My son and I are building a little pine box. The sides are panelling about
1/4" thick, and we've cut 1/2" square sticks to act as a frame. These
lengths are just glued to the edges of the sides to they all fit together
nicely.

Bottom: four sticks, glued to the face around entire perimeter (just
reaching the edges).

Ends: two sticks each, glued to the edge of the end face, leaving enough
room for the bottom and its sticks, and the top with its sticks. End faces
cover the bottom edges.

Sides: glued to the bottom and ends. Bottom is no longer visible from any
side view.

So far so good. To position all the sticks we were able to use the edges of
the faces as references. But is there any nifty trick for positioning the
sticks on the top? We only want to use two sticks to fit inside the long
sides. I would like them to fit right against the sides so there's no slop,
but of course not be so tight I have to pare them down after glueup.

I've done this before, just by measuring carefully, so if there's no other
trick that's what I'll have to do. I'm wondering about an
expandable/lockable spacer so I can position the sticks in the box, and then
transfer the sticks and spacer to the lid for glueup. But you guys always
come up with such nifty unanticipated ideas I figured I should at least ask.

I hope this request makes sense to someone. It's a lot simpler than I
probably make it sound. Thanks.

- Owen -