Cheese and cracker trays for Xmas

[pkinneb]

Not really fine woodworking but I needed to kick out five shop made gifts and with limited time I decided to make this cheese and cracker tray out of Woodsmith.

First up was to breakdown some cherry boards. My chop saw is in the basement for that project so I used my plunge saw to do the work.

Next up a quick jig to set up the TS to cut the coves for the tray handles

I needed a 2" wide cove so I set the jig to 2" and then used blue tape to mark the front and the back of the blade where it enters/exist the cut

Once I had that done I could set up the fences for both sides of the piece. I was having trouble figuring out how to get a clamp on the far end when I remembered Chestnut's tip from a few days ago handscrews worked great, thanks Drew!!

Then set the blade to take about an 1/8" for the first few cuts and further on 1/6" as the cut gets wider

Then its just push through flip push through rinse and repeat...forget about dust collection this makes a really big mess!

...but does a nice job fairly quickly, 5 sets

Next I marked off for the 1/4" dowels that will pin the handles to the tray sides

Then I drilled 1/4" holes through all the sides for all the trays. Once that was done they were ready to glue up

Warning the glue up kinda sucks...made a mess of the first one getting glue in the cracker tray but after that I came up with a process that worked much better. I would dry fit one end then glue the other end and finally go back and glue the first. The tray sides and handles are cut at a 30 degree angle so you have to clamp from top to bottom to keep them aligned 

Next up I needed to make a bunch of 1/4" cherry dowel stock so after cutting some 3/8" square stock I got out my Elkhead tools TS dowel jig and set it up. Then I hand fed each piece in to make a small dowel I can chuck in a cordless drill

Then I ran one through and gave it a test fit

Once I had the fit I ran the rest through

Next up was to drill the handles. I used the holes drilled in the sides for a guide and then made a wood depth stop

Cut the dowels to length

Glued them in

I cleaned up the over hang with a sharp flush saw, so sharp I cut myself 

Then I cut the waste away at the TS to reveal the handle

Once that was done I cleaned up the coves first at the TS then with sand paper on a 2" piece of conduit, cut a curve on the handle ends, and made some small cutting boards for the centers. 

After some edge finishing and final sanding they will be ready for finish and bows with two days to spare

I also knocked out another lamp like the ones I did last year

I'll post up some final shots after the finish is applied.

 

[Coop]

Those are slick as can be. Great ideas. Good detail. Thanks for sharing

[Steve B Anderson]

1 hour ago, pkinneb said:

Not really fine woodworking but I needed to kick out five shop made gifts and with limited time I decided to make this cheese and cracker tray out of Woodsmith.

First up was to breakdown some cherry boards. My chop saw is in the basement for that project so I used my plunge saw to do the work.

Next up a quick jig to set up the TS to cut the coves for the tray handles

I needed a 2" wide cove so I set the jig to 2" and then used blue tape to mark the front and the back of the blade where it enters/exist the cut

Once I had that done I could set up the fences for both sides of the piece. I was having trouble figuring out how to get a clamp on the far end when I remembered Chestnut's tip from a few days ago handscrews worked great, thanks Drew!!

Then set the blade to take about an 1/8" for the first few cuts and further on 1/6" as the cut gets wider

Then its just push through flip push through rinse and repeat...forget about dust collection this makes a really big mess!

...but does a nice job fairly quickly, 5 sets

Next I marked off for the 1/4" dowels that will pin the handles to the tray sides

Then I drilled 1/4" holes through all the sides for all the trays. Once that was done they were ready to glue up

Warning the glue up kinda sucks...made a mess of the first one getting glue in the cracker tray but after that I came up with a process that worked much better. I would dry fit one end then glue the other end and finally go back and glue the first. The tray sides and handles are cut at a 30 degree angle so you have to clamp from top to bottom to keep them aligned 

Next up I needed to make a bunch of 1/4" cherry dowel stock so after cutting some 3/8" square stock I got out my Elkhead tools TS dowel jig and set it up. Then I hand fed each piece in to make a small dowel I can chuck in a cordless drill

Then I ran one through and gave it a test fit

Once I had the fit I ran the rest through

Next up was to drill the handles. I used the holes drilled in the sides for a guide and then made a wood depth stop

Cut the dowels to length

Glued them in

I cleaned up the over hang with a sharp flush saw, so sharp I cut myself 

Then I cut the waste away at the TS to reveal the handle

Once that was done I cleaned up the coves first at the TS then with sand paper on a 2" piece of conduit, cut a curve on the handle ends, and made some small cutting boards for the centers. 

After some edge finishing and final sanding they will be ready for finish and bows with two days to spare

I also knocked out another lamp like the ones I did last year

I'll post up some final shots after the finish is applied.

 

You should try to make the lamp shades to match the base glass. I’ve been investigating making some Mission lamps and those shades are selling for $200 to $500.

[wdwerker]

That's quite involved to " kick out " some gifts ! Don't forget to sign & date them . 

[Tom King]

Looks like some pretty fine woodworking to me, as well as a fine job of documenting the process!

[gee-dub]

Great tutorial on a production run for the holidays .  Thanks for sharing that.

[wtnhighlander]

Hey, those look great! Are the CB centers glued into the trays, or removable?

[Isaac]

They look great. Please share a shot after you've applied the finish.

[pkinneb]

1 hour ago, wtnhighlander said:

Hey, those look great! Are the CB centers glued into the trays, or removable?

Thanks! They are removable

[Ronn W]

Wonderful gifts.   I like it.

[Chet]

Those look great and should be well received.  Thanks for sharing the process.

[Bankstick]

Don't know where to start. Thanks for the photos of the steps for the project. You put a lot of time in the jigs to do the operations as well as a lot of time and thought into the trays themselves. I would like to see something similar about the lamp.

[Chestnut]

Nice work. I love those lamps.

[mat60]

You do some really nice work. Best looking lamps I have seen.

[Mick S]

Nice work, Paul. Especially under the gun. I've been helping friends get their last minute projects finished and am now going to have to make apologies for being late with mine. 

Come to think of it, that's what I did last year!

 

[pkinneb]

6 hours ago, Bankstick said:

Don't know where to start. Thanks for the photos of the steps for the project. You put a lot of time in the jigs to do the operations as well as a lot of time and thought into the trays themselves. I would like to see something similar about the lamp.

Here is the build thread on the lamps

4 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Nice work. I love those lamps.

Thanks for the clamp tip it came in handy  

[pkinneb]

On 12/21/2018 at 10:00 PM, Steve B Anderson said:

You should try to make the lamp shades to match the base glass. I’ve been investigating making some Mission lamps and those shades are selling for $200 to $500.

I have made a couple smaller shades like this one

Next year I will be making a Oak and stained glass pool table light which should be challenging  

This pic is for Steve

I sprayed the trays

...and used mineral oil for the cutting boards. Three coats of just oil and then a final coat of 4/1 mineral oil and beez wax. Ran short on cutting board blanks but since I only needed four gifts I will make the 5th later. I always try to make an extra when doing this stuff last minute just in case, but knock on wood to date I haven't had to use one. Having said that the minute I made only what I needed well you know how that would go LOL

here's the first two ready for delivery and not a moment too soon. Heading to the airport to pick up our daughter and then off to deliver the first one to my aunt.

Have a great holiday everyone!!

[RichardA]

Beautifully done. Excellent craftsmanship.

[Steve B Anderson]

Very impressive, looking forward to the pool table light journal.

[Bankstick]

Used to sell lighting- Tiffany style shades are outstanding. Original lamps bring a king's ransom.

[curlyoak]

It was a pleasure to watch this process unfold. Execution and design could not be better. Thank you!

[Mick S]

This is one of those threads that reminds me of the "how do you save a thread for future reference?" from a while back. Definitely tagging this one for next October with a reminder!

 

[SirNot]

This is one of my favorite projects from The Woodsmith's Shop.  You executed them beautifully.  It's on my list for next Christmas!

 

[pkinneb]

2 hours ago, SirNot said:

This is one of my favorite projects from The Woodsmith's Shop.  You executed them beautifully.  It's on my list for next Christmas!

 

Thank you! I have actually made quite a few of their projects over the years especially for xmas gifts with good response from those who received them. I'm thinking next year maybe bowls off the lathe. It seems like we have more folks on here sharing turning tips which is cool