well all the tips that were given were basically mentioned in this thread... use pieces of cardboard to make a template of what you want that particular piece to look at... trace it on the wood, cut the wood, do a fit test, i assure you that no matter how perfect your template fits, you will need to slightly modify and trim off some of the wood to get it to fit right... the only time i used measuring tape was to get the measurments for the rectangular piece on top (the top consists of the two shaped sides and the big rectangular piece). after that it was all based on what i saw and what i felt needed to get done to get it to fit like a glove... i will try to get pics of it opened up tonight and i will post an explination on where i started and how i drew the templates to fit...