Stylish serving trays
Strong, light, and graceful, they deliver breakfast beautifully
Synopsis: With their breadboard ends, exposed joinery, tapered parts, pinned joints, and decorative cord handles, these serving trays pack a lot of techniques into a small package. They are perfect as gifts or as a decorative and functional addition to your home. The frame-and-panel construction makes them sturdy and unaffected by wood movement. Heide Martin shows you how to make them, from first cuts to final lashing of the cord.
As is often the case with clean, simple designs, there is more to this set of serving trays than meets the eye. Relying on solid-wood construction, these trays pack a surprising number of techniques into a small package: breadboard construction, exposed joinery, tapered stock, pinned joints, and cord lashing. I designed the trays with batch production in mind, and arranged things so that although the two trays nest inside each other, once the components are cut to length and width, the joinery for both sizes can be cut with the same machine settings.
Trays make excellent gifts and have the potential to be used daily. In my home, the small tray gets constant use carrying condiments to the dinner table or placed on the sofa as an extension of the end table. The large tray is handy for carrying a meal to the dining table, or as a document organizer in the home office. Both are handsome enough that we do not stash them away: We leave them on the table during meals, and then store them vertically on the kitchen counter. In this article I’ll lay out the steps needed to create a single tray, and you can use the provided dimensions to build either size, or a full set.
Prepping and cutting joinery for handles and breadboards
I begin the tray by milling the handles and breadboard ends. I leave all these parts about 1⁄16 in. over final width and length—I’ll trim them flush after glue-up. Then I cut the lap and bridle joints in the sides that receive the handles and ends. I cut them at the tablesaw with a 7⁄16-in.-thick dado stack and a tenoning jig with a tall fence. I use a sacrificial backer behind the workpiece to avoid blowout.
You can use the same dado set with a crosscut sled to cut notches in the handles where the cord will be. On the outside of the handle, cut the notches just deep enough that the wrapped cord will be slightly proud of the rest of the handle.
More on FineWoodworking.com:
- Angled Dovetails – Knife Tray
- Handmade Gift: Tea Light Candle Holder
- Four Handmade Gift Ideas: Ideas for gifts made from your scrap pile
For the full article, download the PDF below.
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Comments
Very nice project. Can you give the info on where you got the tea set¿
I also would be interested in who the maker is of the ceramics on this.
Thanks for a great issue. I'm going through a really rough time in my life, both with woodworking and all of the peripheral things that keep me away from my bench. There was a lot of inspiration and these serving trays were awesome.
If you could please respond to myself AND the previous comment about who made the ceramics or where they came from, that would be awesome. Thanks!
I appreciate the project, and it has given me inspiration for a set of gifts for Christmas.
That said, even though it is a small item, the discipline and accuracy needed to make it keep the old muscle memory going for those larger projects, and lets me utilize my scrap pile.......
Be nice if you included the angle of the cut for the tapering jig...
What is the wood species used in the project?
In response to "evillord", the angle is 7.12°.
In response to "nealzung", the species looks like walnut.
Great project. I would love some input on how to cut the 1/8" groove/mortise into the breadboard end using handtools?
A plow plane, combination plane, or Matt Kenney's grooving planes would do the trick nicely.
I'm attempting the build and I can't find the dimension for the position of the bridle joint. How far down from the top of the side is the joint?
Thanks
David
To: user-6284072
I don't think that dimension is terribly critical but I measure it as 5/16 in.
Beautiful trays. Wish she had talked a bit about how she keeps the thin wide boards flat. I have edge glued two 6" wide 1/4" thick walnut boards and can't seem to get cupping out of them. Tried watering one side, both sides, immersion in hot water and keeping them pressed flat for a week. Now trying the fabric softener trick. Every time the cupping comes back after a couple of hours. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Great Project! the first two builds have focused to my attention to a new level of measurement. Ms. Martin has shown that even in wood 1/32 can be too much slop. It is a lesson that will improve all my work going forward. I also think this is a very functional and flexible design that has driven me to try additional joints at this scale. Great job. Thank you.
I was guessing that the project was made from walnut. Hence, I have a question on the panel for the bottoms. is it feasible to find walnut boards ~12" wide which would be stable for the bottoms? What I find locally is just 4/4 which I'd need to plane down and edge join for the width. thank you.
One more question - I've never installed string or twine on a handle in a woodworking project. I did not see any mention of using glue for this. How do you make it stick or do you put the urethane finish over the string to help adhere it?
In response to m_ahlenius, from the article it appears that the tray is already finished before the cord is wrapped around the handles. The method of wrapping and securing the ends is the same as what sailors know as "common whipping". No glue is needed to keep the cord in place if it is tightly wrapped.
I made these and used birch plywood for the bottoms. Since I was going to line the bottoms with a non skid material the look didn't matter. They're stronger and flatter too.
From the article:
To build it, rip a piece of hard- wood to 83.8°,
Can you please post the instructions for making the plane jig for tapering the sides? Thank-you!
It's on the top of page 61 or page 4 of the pdf.
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