Serving trays for family and friends

[Mike Henderson]

I made a bunch of serving trays (nine!) as gifts for family and friends. The first picture shows one representative tray and the second picture shows all nine.

The trays are six sided, with a sunburst of waterfall bubinga in the center. The accent strip is bloodwood (on most of them) with holly stringing. The edging and sides are walnut.

The third picture shows the back of one tray. They're all done in a 12 sided sunburst of claro walnut. Although the segments appear to be different colors, that's just an artifact of the way it's viewed (the way light reflects off the veneer). They're all the same color when viewed in person.

These take quite a bit of time to make. There's just a lot of steps in the process.

Mike

[Construction note: I used the small FF biscuits on the joints on the sides for extra strength. I came up with a jig to cut the slots on my router. If anyone is interested, I'll post pictures. The jig could also be used to cut slots for splines if you wanted to use splines - and much safer and more accurate than cutting spline slots on the table saw.]

[Jeremy Greiner]

I used the small FF biscuits on the joints on the sides for extra strength. I came up with a jig to cut the slots on my router. If anyone is interested, I'll post pictures.
Those trays look great, well worth the effort .. and I'm always interested in seeing home made jigs

[Jim Rimmer]

Great looking trays. Did I see an earlier post when you started the first one? Or was that from an earlier construction? IIRC, you included more details on the process. Always interested in looking at jigs.

[Brent Ring]

Definately interesting in more info on the jigs. Mike, those are beautiful.

[Mike Henderson]

Here's some info on the jig.

The corners of a six sided tray are each 60*, so the angle on each piece of wood is 30*. The goal is to present the face of the cut vertically to the slot cutter, so the jig is built at a 30* angle. I also do 8 sided trays and the jig is 22.5*. If you wanted to do this for a square box, the jig would have to be at 45*.
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Note that there's an alignment piece on the face of the jig, on the right side as you stand behind the jig. This piece needs to be on the right side because the rotation of the slot cutter will push the work piece into that alignment piece. If it was on the other side, the work piece could get away from you.

I cut the sides before I cut the slots but here I'm just showing how the work piece fits on the jig so the work piece is much longer than a side of a tray. The guide piece clamped to the table is used to guide the jig when you push it into the cutter. The position of this piece is adjusted until the slot is exactly centered (side-to-side) in the work piece. The reason it needs to be centered is that you're going to turn the work piece end to end and cut a slot in the other end. If it's not centered, when you go to put the pieces together the slots won't match up.
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The position of the slot vertically (as the work piece is laying on the jig) is adjusted by raising or lowering the slot cutter on the router. The depth of the cut is adjusted by the position of the fence. The fence acts as a stop for when you push the jig and work piece into the slot cutter.
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Once you get it all adjusted to your satisfaction, this rig will cut a slot for an FF biscuit (use the right slot cutter, one that cuts a slot equal to the thickness of the biscuit. No, I don't remember the thickness - go measure a biscuit).
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Make adjustments until the slot will take a biscuit a bit more than half way in.
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That's it. When you glue up, the biscuits will provide alignment and add additional strength to the joint.

Note: Always slide the jig in and out. Don't try to put the jig in position and slide the wood into the slot cutter along the jig. You will not get a clean slot - you'll get a mess.

If you want to cut slots for splines, do most of the same things, but don't use the guide board clamped to the table and slide the jig along the fence. You'll get a slot cut completely across the wood. You probably want to use a thinner slot cutter for a spline, however.

Mike

[Ken Garlock]

Well Mike, I don't know what to say. Every time you post one of your projects, I want to go out to the shop and beat up on my tools.:eek:

There is no doubt that you have a talent for working wood.

BTW, do you and David Marks exchange notes?:D:)

[Mike Henderson]

Well Mike, I don't know what to say. Every time you post one of your projects, I want to go out to the shop and beat up on my tools.:eek:

There is no doubt that you have a talent for working wood.

BTW, do you and David Marks exchange notes?:D:)
No, I've never communicated with David Marks. Why do you ask?

Mike

[Mike Archambeau]

Mike, great to see you back posting. I enjoy seeing your work!

[gary Zimmel]

"These take quite a bit of time to make. There's just a lot of steps in the process."

That I can believe Mike... Sweet serving trays.
Great work, as always.

[Mike Henderson]

I'll tell a story about the amount of work that goes into a tray.

My wife used one of my trays to take some food to a pot luck lunch for one of her woman's organizations. Another woman saw the tray and asked my wife if I'd make a couple of trays for her. Norma came home and asked me what I'd charge for a couple of trays. Since it was a friend of her's I said I'd make them for $100 each.

When Norma told the other woman the price, she was shocked. She said, "I thought they'd be about $30 each." People who don't know woodworking just don't understand how much work goes into making a piece, even something as simple as a serving tray.

Needless to say, she didn't order any trays.

Mike

[Ken Garlock]

No, I've never communicated with David Marks. Why do you ask?

Mike

I met David when he visited a WW show in Dallas several years ago. He is truly a gentleman, a teacher and an artist that used wood as his media. I think you and David share many traits and you two could spend a day or more trading WW 'war stories'.

I very much admire the work of both of you.

:cool: