Tea Tray Plans

[Ralph Barhorst]

My daughter has started drinking tea and asked me to make a tea tray for her. I searched here and could not find anything.

I did find one on the Router Workshop site but I don't like it.

Does anyone know where I can find some plans.

[Dan Gill]

Wood Magazine had one last year. Sorry, but I don't know the issue. I made several for a craft show that didn't pan out. I still have them . . .

[Nancy Laird]

There is a plan for "nesting trays" in the September 2005 issue of Wood Magazine. These have tilted ends at 30 deg. so multiples will "nest." LOML also made me a set of trays from another pattern for Mother's Day. I'll ask him where he got that pattern and let you know.

Nancy

[Ralph Barhorst]

Thanks for your help.

I will look into these.

[Ethan Sincox]

David Marks made one on his show, Woodworks... he doesn't yet have a plan up on his website, but here is a link to it.

http://www.djmarks.com/woodworks/508.asp

Try e-mailing him and see if and when he might have a plan available. Or if you like the design, come up with your own dimensions and detailed ideas and just jump right in and make one!

Taking that idea a bit further, Ralph, try doing a Google search on "wood serving tray" and check the Images section to see what pictures come up. Having a degree in Art, and having had someone steal one of my copyrighted photographs for personal gain, I would never ever suggest you go and steal someone's original idea (of course, how many ideas these days are truly original?) and start running a production of 50 copies of it, but just try to get some ideas for how people (manufactured and individual) are making serving trays these days. See if something out there generates a creative spark inside you...

Even when I do use plans for a project, I'll most often use them just to establish proportion (how much reveal to use on an edge, how thick to make one part when compared to another) or maybe to help me with a joinery problem I come up against. I don't think I've ever actually followed a plan completely through from beginning to end.

I suppose the one time I would follow a plan is if it were for a jig or fixture or a router table or some cabinets for the shop. Otherwise, I tend to take an artistic view with my creations and I'd rather not make the exact thing that someone else made. Even if it is just a box for the router bits I'm giving my brother for his birthday (a few $5 bits on sale from Woodcraft, a few hours in the shop, and you have a great woodworker present for under $30), I'll take the time to build a box with several things taken into consideration that are specific to my brother and his needs.

Here is another way to approach the problem, Ralph...

Talk to your daughter. Find out what SHE would like to have in a tea tray. Start simple. How big would she want it to be? Should it have handles? What kind of wood does she like? (At the very least, you could get an idea of lighter woods or darker woods.) From there, you can start figuring out some more detailed things, like if she'd want an inlay in the tray or maybe some beading around the edge.

Grab a $5 drawing pad from Michael's or Wal-Mart and sketch out some ideas and see what she thinks. Take her suggestions back to the drawing board (or pad, in this case) and try to work them in.

These are the things that make something a custom piece, uniquely personalized, made for a specific individual, with thought and consideration.

For me, that is what really makes woodworking worth the time and effort and expenses I put into it.

That's my two cents worth. (More like $5.38, really...)

[Mark Singer]

I have made a few here...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5994&highlight=tray


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=9543&highlight=tray


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=9642&highlight=tray

[Jim Becker]

I believe there is also a plan from NYW available for something applicable.