Picnic Tray

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I got the idea for this project from Ryan Borger back in 2013, who sent me a picture of a serving tray he made. I stuck it in my idea file and, well, it took me three years, but I finally got to make it!

The most important feature of this tray is the simple weight to hold down napkins and keep them from blowing away, a problem at just about any outdoor event. It also features a removable box with dividers for utensils.

This entire tray is made out of solid oak. I began by gluing together three boards to form the tray bottom. Plywood would be easier, but it might be harder to match its color with the solid wood tray sides.

I beveled the edges of the two short tray sides to 20°.

Then made 20° angles on the ends of the long front and back pieces.

Using my cutting template, I cut a curve on the front and back.

To make the handles on the sides, I drilled two holes then connected them using my jigsaw. I rounded over the edges with a roundover bit in my router.

The router can’t reach the areas in the corners, so I rounded them over with a rasp.

I cut 20° bevels in the bottom panel and dropped it into place, gluing the two short sides only.

The I drilled holes and pounded in dowel pins to reinforce the corner joints.

These holes are for the dowels that the napkin weight will slide down on. I only drilled these halfway through the wood.

The hold-down weight is just a rounded board with two holes.

Gluing on the tray dividers:

Nothing fancy about the utensil box. Just glued together butt joints.

Finally I glued in the thicker napkin dowels and sprayed several coats of lacquer over everything.

Free Plans:

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