The first step I needed to do with this project was to straighten and square the timbers. I ordered the timbers planed from the mill, but because the wood sat in my shop for quite some time, the timbers twisted and warped a bit on me. To correct this, I used a level and found a new ideal timber inside the old one. For most of the pieces, I had to resize them down about 3/16” to ¼” to get them to fit.
After using the level to draw the lines for the top and one side, I used a ruler to measure over and make the other two lines to complete the new timber. After this, I snapped ink lines down the sides and hand planed down to those lines.
This process proved to be quite time intensive but worth it to make the joinery fit better.