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This simple casserole carrier is used to take food to our dinner club and it is so handy that the other members wanted one also. My wife uses them as auction items for fund raising for her various civic activities. They cost about $10 to make and a couple of hours time.

I make mine on a CNC router, but that is really overkill - except for the precision of hole positioning and depth control and I can make them over and over again very quickly.

Basic dimensions are 15.5 inches by 9 inches by 3.375 inches. The pegs are 0.25 inches diameter and the hole spacing is 0.75 inches. The wood is poplar, as are the pegs - easily available at Lowes or Home Depot.

I did rabbet the two handle pieces and used two 0.25" pegs to strengthen the rabbet. The only manual operations were hand routing the edges with a 0.125 roundover bit, sanding, and drilling the pegs in the bottom piece for the rabbet joint.

There is no finish on the carrier, mainly because hot dishes are put on it.

My pegs are long, but for carrying a pie I would use much shorter pegs to avoid breaking the crust.

As before, .crv and .tap files are available for private use.

The pictures were taken at noon on the equinox. You might be able to calculate my latitude.

Dave Hair

Gallery

Comments

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17 Posts
Extremely cleaver! Congratulations on a great useful project!!!

I think this will be my next side project!
 

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4,967 Posts
This is a great idea … thanks for sharing!
 

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8,785 Posts
Your making me hungry….where's the casserole?

:^)

clever and useful project….

add a hot slab of stone to the bottom and it can help keep the food warm during transport.
 

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37 Posts
Nothing is simple when you're building for your wife, in my experience! Good stuff.

I would suggest applying a penetrating oil to protect the wood from the inevitable spills that will happen. Mineral oil is perfect for serving pieces, IMHO.
 

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1,171 Posts
Dave,

I really like your creative idea! Well executed!

L/W
 

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58 Posts
Great idea. It can be done with only 4 pins too…
 

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2,242 Posts
Adjustable is good idea
 

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I agree that a butcher block oil would be OK. I didn't do it since wood doesn't char until well above 400° F. That's not to say it wouldn't slowly change color, but a cloth potholder under a casserole would work as well.

And 4 pins would work, but one would have to be very careful about placement. A bit of a twist, and out the casserole would slide, ruining the carpet in the car.
 
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