Bit more progress. I got the pine wrong. It is plum pine (col) or Illawarra plum, podocarpus elatus. I have a few trees because the berries are a bush food.
So rough planks after thicknessing
Then sized (no idea whose boots but they are wet and stink)
Lots of test pieces to set up the dovetail jig
I had never used one of these before and they are quite fickle. Through dovetails would be easier, getting the balance right so the joints are decent but not too tight or loose is tedious. So much so I nearly opted for a plain 1/2" bit and finger joints. Happy I persevered but honestly I wasted 4 hours getting the set up right.
The final joint has just enough space for glue.
Then it was all production line to get the pieces done.
Note the mountain bikes in the background! I discovered though that the jig clamp can move around and that also moves the comb which affects the depth of cut. Hopefully ok. Test fits all seem fine. Have to clean up before gluing and my RO sander is dead. Will make three boxes then glue these together. Plum/camphor/plum. Oh and the camphor was a shit. It was not the best and splintered though the cracks but that is inside so doesn't matter. I was planning biscuits but I had to take the bits down to 1/2" because the camphor didn't clean up. For what it is glue alone will be fine and there will be aluminium tracks inside across the joins.
First time I have taken slabs and dressed them to make something. Bloody good process and it saved some wood that was destined for the fireplace.