SERVING DISH

It’s always a good idea to occasionally come up with a plan to use up some of your small wood scraps.

For my idea I had some curves and a circle to make, so I used a jig to shape the staves that I needed.

Because of the fact that no matter how precise you think you are, when cutting your stave angles, to ensure that I always have completely tight glue joints, I glue my circles up in two stages. This has become my favorite way to gluing staves together. I glue up the two halves of the circle with a dowel separating them. This forces all the staves to squeeze tight together. Then you just touch each half on a belt sander to create a parallel surface for joining the two halves together.

I cut lots of 2 ½” long pieces of varying width. Then layed them out to get the look that I wanted with the different colors. Then glued them up in stages. It’s always better to take you time and not try to glue up too many pieces at once.

Then I started gluing the curves and straight pieces into the shape that I was after.

I needed a large flat base. I assembled lots of narrow strips, so as to get a lot of color mixed in.

I had to run the base through the drum sander, to ensure that I had a flat surface. I did the same with the 2 ½” tall shape.

Now I can glue the two sections together.

To smooth out the inside of the tray, I will use a router with a pattern. For making the pattern, I traced out the outside of the tray on a piece of paper, by dragging a lead pencil around the edge.

Then I transferred that pattern onto some ¼” Masonite, using carbon paper.

Then I cut out the pattern on the bandsaw, cutting inside my lines about ¼”. With an oscillating drum sander, I could sneak up to the final shape that I needed for the finished pattern. When I made the base I left some of the strips hang out extra long, on purpose. This way I could use that extra length on the base for attaching blocks, for mounting the pattern.

I made a wide router base for spanning the tray, in order to keep the router from tipping while cutting. This is a must. Don’t think that you can hold the router straight by being extra careful. It CAN’T be done. To get the extra length that I needed for the “Bowl and Tray” router bit, I needed a collet extension. I made the mistake of buying a 1 1/8” bit, and then realized that the collet nut was 1 3/16” inch in diameter. So keep in mind that you will need to get a 1 ¼” bit.

The next step was to cut off the excess hanging out on the base, with the bandsaw.

Then lots of sanding to smooth everything off. The router bit left a really smooth finish. However there was a little touch up needed with some sanding. I used a 1/16” roundover bit on all the edges.

Since this is intended for food, I needed to use a food safe finish. Because of the colors in it, I didn’t want to use an oil finish. That would dull the bright colors of the padauk and purpleheart. So I chose shellac.