This is a table I just built for my mother-in-law. Last year she gave me a table that she wanted me to refinish. In that time we had a big storm that blew through and part of the roof was blown off, and rain water poured on the table. Ruined it bad. By the time I repaired the roof the table was twisted and bowed. So I cut the table, planned it down, and made it in this table. I did have some before pictures of the table but I lost them when the hard drive on my other computer died. Let me know what you think.
This is also the first project I have ever done without any plans. I never drew up anything; it was all in my head.

Here is a tray designed and mostly made by my wife. The only roll I played in this tray was cutting and joining.

She calls this tray let the good times roll, and I think it does. This tray is a tribute to a lot of famous pop artist and music posters. She spent two days going through stacks of her old magazines and cutting out pictures to make into this collage. She then painted the boarder all red, then changed her mind and painted it black. When she was sanding the black she accidentally went through the paint on the corners showing the red and immediately got really excited about how well it came out. She then finished it with wipe on poly.

Enjoy.

This tray we call the China Tray. This tray is made out of red oak and ebonized white oak. Out of all the trays we made, this one was the easiest to do. It’s finished with three coats to amber shellac thined down to two pound cut. Though, this was the first tray I drew up, It was the last one I built. Maybe that why it was so easy.

enjoy.

Here is the second tray to be completed. The tray measures 19 1/2 X 12 1/2. Yeah, it’s pretty big for a sushi tray, but everyone in my family really loves sushi.
The tray is made out of scrap birch plywood and red oak for the trim and feet grooved in the bottom. A while ago I watched a video on how to ebonize wood using vinegar and steel wool. It said it works on woods with tannins like oak, and mahogany. Not knowing all the woods that contain these pigments we decided to experiment with other woods. Michele came up with the idea to wood burn the dragon in the center and put a decorative piece in it. We found this medallion with Japanese symbols on it, and a square hole in the center. So Michele went through her bead collection and found a square glass bead that fit perfect, I just had to drill the hole a little deeper in the center to get it to sit flush. She also found a smaller glass bead that I put in the eye of the dragon (It doesn’t show up well in the picture).
I finished it using premixed amber shellac I bought at Home Depot. This was also the first time I have used shellac and found it a little hard to work with than tung oil. It didn’t come out as smooth as I would like, but it made me look other ways to apply, and cut shellac, so the next time I use shellac I will be armed more knowledge. I do like the way the amber shellac made the dark wood darker, and the burnt image of the dragon is subtle.
I hope you enjoy this one; it was really fun to make, and a lot of first experiences for me.

This is the first of seven trays I am making for gifts at my camping trip chili cook-off. This is a simple tray made of scrape pine, and finished in three coats of tung oil, and sanded to 600 grit.

I’m glad that I choose to do a simple tray first, because it helped me work out organizing issues that I did not know I had, and the mistake I made will cut down on the risk that I will make the same mistake on a more complicated tray. I also came out of my shell and started to ask for advice from my fellow LJ’s, and I got lots of advise on how to get my boards flat without a planner.

Thanks all, and critique me honestly on it, I will never get better without knowing my faults.