My Drinks Tray with leather handles.
I had seen a similar drinks tray with leather handles, this was a challenge for me to make one similar , however, I couldn't find the leather handles shown on the original tray, the tray was was priced over $3,600, maybe this was a print error
This one is made of mahogany, it's also available in oak.
The tray I made was made from Tasmanian Oak, for the handle , I went to a local Op shop and bought some leather belts.
My tray cost approx $40.0 for timber, paint and belts.
A lot of labor and design went into making my style of tray.
First of all I had to make a box cutting jig for may table say, I need the depth of the saw blade, for the joints, I then made a router planing jig to hold the base of the timber, Tas oak panel 18mm thick reduced to 9mm thick leaving the side to original height to allow for more gluing area for the side of the tray.
Box Joint jig.
Base of tray after being router planed.
Glue up and clamping. I used weather resistant glue, Titebond 3.
Slots were routered to fit the leather handles
Holes were drill on the under side of the slots to hide the leather handles securing, I punch ed a hole on each side at the end of the leather and inserted an electrical tie to prevent the handles from pulling through.
Electrical tie shown here.
After lots and lots of sanding, it's finished.
Finally done. Well worth the effort for me.
