Baseboard: Making the breadboard edge

After picking up a rabbeting router bit set at the Home Depot, I cut a half-inch wide tongue on the front edge of the bottom. Next, I ripped a strip of leftover red cedar to a 1" width and, after a bit of trial and error, routed into it a groove to match the width and thickness of the tongue. Here's a photo of the pieces, dry-fit together:


This strip is known as a breadboard edge and is used on large panels such as tabletops to hide the end grain. Here it provides a suitable surface for gluing on the case mouldings that will come later as a decorative embellishment.

Note that the bottom and breadboard are both still oversize at this point, so they need not be of identical length. The pencil tick on the light-coloured board (slightly below the X on the breadboard) marks the cutoff point that will establish the final width of the baseboard.