Tray made of natural wood. Aging of wooden surfaces

What features should every tray have? Naturally, this is convenience and practicality. In other words, so that the food carried does not roll off it. The product provided in this article fully meets these requirements. The right color and material make the tray very beautiful and comfortable, so it fits into most modern styles.

To create a wooden tray, you don’t need to rack your brains over tools and materials; you can easily purchase everything you need at your nearest hardware store. Decide on the color of varnish and paint that will ideally match with. But you should understand that you need to avoid buying varnish with a very strong smell - this can harm your health.

Below are standard sizes tray, but you can choose the ones that suit you.

Wooden tray - tools and materials

There is a lot of work ahead, but don’t be afraid of it. By following our recommendations, you will definitely succeed! But first you need to prepare the following:

jigsaw;
electric drill;
drill with a diameter of 2.5 cm;
hacksaw with fine tooth pitch;
hammer (where would we be without it?);
roulette;
massive scissors;
a simple pencil;
paint brush;
a pair of rubber gloves and newspaper.

For a high-quality and reliable product, it is best to take hardwood. Red oak is ideal. Approximate thickness - 2.5 centimeters. In this case you will need:

a pair of boards 9x32 cm;
a pair of boards 6.5x56 cm;
one board 32x61 cm.

Choose a varnish depending on the drying location. If the products will be dried on outdoors– you can take an oil-based varnish. Otherwise, opt for water-soluble varnish.

Manufacturing instructions

Initially, you need to make marks for future pens. There is nothing complicated here, just rely on the drawing.

Determine the middle on the board (9x32 cm), then step back to the left and right by 5 centimeters. You need to drill holes there. In our case, drills with a diameter of 2.5 cm play a very important role, since this will all affect the dimensions in the end. You need to drill only at right angles, avoiding uneven holes.

After you have drilled the holes, you need to align them with a simple pencil. Then go along these lines with a jigsaw, thus forming handles. Be sure to process them sandpaper, since they should be smooth.

Now that all the parts are ready, you can start connecting them. To do this, use 2 cm nails, glue and a hammer. After assembly, you also need to sand everything down, getting rid of any unevenness and roughness.

Only after this do we start painting - this is the simplest thing left for you to do. Prepare the surface, coat it with varnish and let dry. That's it, you have become the owner of a wooden tray with your own hands!

Many of us like to have a snack while sitting in front of the TV while watching some interesting movie, but without a tray you can’t bring a lot of goodies at once, and crumbs on the furniture and floor can cost you quite a bit from your better half)) It’s also convenient to bring breakfast to bed on a tray, waking up your loved one with the pleasant aroma of freshly brewed coffee. In general, the device is useful in home use.

Making a tray from wood is quite simple, for which you need to take boards from a pallet or wooden box, plan and sand them. Using wood glue and clamps, glue it into one whole board, and then make sides from poplar or aspen boards. The resulting surface is coated with polyurethane-based varnish, and the sides are painted with white paint.

So, let's look at what exactly is needed to make a tray?

Materials

1. boards from a pallet or wooden box
2. wood glue
3. screws
4. wood putty
5. polyurethane based varnish
6. white spray paint

Tools

1. hacksaw
2. plane
3. grinder
4. screwdriver
5. brush
6. clamp
7. sandpaper
8. ruler
9. pencil
10 masking tape

Step-by-step instructions for making a tray from natural wood with your own hands.

As already mentioned above, the first step is to prepare the planks by disassembling the pallet or wooden box. Saw to the same size, process with a plane and sand.

Then the resulting blanks should be glued together into a single whole; this can be done using wood glue and clamps. The edges of each board are coated with glue and placed next to each other, when everything is assembled and coated, everything is tightened with clamps.

The boards should remain in this position until the glue dries completely, which is at least 24 hours, after which the clamps are slowly loosened and removed, and excess glue is removed from the surface using a chisel.

Then the surface is thoroughly sanded using grinder or regular sandpaper.

We remove all excess with a chisel and level it.

Then we carefully sand it with sandpaper so that there are no burrs left.

This box is twisted with clamps and remains in this position until the glue dries.

If you used self-tapping screws to assemble the structure, then the caps should be recessed in advance into the cavity of the wood by countersinking the holes, and then the screw heads should be filled with wood putty. This putty can be prepared independently, for which you will need wood glue and sawdust after sanding (fine ones) mixed with glue and brought to a homogeneous mass, you should get a thick semolina porridge)) and then simply apply the prepared composition to the desired place and level it. No worse than the store-bought equivalent)

Excess glue is removed with a chisel and the surface is sanded with a grinding machine.

After which the tray must be painted and varnished, the master seals the lower part with masking tape so that when applying paint from a spray can, paint does not get on it.

Painting work is best done in a well-ventilated area; if there is none, just go outside and paint. Don’t forget about basic protective equipment (respirator, gloves)

Have you invited guests and want to impress them? Then you cannot do without a beautiful table setting, that is, an elegant tablecloth, beautiful dishes and suitable cutlery. A serving tray isn't essential for a dinner party, but if you plan to serve snacks and drinks during the feast, it can be extremely useful. In this article we will tell you how to make a serving tray with your own hands.

Materials:

new cutting board (preferably rectangular without a handle)
long handles for drawers, 2 pcs.

Tools:

drill with drill bits
tape measure or ruler
pencil

How to make a serving tray with your own hands

Place the drawer handles on the surface of the cutting board, aligning them with the edges and the center axis. Use a pencil to make markings that will help determine where the handles will be located.

Remove the handles, determine at what distance the threaded holes are located to secure them from the surfaces, the position of which is indicated by the marking lines.

Using these measurements, mark the points where you need to drill holes for the screws.

Memo: remember that it is better to measure seven times and cut only once

Drill holes at the appropriate points. The diameter of the holes should match or slightly exceed the diameter of the screws used.

Memo: To prevent the front surface of the cutting board from being damaged when drilling holes, you need to place a wooden plank or block under the board.

Use screws to secure the handles in place. If the cutting board does not have rubber feet, the screws will need to be recessed to prevent them from damaging the table surface. But it’s better to install such legs; using them to serve on the table will be more convenient.

That's all! A simple and stylish tray is ready. You can safely receive guests.

What to give for the holiday to the woman who has everything? Of course, the holiday atmosphere. And you need to start from the very beginning. We only give what we made especially for her. What woman wouldn’t want to start her holiday with a fragrant cup of coffee in bed? And only the closest people know the lady’s preferences - vintage luxury or expensive simplicity. A tray is a simple detail that can emphasize your attitude towards the woman you love.

What is a tray?

Of course, you can easily buy any tray in the store - expensive or not, for everyday use or special occasions. But making a tray with your own hands will be much more interesting. First, let's figure out what it is.

This is a surface on which you can place several objects and move them to another place. Trays must have sides. There are also products without them, but this does not add practicality to them. It is not advisable to serve a tray without sides in bed, since the unstable surface of the bed can cause liquid to spill on the linen, and this, you see, will upset any housewife. So, a tray is not just a board with handles, but always with sides.

Photo frame tray

How to make a tray with your own hands? There are several ways. The simplest ones involve taking almost ready-made trays. For example, you can purchase cutting board without a handle. The board can be wooden, plastic, plywood. The main thing is that it does not bend under a slight weight and that it can be worked with.

Select a photo frame based on the size of the board. You shouldn’t skimp on glass, as you can hide any decor under it, for example, a photograph that for a long time will remind you of a pleasant day.

The frame should be screwed to the board with screws or nailed. If the material does not lend itself to this method of fastening, you can glue it. To make it easier to take the tray, we attach furniture retractable handles on both sides. Everything can be pre-painted in the desired color or decorated in any way.

Old cabinet doors

Many craftsmen suggest not throwing away cabinet doors, but using them to create a tray with your own hands. To do this, take a door that has sides. We disconnect all the hanging fittings from it. We clean out existing irregularities and eliminate defects. If necessary, we rub the places where the hinges were screwed on with putty.

Don’t leave flaws in the hope that they will be covered up when decorating. It is better to eliminate them and not then sculpt decor where the hole or chip is. It is better to place decorative elements where the sense of beauty suggests. We decorate to taste. Next we screw on the handles. The tray is ready.

Old picture frame

If you have an old frame in your house that used to hold a mirror or store photographs, you can use it as a beautiful rim for a tray. Cut the bottom out of plywood to the size of the frame, decorate the resulting surface with a piece of fabric. The bottom can also be painted or decoupaged using patterned paper napkins.

If there is glass along with the frame, you can use it as an additional decoration. It is possible that a painting stored in a frame can be used to decorate a tray. You can screw the handles to the frame from the side so as not to disturb the design.

The frame itself can be updated with gold paint. A good solution would be to use varnish or use a burner to highlight the beauty of the design.

Boards in action

If you want to make a tray with your own hands and get something original, you need to take a board and a lath. It's good to polish both. Cut the board with a saw or jigsaw into equal pieces. At the edges, connect them with a strip, nailing it to the end parts of the boards. You can stain or varnish, paint in any color or decorate to the taste of the future owner of the tray.

To make a wooden tray with your own hands, you don’t need any special skills. Next, we screw ready-made furniture handles or make them from thick ropes, having previously drilled holes in in the right places. If you make the rope handles longer, the tray can be used as a hanging shelf, and you can adjust the length of the handles from below using special clamps.

Beauty from plywood

You can make your own tray from plywood. It has long been known that plywood is a very malleable material. If you have skill, imagination and a minimal set of woodworking tools, you can make an amazingly beautiful tray with a unique design.

Of course, it won’t be easy to call it practical, but any housewife will definitely like it as a decoration for the kitchen. The main thing is patience and desire. You can think through the design yourself, or you can just look it up on the Internet and make something already invented by a real master.

Trays with legs

Some tray models require legs. Making a tray with legs with your own hands is not difficult. Currently, you can purchase ready-made legs, which you just need to attach to a homemade tray.

If you want to think through everything yourself, then in stores building materials you can find a large number of tubes that are suitable for a DIY table. In addition to the tubes themselves, there are all kinds of connectors that can act as decoration. If you have the skill, attaching them to the tray will be easy. If you don’t have the skill, you can simply watch a video in which masters share their best practices.

Decorating trays

Making the tray is half the battle. It needs to be decorated. Several ways to decorate trays:

The simplest one is to varnish it. If the tray is made of wood, its texture itself will become the most pleasant decoration. You can purchase a tint varnish that will add liveliness to the design.

If you are not interested in wood for decoration, you can decoupage it on a tray. Always original, fashionable and attractive. Plus it's quite easy to do. Choose the pictures you like, stick them to your liking, cover them with varnish - your unique tray is ready.

You can paint the tray using stencils.

Mosaic will also be a worthy solution. Only to implement this idea requires skills. If a lot of small coins have accumulated in the house, they can also be used to decorate the tray.

The main thing is to remember for whom the tray is being prepared and what the tastes of the person to whom it will be presented are.

This is an elegant and functional item you can make in a couple of weekends. Wood with beautiful design, such as wavy maple, will add extra interest to the tray.

First make the handles

1. From a 25mm cherry board, cut four blanks of the specified length for the halves of the arms A (Fig. 1 And photo A)(read the “Tip of the Craftsman” below to correctly orient the workpieces relative to the direction of the grain of the wood). If you keep the original parallelogram shape of the workpieces, the next step will be easier.

Mark the handle blank as shown so that the grain of the wood is oriented diagonally. We oriented the squares at a 30° angle, but the angle may be different depending on the width of the board and the direction of the grain in it.

The temples will be strong if the fibers meet at the top. Distribute the blanks for the halves of the arms A in pairs and choose the most attractive combinations. Orient the fibers in each pair so that at the junction they form a triangle, the apex of which is directed upward, as on the left arch. Mark each pair by placing appropriate marks at the joint to ensure alignment when final gluing. The right bow is glued together from halves, the fibers of which meet at the bottom. Such a bow will be fragile, since the fibers are directed across the cross-section in several places, and it may break during assembly or when using the tray.

It is difficult to saw end grain, so grooves with a depth of 51 mm are best made in several passes. Press the workpiece firmly with the pusher against the longitudinal stop of the machine.

2. Install in sawing machine groove disk 10 mm thick and make halves at one of the ends of each workpiece A groove (Fig. 1 And photo B). To reliably support the workpieces, attach a high wooden pad to the longitudinal (parallel) stop of the machine. Having cut out the grooves, saw the workpieces to a square shape with a side of 114 mm.

3. From wood of a contrasting color (we chose wavy maple), cut a 114x305 mm blank for the dowels IN, two blanks 51×483 mm for longitudinal walls WITH and two blanks 51×330 mm for the end walls D. Plan these blanks to planer, adjusting their thickness to the width of the grooves cut into the blanks of the arch halves (Fig. 1 And 2). Set the wall blanks aside and cut out the dowels of the specified sizes. Glue two blank handles, connecting each pair of halves A using a key inserted into the grooves.

Laying the workpiece flat, lift saw blade so that it passes only through the inner wall of the tongue, without touching the other wall.

4. Once the glue has dried, carefully align the bottom edge of each piece A/B and in four passes cut out a tongue and groove with a cross-section of 10×51 mm (Fig. 1a). Saw off part of the tongue wall from the inside to a width of 12 mm (photo C).

5. Using a compass, mark on the workpieces A/B outer and inner radii (Fig. 1). Also mark the centers of the screw holes on the outside of each piece. Make counterbores with a mounting hole in the outer wall of the tongues. Band saw or using a jigsaw, carefully cut out the handles along the contour, sand them to the final shape, and then mill 6-mm curves on the ribs. Finish sand the handles with 220-grit sandpaper.

Making a tray

1. Take the blanks of the longitudinal and end walls that were cut earlier and planed to the required thickness C, D. Arrange them as they will be glued together and mark each one for later processing and final assembly. Cut a tongue at the bottom edge of each workpiece from the inside, the width of which corresponds to the thickness F (Fig. 2).

2. Tilt the saw blade at an angle of 45° and file the bevels at the ends of the longitudinal WITH and end D walls, giving them their final length (Fig. 2).

When cutting out narrow grooves on the bevels, guide the wall blank with a transverse (angular) stop, and the longitudinal stop will serve as a limiter. This operation is safe, since the cut will not be through.

3. Without changing the position of the saw blade, make bevels of the longitudinal and end walls C, D 5 mm deep cuts for dowels (Fig. 2, photoD).

Quick tip! For these narrow keyways, it is better to use a combination saw blade with 50 teeth, which have a variable oblique sharpening, as well as teeth with a flat tip, forming a flat bottom of the cut that does not require additional processing.

4. From cherry wood, make a blank measuring 51x305 mm for the dowels E and sharpen it to a thickness of 3 mm, adjusting it to the width of the cuts in the walls C, D. Saw off the dowels to the required length so that they fit snugly into the corresponding cuts. (Fig. 2).

5. Saw out the bottom F and file down its corners so that you can insert the dowels E (Fig. 3). Assemble the tray dry C-F to check and adjust all connections. Finish sanding the inside walls. C, D and both sides of the bottom F sandpaper No. 220.

6. Assemble the tray C-F, applying glue to the keyways, bevels and tongues for inserting the bottom. Once thoroughly dry, sand the edges and exterior surfaces with 220-grit sandpaper.

Final assembly

1. Apply a thin layer of glue to the inner walls of the tongues of one of the handles A and put it on the end wall D, aligned exactly in the middle. Drill 1.6 x 20 mm pilot holes for the screws, gluing a masking tape flag to the drill to serve as a depth limiter. Then secure the bow with screws (Fig. 2). Wipe off excess glue with a damp cloth. Install the second handle in the same way.

2. Using a 6mm plug drill, make maple plugs and glue them into the counterbores to cover the screw heads. Once the glue has dried, trim the protruding parts of the plugs flush and sand smooth.

3. Apply finishing coat. We used a natural compound (called Danish oil) to enhance the iridescent pattern of the wavy maple, and then applied three coats of semi-matte polyurethane varnish to the water based which will provide reliable protection from moisture and dirt.