Welcome back Mike.

Shaker boxes are right in my wheelhouse at the moment.

I also took a class from Ralph some 10 years ago in Chicago in 
conjunction with a MWTCA regional meet. In addition, I stay in touch 
with John Wilson and Eric Pintar at www.shakerovalbox.com in downstate 
Charlotte, and visit them whenever I pass through there.

I’m making up a large batch of boxes and trays right now for an art fair 
this weekend. So with the volume of pieces I make, the process is not 
entirely unplugged. My methods are a blend of those two influences. I 
sometimes taper the fingers a little bit, but I always taper the buried 
ends to a feather edge, and use a #3 or #4 bench plane. I clamp the 
veneer strip to the bench on the back end, and set the front of the 
strip right up to the edge of the bench. I plane the last ~2” (usually) 
tapered down to transparency. Sometimes they are a little ragged, but 
they are naturally held against the inside of the box. If it looks too 
ratty, I just slice off a diagonal once it is assembled and it looks 
fine. For box sizes 1 – 3, I start with ~.065 to .085 red maple veneer 
that a local mill cuts for me. I can get 1/16” on my band saw too, but 
it’s kind of a bother to make a lot of strips 15” to 48” long with any 
consistency. For cost reasons, I do slice my own birdseye veneers ~.050 
- .070 for gluing to ¼” birch plywood for the tops.

Merry Christmas and best wishes to all,

Jim O'Brien