Serving Tray 2            09-2015

 

 

When I was in the planning stages for this project, I knew that I wouldn't be cutting all the way through but I wanted to put a 3/16" radius on all the top surfaces. What I did was go down about halfway with the 3/8" end mill (arrow), switched to my 3/16" corner-rounding end mill (to radius all the top surfaces), then changed back to the 3/8" end mill and went down to within 1/8" of the bottom. The lip at the bottom is what's leftover after using the bandsaw. If you're wondering about all the lines that you see, those are .200" apart which is how deep the 3/8" end mill went for each pass. I probably could have went deeper for each pass but I didn't want anything unexpected to happen so I played it safe here.
 

 

 
I used my belt sander to get close but not finish sand with it. The material on the right is what's left from the bandsaw. This operation went nice and fast but you really had to pay attention to avoid touching the surface because that would require even more hand sanding.
 

 

 
After the belt sander I used my sanding block with 100 grit paper to remove the remaining lip (arrow). This was a lot of work because of all the cutter marks (that I mentioned above) and the large surface.
 

 

 
The lip has been removed from the outer surface and now it's time to start on the inside.
 

 

 
Here is what it looks like once I was finished sanding. I used 100, 180 and 220 grit sandpaper to remove all the cutter marks. It took about three hours of sanding per tray and I'm happy with the results.
 

 

 
The center pocket is 1/2" deep and is where a dish will sit that holds dip or salsa.
 

 

 
I bought the dish, measured it and then machined the pocket.
 

 

 
Here you can see the rounded edges that are nice and smooth now.
 

 

 
Same thing with the inside.
 

 

 
I used mineral oil to protect the wood and wanted to show a before and after shot. Now I could have used vegetable oil here, which I have on other food related wood projects: either one works great. The reason for using mineral or vegetable oil is because they are none toxic compared to some water or oil based products.
 

 

 
The kids should get years of use from them and they hold lots of chips.
 

 

 
The maple makes a nice contrast with the mahogany.
 

 

 
Looks like a large football don't you think?
 

 

 
Chips and salsa anyone?
 

 
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