project that by putting a dowel in each corner, near the top of each side piece, helps keep things in alignment while gluing. It's a little more of a challenge getting things together while doing so but it's worth it in the end.
 

In the above picture, those were the easy holes to do. But the ones that mate up to them are more of a challenge. I have to hang the work piece over the edge of the mill table while it's clamped to something flat. In this case I'm using a large piece of aluminum that I've squared on all sides. I've also used an angle plate for this before to.
 

I'm going to use some red velvet to rest the knives on. This should look nice once everything is together. The cardboard pieces (sitting on the velvet) are going to get wrapped with the velvet but I need to glue some thin foam to them first.