Router Made Snack Tray

To any others that make these…. buy your cups before you make your pattern. Every retailer’s are different size (diameter and height) and you’ll need to make adjustments. Also my want to consider the finger holes like I added to make it easier to remove the cups.

-- Seems that talent only gets you so far... effort makes you successful.

What a great tray. Material loss and sanding aside, great project, great gift

-- Norman

At the same time I see the waste of beautiful material, I also fail to “care”, because of the overall quality of the piece. great job!

-- Respect your shop tools and they will respect you - Ric

great work!

-- Ike, Big Daddies Woodshop, http://www.icombadaniels@yahoo.com

Nice looking tray. Thanks for the tip on the cups.

-- Mike The Termite ~~~~~ Working safely may get old, but so do those who practice it.

Very neatly routed tray.

-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.

Very nice, I see what you mean on the waste and sanding.

-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"

Very cool!! I know you enjoyed it because I made three of these for Christmas gifts last year and had a tremendous time as well as a ton of fun doing it. The only thing different is that I used hard maple instead of oak for my lighter colored wood. You can read my full article on the project (if interested) on my website at: http://www.oldaveswoodshop.com/Snack%20Tray%20Project.php By the way, the finger holes was an excellent idea! After my girls got their trays, one of them made a comment that it would be easier to get the cups out for refilling if there was a “finger hole”.

-- Dave Haynes, Indiana, http://www.oldaveswoodshop.com

Beautiful job! Several friends have made these, but they all seem to have had trouble getting the router marks out of the inside bottom. Did you use a special bit – or did you just spend a lot more time sanding?

-- Dave O.

Great stuff.

A couple of thoughts/questions I have:
-I like the finger holes you added and assume you could also drill a hole underneath the cup compartment to ease removal of the cups.
-What about gluing up pieces around the edges and where the cups sit to reduce the amount of material “wasted”?

Regardless, I will have to give this a try.

-- Jason - Colorado Springs

Thanks all for the many positive comments.

To DaveOwen – I sanded… a lot to get the internal marks out. I used a bowl sanding pad with the star/wavy sand paper on the drill press to do most of the inside and a sander on the outside. If you’re careful about the routing not to have any tips it’s actually not too bad.

Jason – all good thoughts. I didn’t want a hole all the way through the last layer…so the finger holes. Eventually I’ll figure out how to do this with smaller pieces. Though to an extent I don’t like the way the joints look on the sides…

-- Seems that talent only gets you so far... effort makes you successful.

Thanks for your reply regarding the sanding, Topspin. With a lamination like you used, here’s another thought about the wasted wood. You could rough cut the center out of the top two layers before laminating and use those pieces on a smaller project. That would also significantly reduce the amount of routing.

-- Dave O.

great looking tray, seen a few of these pop up on this site, but this is in the top of them all… love the contrast…

-- New Project = New Tool... it's just the way it is, don't fight it... :)

niice tray
and I´m with Dave Owen rough cut the top layers first

Dennis

-i don’t understand how it wastes more than other pieces. -i understand the consideration -i hate scooping walnut shavings after ripping it and i want to make all of the dust into filler
-yeah -it is perfectly beautiful -sanding those types of work and rotary carvings can be really grueling and use up materials

-- christine