Serving Tray€¦ · The “X” shaped leg joinery’s history is traceable to the ancient...

• Step by Step constructioninstruction.

• A complete bill of materials.

• Exploded view and elevationdrawings.

• How-to photos with instructivecaptions.

• Tips to help you complete theproject and become a betterwoodworker.

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Serving Tray

Published in Woodworker’s Journal “Woodworking Classics: Skill-Building Projects for the Home Woodworker”

WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SERVING TRAY 143

While today’s woodworkers haveplenty of 19th- and 20th-century motifsto look to for design inspiration, for thisproject we turned to the distant past.Curule chairs were popular during themedieval period, but they actually can

Serving TrayThis tray table’s simple and elegant lines are a study in positive and negative space.

The “X” shaped leg joinery’s history is traceable to the ancient Egyptians, but we’ll

use entirely modern methods to execute the rest of the design.

After the tray stiles and rails are cut to width and rabbeted, they can be mitered to length.Use a fine-tooth crosscut blade to help minimize tearout on splintery mahogany.

be traced even further back than that,to the dynasties of ancient Egypt.They’re familiar enough, with theirknuckle-jointed “X”-shaped bases, butthe design element doesn’t seem tofind a lot of application in today’s furni-

ture. we weren’t particularly interestedin making a curule chair, but the “X”shaped legs seemed an equally fittingchoice for a serving tray. We settled onmahogany for this project—it’s a greatspecies for a beginner, essentially knot-free and easy to mill and finish. Its finegrain also adds elegance.

Getting StartedWe’ll build the tray first, then move

on to the base. An overriding concernfor our initial design was that the legsmust be true and at perfect right anglesto the base and floor. A slight skew inor out would result in a spindly, awk-ward look. If you construct the tray first,there’s some room for tweaking thebase rails to push the legs out or pullthem in.

The first thing to do is cut the tray’sstiles and end rails (pieces 1 and 2) towidth but a bit long. These pieces get a rabbet along their top edges, so usea straight bit in your router table or adado blade in your table saw to formthem, as shown in the Elevation


Tray Exploded View

6

Each square equals one inch.

Note: The legsmust mirror eachother to ensurethat you get onepair of outsideand one pair

of inside legs.

StretcherTenon Location

Note: This is a pattern for the

template. Cutyour stock a littlelong so you cansand (instead ofrout) the ends

to length.

Drawings. Once the rabbets are milled,miter the parts to length and lay out forthe matching notches on the inside ofeach stile which will accept the twosupport rails (pieces 3).

Cut them by hand, if you’re up toit. Setting up to make these cuts with a router is more hassle than it’s worth.Now grab your biscuit joiner and cutslots to help beef up the miter joints.This table may be handling a goodamount of weight, so you’ll want toensure that the joinery will be as strongas possible. Dry-fit the frame to makesure that you’ve got clean miters. Atthis point, you can go ahead and shapethe support rails (see the Elevations)and form the tenons at their ends.When they’re ready, dry-assemble your

tray again, for a final look. The tops ofthe support rails should be perfectlyflush with the bottoms of the rabbets onthe end rails and stiles. When every-thing matches up, go ahead and glueup these pieces and set them aside.

Making Handles and RimWhile the glue is drying, cut and

shape the handles and form the miterson their ends, as well as on the ends ofthe back rim (pieces 4 and 5). Thesepieces all get a soft roundover andplenty of time under the sandpaper, asthey are the showiest part of the projectand will be reflected by the mirroredtop. When they’re ready to install, pre-drill pilot holes from the bottom of theframe, three for each handle and five for

144 HOME PROJECTS

A biscuit or plate joiner is a great way to strengthen and align miterjoints. The biscuits fit just under thetray’s rabbet.


SERVING TRAY 145

MATERIAL LIST – Serving Tray

T x W x L

1 Tray Stiles (2) 3/4" x 21⁄4" x 32"

2 Tray End Rails (2) 3/4" x 21⁄4" x 16"

3 Tray Support Rails (2) 3/4" x 11⁄4" x 13"

4 Tray Handles (2) 3/4" x 23⁄8" x 155⁄8"

5 Back Rim (1) 3/4" x 1" x 31"

6 Legs* (4) 3/4" x 6" x 35"

7 Stretcher (1) 1" x 1" x 301⁄2"

8 Long Base Stile (1) 3/4" x 13⁄4" x 291⁄2"

9 Short Base Stile (1) 3/4" x 13⁄4" x 28"

10 Base Rails (2) 3/4" x 13⁄4" x 101⁄2"

11 Mirror (1) 1/4" x 13" x 19"

12 Nylon Glides (4) 5/8" Dia.

*These dimensions represent the size of the leg blank.

Tray Support Mortise Detail

11

10

2

3

3

4

5

6

6

7

8

9

11

12


LAYING OUT AND FORMING THE LEGS

Use the scaled drawing to help create a fair and true template of the tray leg. The next step (in preparation for template routing) is to transfer the shape to the hardwood leg blank.

146 HOME PROJECTS

411/4" Dia.

Each square equals one inch.

1

10

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

3/4"

1/4"11/4"

Slight chamfer

1/4"1/4"

3/4"

3/4"

1

10

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

53/4"

3/4"

3/4"

3/4"

10

10

2

3

4

5

6

7

8 9

4"43/4"

Base Subassembly(Top View)

Tray Stile(Top View)

Support Rail and Tray Stile(Side View)

Tray HandleLocation(Front View)

1

10

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1/2"

Technical Drawings


SERVING TRAY 147

Take the leg blank to your band saw and cut within 1/16" of the line youmarked onto the blank. Don’t cut into the line; you need to leave somematerial for the router bit to remove. This will ensure uniform legs.

Use double-sided tape and one screwat the tenon mortise location to attachthe template to a roughed-out leg. A flush-trimming bit shapes the legs.Note: Don’t attempt to rout across theend grain on the legs. Use a disksander to do the final shaping here to prevent router mishaps.

7

14"

11/4"

5/8"

3/4"

CL1"

Stretcher(Side View)

the rim. Again, you don’t want to short-changethis piece on strength—you might be carryingsome pretty precious cargo on it! Form the mitersat the corners of the rim and handles and gluethem up. Once the glue dries, you can screw theassembly in place on top of the frame—just besure to keep the rim flush with the back and thehandles 1/2" shy of each end.

Before moving on to assembling the base,

we recommend creating a cardboard template for ordering your mirrored top. We used full 1/4"mirror glass for ours—it’s not cheap, and it does-n’t sand or plane well, either! Take the template toyour glass shop and let them create the top direct-ly from it, rather than from a set of measurements.It’s the best way to eliminate any possibility ofdimensional errors.

QuickTipToolbox Toothbrushes Tackle Tiny TasksKeep a couple of hard-bristled toothbrushes handy in your shop and you’llfind hundreds of uses for them. They’re perfect for cleaning out carvings andintricate patterns when refinishing, or getting rid of dust and oil build-up onrouter bit bearings. They can be used to clean delicate parts where a wirebrush would be too intrusive or coarse. And nothing works like a toothbrushand an air gun to clear dust from an inside corner before finishing.


148 HOME PROJECTS

Since there are only four mortises to chop, lay them out and cut them by hand. The supportrail’s top edge must align perfectly with the rabbet on the tray stiles and rails.

QuickTip

Shaving-free Lathe Tool CaddyTo work efficiently at the lathe, ithelps if your woodturning toolsare sharp, near and clean. Here’sa simple caddy you can buildfrom scrap wood and wire meshto hold them. It hugs the lathebed securely with a dozen ringmagnets embedded in its under-side. Just slide this caddy closeto your work, and the toolsremain clean as the chips fallthrough the wire mesh bottom.

Creating the X FactorThe legs (pieces 6) are created

using a template. No method ensuresuniformity better, and as was mentionedearlier, perfectly even and matching legs are a real key to the success ofthis tray project.

Spend some extra time refiningyour template, lightly sanding it until it is true and smooth all around. Then, asyou can see in the sequence of photoson the previous two pages, it’s a simplematter of transferring the shape to yourstock, cutting the stock slightly over-sized on the band saw and then apply-ing your template. We installed onesmall screw at the middle (which wouldlater be hidden by the stretcher tenon)and turned to double-sided tape for theends. One word of caution: Once youstart the final pass with your flush-cutting


SERVING TRAY 149

The turned tenons on both ends of the stretcher need to be long enough to engage bothlegs, on each side of the table, as you assemble the project. Use a skew chisel at the lathe toperfect their length and diameter.

bit, you may want to stay away fromthe ends. End grain will often fracture ifyou try to cut across it in this manner.It’s not an inevitable occurrence, ofcourse, but mahogany isn’t priced likepine; you may want to take a conserva-tive approach and protect your lumberinvestment from the scrap bin. A wayaround the end grain problem is toleave a little stock at each end and usea disk sander (while the template is stillattached) to bring the stock flush to thetemplate at each end. Sand your legsand lay them aside for now; you’ll wantall your base pieces ready to go beforeyou assemble any of them.

Turning the StretcherWe toyed around with using square

stock for the stretcher (piece 7), but thisidea never actually made it off the draw-ing board. Clearly, this tray calls for around base stretcher—and anyway, thiswas a great chance to get an hour ortwo in on the lathe. Once you give spin-dle turning a try, the lathe will quicklybecome one of your favorite tools!

Start by locating the centers on the ends of your turning blank. Thenmachine your square stock into anoctagonal profile by cutting off the corners on your table saw. Mount thisblank between centers and use agouge to rough out a cylindrical shape.Switch to a skew to bring the blankdown to about 1" in diameter. Now findthe center (from end to end) and fromthere lay out your tenon shoulders.Reduce them down to 5/8" in diameter.(Note: It’s critical that the stretcher’slength from shoulder to shouldermatches the length of the shorter stile(piece 9) above it, otherwise you’ll endup with a pigeon-toed table.) Thestretcher tenons will end up being 11⁄4"long, but when you’re turning, you’llwant to allow a little extra for paring off.

Gradually create an arc that starts withthe 1" diameter in the center of thepiece and gracefully reduces to 3/4" ateach shoulder. Sand the stretcher allthe way through to 320 grit (but not thetenons!) while it’s still on the lathe, andthen trim the tenons to length.

Creating the Tray SupportThe next step is to mill the stock

for the tray support (pieces 8, 9 and10). You’ll notice that the stiles are dif-ferent lengths, due to the offset createdby the relative position of the legs. Cutthese pieces to size, use the ElevationDrawings to locate your dowel holes,and glue this subassembly together,making sure to keep things square asyou carry this process out.

Bringing it TogetherThe first assembly step is to bring

the sets of legs together. You’ll bedrilling right through two inner legs, buton the other two you’ll limit your depthto 1/2". Remember, these legs mirror

each other, so be sure to lay everythingout before you start drilling. Next, locateand drill the dowel holes (we used adoweling jig and dowel-centers to makethis task a bit easier) at the tops of thelegs and pilot holes for the glides attheir bottoms. With the machiningdone, you can dry-assemble the legs,the stretcher and the base subassem-bly. Check to ensure that all is squareand proceed to your final glue-up.

Finishing UpTest-fit the mirror (piece 11) and

tap the glides (piece 12) in place. Aftersanding everything down to 320 grit,we applied a custom stain concoctedby mixing (half and half) Zar’s®

Rosewood Stain with Carbon BlackWoodburst®.

Next, apply a coat of sanding seal-er and two coats of lacquer, with a light320-grit sanding between each coat.The final step is to drop (carefully!) themirror into place.


Serving Tray€¦ · The “X” shaped leg joinery’s history is traceable to the ancient...

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