Having a table tray is convenient, but they can be expensive to buy. The good news is, you can create one yourself. Follow this short guide to know how to do that.
Choosing the Wood Type
1. You can choose from pine, cedar, fir, oak, ash, beech, mahogany, among many others. If the type of wood you want is unavailable in your area, you can just use wood stain and varnish to imitate its appearance.
2. Remember that different wood types have different characteristics that can add challenge to this project if you don’t have power tools. For example, sawing ash could be a tough task while sawing pine is definitely much easier.
3. Softwoods like pine, fir, and cedar are cheaper while hardwoods like oak, maple, and mahogany. However, hardwood looks more elegant and exotic while softwood looks too common because they are almost used to everything.
Creating the Pattern
1. The dimensions of the wood you need and use depends on how you will use the tray you will create.
2. Get a huge piece of cardboard. Place the items you would often place on the tray you want to create.
3. Put as much as you can. Make sure that you can carry the weight of the items you’re placing on it.
4. Arrange them ergonomically. The size of the tray’s base should have the ratio of 2:3.
5. Draw the lines for the edges of the tray. You have now a basic pattern of your tray.
6. Take some pieces of cardboard and use them as temporary compartment dividers on the tray.
7. Get a pen and trace the cardboard dividers.
8. Take the measurements of the pattern.
Acquiring Materials
1. Acquire the board you need for the project and the necessary plywood for the compartment dividers.
The board must be at least 3/4” to 1” thick to make sure it can support the items you would put on it and to allow you to create angled sides.
You can go for a thicker board, but expect the tray will become heavier. The compartment dividers can be as thin as 1/4”.
2. Get the sideboards of your tray. Since you already have the measurement of the base, getting the measurement of the sideboards will be easy.
The sideboard should be at least 3” tall. That height is enough to secure the contents of the tray and enough to support the handle of your tray.
The dividers can have the same height, but you can lower their height if you want.
3. Get handles for your tray.
The most practical handle you can use is a cabinet pull. Aside from being easy to attach, they come in multiple designs. Get two of them. They will often come with the screws needed to attach them.
4. The last things you need to procure are screws and wood glue. The pieces of equipment you need for this project are saw, bar clamps, carpenter’s planer, emery paper, and screwdriver.
If you have a biscuit joiner, attaching the boards will be a breeze. You can also use a table saw, power drill, and power planer to make this project much easier to do.
5. Optional: You can get paint, stain, or varnish to apply the finish for your tray. You can also use vinyl stickers for a much more consistent look.
Construction
6. Apply wood glue on the parts of the boards that will make contact.
7. Screw the boards together.
8. Glue the dividers on the tray.
9. Screw the cabinet pulls on the sideboards.
10. Plane the sides to let it have the angular look you want.
11. Apply finish.
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