[Cherryville Chuck]

I agree Rick. I don't think that's the box they came in if they ever came in a box at all as I don't recall much of Sears small tools that were sold that way. Lots of people use a small paint brush for that type glue up. I have some plastic paddles that I got from Lee Valley that are good for spreading a drop or two of glue that you drop onto the surfaces from a glue bottle.You don't want much glue and not much is needed. You also normally only glue the sides of the fingers and not the bottom of the gullets. That helps prevent squeeze out.

This is also a good time to talk about using a glue with enough open time to allow you to get all the surfaces glued and assembled in time. Titebonds 1 and 3 have short open times. T2 has a longer open time and there is also a Titebond Extend which has a longer open time still. If you are well organized you may be okay with one with short open time. You can also consider gluing just 2 sides together at a time and then joining those two halves together after but make sure they are drying square as you proceed to the second step. I often enlist my wife's help in situations where time will be pushed close to the limit.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

They seem too large and cumbersome for these 1/4" "box" joints. Thanks for the clarification on finger vs box joints.

Rick

Never make assumptions about which type joint it is. If you do a web search on finger joints about 75% of them come back as "a finger joint also known as a box joint". All of Fine Woodworking's contributors refer to a box joint as a finger joint first. Most of older woodworking literature also refer to it as a finger joint. The tapered fingers were specifically referred to as a tapered finger joint or as a splice joint since that is the only function of that type joint i.e. end joining two boards together. That is the main clue about which type joint is being discussed is whether it is the splicing type or not.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

I make a sanding aid that would help you with that Rick. I take scrap high pressure counter top laminate (Formica to you) and cut it into rectangular pieces about 1 1/2 to 2" wide by 3 to 5" long and I glue sandpaper to the back side of them, usually 80 grit. Because they are thin and stiff it would allow you to take a couple of strokes on all the joint surfaces without risk of rounding the edges off and you can stay flat across the fingers too. I glue them on with Lee Valley's fish glue because it's water soluble and it allows me to peel the worn out paper off and replace it with new paper on the same laminate piece. I try to keep at least one of these sanding aids within arm's reach any time I'm doing anything in the shop.