How to Make DIY Wooden Tray

You want to make your own wooden tray to organize and show off your accessories or jewelry. Take a good look at this article. If you follow the instructions carefully, you’ll make a really nice wooden tray.

Before Your Begin

Before you start making the wooden tray, do some research online. Determine the style, size, and color you prefer for the wood tray, and also identify the tools required to complete the project.

Design Choice

Wooden trays come in various shapes such as square, rectangular, circular, and hexagonal. They can be equipped with black, silver, or gold metal handles, as well as cut-in handles or rope handles. Color options range from black, blue, green, white, and others.

Raw Wood Material Choice

When choosing the material for your wooden tray, consider options like ash wood, oak wood, pine wood, veneer, rubber wood, plywood, walnut wood, and others. Each material has its own strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to select the one that best suits your needs and preferences.

 Handle Options

According to the tray’s style, personal preferences, and crafting experience, choose the appropriate handles. If you’re a beginner, opt for simple and easy-to-use handles。

Handles have more options: such as metal handle, build-in handle and more others.

Surface Finishing Selection

The surface finish of the wooden tray should match your surroundings and highlight the displayed items to make them look sophisticated and attractive. Before selecting the right color, it’s essential to consider the functionality of the wooden tray.

Safe Concerns

If you’re using your wooden tray for food or coffee, make sure to choose materials and paints that are eco-friendly, non-toxic, won’t contaminate food, and won’t affect food safety. 

Try to avoid materials like MDF, wood veneer, or plywood, and opt for solid woods like cherry, walnut, maple, or oak, which are food-safe and non-toxic. When it comes to paint, pick ones that meet international standards for food safety, such as butcher block oil, tung oil, or linseed oil.

With many people facing cancer nowadays, it’s crucial to select materials and paints that are safe for food and meet international standards. When painting, consider craftsmanship to prevent peeling and ensure waterproofing for a healthier you.

Tools Required

Before creating the wooden tray, please ensure you have the following tools, or suitable alternatives

How to Make Your DIY Wooden Tray

Following these 10 steps, you can create a stylish and timeless wooden tray. You can adjust the materials, size, surface treatment, handle installation method, and style according to your needs.

Step 1: Cut Your Wood Desired Dimensions

The wooden tray measures 400mm in length, 300mm in width, and 30mm in height. You’ll need 7 wooden panels, each with a thickness of 5mm. Here’s the breakdown:

• 3 pieces bottom: Length 400mm, width 100mm
• 2 pieces width frame: Length 300mm, width 30mm
• 2 pieces length frame: Length 400mm, width 30mm

Step 2: Sand The Edges

To ensure each wooden panel fits tightly together without any gaps during bonding, sand each edge to make them smoother before gluing.

Step 3: Bond The Base

The bottom consists of three boards, measuring L400*W100mm. Drill a small hole in the middle of one side of each board and attach a small wooden connecting block to ensure the three boards are securely glued together and can withstand heavier weight without splitting.

After applying glue, wipe off any excess and firmly clamp the boards together until dry (approximately 3-4 days).Final size is  L400*W300mm

Step 4: Sand The Base

After bonding the base, begin sanding and polishing to remove any excess wood chips and glue, ensuring a smooth surface. Sand and polish both the top and bottom surfaces, as well as every edge, to achieve a pristine finish without any impurities before painting.

Step 5: Make Groove at the Four Side Frame

Have you ever faced this situation: when you load the tray with many items, suddenly the edges become loose? To enhance the tray’s weight-bearing capacity, we’ll create a long groove at the bottom of each inside of the four edges, similar to the picture above.

Step 6: Glue The Sides and Bottom Panel 

The four frame include: 2 pieces measuring 40030mm, and 2 pieces measuring 30030mm. Slide the bottom panel into the groove at the bottom of these edges, apply glue, and secure them in place with clamps. Allow them to dry for 3-4 days.

Step 7: Hammer Inside Nails

To make the tray stronger, hammer nails into the inside corners. These nails won’t be visible from the outside. The most common problem with trays is that they tend to crack, especially larger ones that need to hold many items.

Step 8: Sand the Entire Wood Tray

Once the wooden tray is completely dry, use splinters to sand the entire wood serving tray, making it smoother and free from wood chips and dirt. 

This way, when you spray paint it, the surface will be smooth, and clean, without any black spots or protrusions, giving it a beautiful and high-end appearance.

Step 9: Rout The Small Rounded Edges

If you want to make your wooden tray more refined, smoother, and safer for children, you can use a router fitted with a roundover bit to create small rounded corners at each corner.

Step 10: Wooden Lacquer

After completing the above 9 steps diligently, a full wooden tray is ready. The next step is to choose a clear varnish for spraying, allowing you to clearly see the complete wood grain and enhancing its appearance.

Step 11: Stick the Handle of  the Wooden Tray

Buy 2 black metal handles from your local store, then attach them with glue to complete the wooden tray perfectly.

Inclusion:

Making a DIY wooden tray is easy, but achieving a truly exquisite finish requires spray paint with vibrant color and a flawless, spotless surface. This level of perfection demands the expertise of professionals equipped with top-of-the-line machinery.

A wooden tray is an excellent solution for displaying and organizing your items, helping keep your desk neat and tidy. So, let’s DIY a wooden tray.

More Resources:

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