Pine Trays

A friend asked me to flatten some wide pine boards that were from a basement door of her childhood home. The plan was to take the cup out of them and clean them up so they could be made into signs for her wedding. I ended up with one extra that she said to keep, but I ended up making this and giving it back to her.

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I got the idea from the New Yankee Workshop's serving trays episode, finding a compound angle calculator online to tell me how to set up the table saw and miter gauge. Once it was glued up, I put some cherry splines in to reinforce the miters.

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The hole in the side is from a doorknob, I assume. I tried to leave the rest of the flaws alone and put some of the aging back into it after the milling cleaned it up too much. I used an iron buff solution (steel wool pad and apple cider vinegar) and after one coat it darkened up like crazy. After that I just hit it with a few coats of danish oil and called it done.

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These trays are from a left over floor board from my parent's house. They're the same design as above, just a little thinner and cleaner. I didn't end up rounding the corners of the their bases this time.

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Dave,
Looks great!!
I have some old pine and red oak I'd like to do like yours.
Could you tell me the blade tilt/miter gauge angle for the compound miter cuts?

Thanks,

Jerry

They look perfect. I really like the proportions. I think that you have given me some inspiration.

I used this calculator Jerry.

http://jansson.us/jcompound.html

I think I plugged 20.1 degreea into the N-sided box area and used the numbers it gave me. Let me know if that's not clear.

Thanks Frank, the golden ratio is in the base and distance of the spline from top to bottom.

I should also mention I used two dowels on each of the short sides, towards the middle to attach the sides to the base. That way the base can move without it pulling itself apart.