Now that the joinery is all cut, and the case can be dry assembled, the first step is to cut the curve on the top and bottom of the case. The curve on the lower case will be half of the full curve that will be cut into the lower case. I start here by using a drawing bow to mark that curve out. 

The dry assembled case makes it easy to set the drawing bow in place. It isn't visible here, but I have a center mark on the drawing bow that i normally use to center a curve, but in this case I am using it to split the curve in half. 

The curve is rough cut at the bandsaw, making sure to stay a little bit outside the line. 

The curve is then cleaned up by hand with a spokeshave. 

And finally, I use a flexible sanding strip to sand the curve to its final shape. 

The next step is to route a 1/4" X 1/4" dado on the inside back edge of all four pieces. This will house the back panel. 

The back panel is made from a single book-matched piece that is resawn at the bandsaw. 

After resawing, the two halves of the panel are run through the planer until they are just a little thicker than their 1/4" final dimension. 

The two panels are glued together.

After the panel is glued up, it is run through the drum sander. This removes the glue squeeze-out, and also brings the panel down to its final thickness. Once the fit is good I can move on to building the base. 

The entire base assembly is made from a single board. Layout is the key to making sure all of the pieces can be cut from this one board and will also have good grain flow. 

Once the layout is determined, the board can be milled and cut to size. 

The four legs will be made from two pieces of 4/4 (from the same board) that have been laminated together. 

After the glue has started to dry, but before it is fully cured, the glue squeeze-out can be scraped away. 

The newly laminated board can be milled again and brought to square. 

The four legs are cut at the table saw using a cross-cut sled. 

Before cutting any joinery, I always take my time and mark out the position of each leg. I mark all four pieces with a carpenter's triangle on the top and normally also mark them with their positions ("LF" for left front, etc.)

Next I lay out the mortises. I fully mark them out on one piece, but since I will be using a hollow chisel mortiser, once the fence is set from the first leg, all I need marked on the rest is the start and stop points. 

The hollow chisel mortiser does a good job cutting mortises, but small pieces like this can be tricky to hold in place. 

The mortises require cleanup, particularly on the bottom of the mortises.  

The cleanup progress can be checked using a square set to the needed depth. 

Next, the tenon shoulders are marked on each stretcher using a marking gauge. 

The tenons are cut at the table saw using a dado stack. I start by cutting into only about 1/8" on the first one. I use this to check the fit in one of the mortises, and slowly raise the blade to sneak up on a good snug fit that is still a little too tight. This usually takes four to five tries. 

Once I'm happy with the fit, I can cut the tenon to full size. 

The final fitting is done with hand tools. I take one or two passes on each side of the tenon with a rabbeting block plane, test the fit, and repeat as needed until the fit is a good friction fit. A planing stop like this one can be a big help with this. 

Next, the pattern can be traced onto the outside two sides of each leg. This pattern is available in the Sketchup plans attached to this build series. 

The first side of the leg is cut at the bandsaw. 

The off cuts are taped back on to provide the support needed to cut the second side. 

The cut outs are cleaned up at the oscillating spindle sander. 

The top side of the stretchers receive a slight profile to match the top curve of the legs. 

The two bottom edges receive a small round over. 

Some of the rounding-over of the legs has to be done by hand since it can't safely be done with a router. 

Everything is sanded up to 180 before glue up. The entire project will be sanded again before finishing. 

The base assembly is glued up in two steps. First two legs and a stretcher are glued up, then the two sub-assemblies can be joined with the last two stretchers. 

I'm using figure eight clips to attach the base to the lower case. These require a recess be drilled in the top of the stretchers for them to sit it. 

I pre-drill all of the screws and drive them in by hand on the stretchers. 

The screws on the lower case are also pre-drilled, but can be driven in with a driver if desired.