Laminated Serving Tray project

 Hello All,

I've got a new project for you-I'm going to make a large wooden serving tray out of laminated scrap wood. 

I just finished a smaller tray last week and here are some photos of that:

You can see the various kinds of wood that were randomly glued together and then shaped on the lathe into a round tray.

This project is going to be made the same way. The cabinetmakers I purchase wood from often have bundles of cabinet wood trimmings. These are just long strips of various hardwoods that are about 2" wide and 4' to 5' long. It's a great way to get a selection of hardwood that can be cut and glued into blocks for turning or made into cutting boards. I often purchase color woods like mahogany, black walnut, or purple heart to add color and interest in the blocks that I make out of the trimmings. And this is a great way to use up scrap wood.

Ok, so I'm going to make a tray, apply a food safe finish, and keep it in my living room. 

Here we go:

Here are two photos of the block I'm assembling:

The first photo shows the face of the block-it's about 16" square and the second shows the end grain. The block is made primarily out of white and red oak, with cypress, mahogany, black walnut, purple heart, furniture grade plywood, and a little bit of pine. And I'm going to attach the extension on the lathe that will allow me to turn a very wide block of wood. I think the mix of species and colors will make the edges look really cool.

The only question going forward is should I make it round in shape or cut the block into one large hexagon and turn that? It would be really interesting and would produce a different shape into my repertoire. I'll think about it.

Ok, here we go again.

Stay tuned,
VW

End of Summer Roundup

 Hi Everyone,

I apologize for being gone for so long-it's been a blazing hot summer and I haven't been in the shop very much. But I have made a few things and still have a few more things to work on before the end of my shop season this year.

I've done some turning and I'm getting ready to do more. I made a big laminated oak-mahogany-and furniture grade plywood for a wedding present for a young friend. Here's the photos:

I made this out of a bundle of cabinet door trimmings from Forest Products Supply. This platter is about 14" in diameter and 3/4" deep. I used a mix of red and white oak. It's heavy and substantial and if it's ever dropped it won't break.

Next: I spent some time this morning making a small Raffan-type box for my husband's ear bud thingy out of some scrap ash that I had. I don't know why ash isn't used more in furniture and cabinetry as it's such a pretty wood and it machines well. Anyway, here it is-I'll be putting on a finish tomorrow:

Here's a photo of Biscuit the Cat sleeping on a chair I made a couple of years ago. I just thought I'd throw that in:

And speaking of chairs, this is a deck chair I built from a set of plans from an outfit on Etsy called Go Plan Bee. They sell plans for bee hives and they also have the plans for a modified Adirondack chair on their site as well. It's a great chair, easy to build and very comfortable without cushions. I made mine from a pile of scrap pine and I love the chair:

A couple of weeks ago our old bbq got accidently set on fire and was ruined. So we bought a much smaller bbq and I build a roll around cart for it so we don't have to place it on the ground. This is also another scrap wood project and I just made this up on the fly:

The bbq is sitting on top of a concrete paver and held in place by bungy cords and no they haven't melted with the heat. I also made a handle for it out of old plumbing pipe and spray painted a shiny red color. Now we finally have a place for all the bbq briquets and other stuff.

What's coming up:

I'm planning on making the king sized bed headboard on Ana White's website. I have almost enough scrap wood to build it and that should get rid of the remaining scrap soft wood in the shop. 

I'm also going to make a large laminated tray similar to the one in the photo above for fruit and veggies and I'll go through that step by step here on the blog.

And I'm planning on painting and re-finishing a book case and a chest of drawers I got from a neighbor and I'll show you those photos when I do those projects.

So I haven't been just laying around like the cat!

So thanks for dropping by and I'll see you all soon.

Stay tuned, 
VW