I have been considering making some crudite platters, and was in the design process when my wife told me she needed a platter for her chocolate chip cookies for an upcoming event.
I'd already built up a blank 36" x 10" x 1.5" from some ash and cherry, so a quick visit back to the drafting program produced a round and a rectangular design.
While this was done on my CNC router, there is no reason you couldn't use a template and a guide bushing in a hand-held router ... just ensure you have a router base wider than your desired cutout.
The cutouts are 1" deep, and for the final finish I used a Jesada sign-cutting bit (1/2" diameter with a 1/8" edge radius). Jesada is sadly no longer in business, but there are similar bits available.
Here is the round version (9" overall diameter, with one coat of hard wax oil finish applied.
Here is the 9" x 18" rectangular tray, the corners are 1.5" radius.
This is the bottom view of the round tray. I used a 3/8" radius router bit to ease the edge.
Here is the rectangular tray, again I eased the bottom edge with a 3/8" radius router bit.
I used a 1/8" radius router bit on the top edges. All the radius cuts were done on my router table.
For those wondering, I cut the outline with a 1/4" compression bit to 1.25" depth. I then cut the trays from the blank on the band saw, ensuring the CNC didn't try to chomp on the newly freed parts (yes, that is a thing).
As I mentioned, I used my hard wax oil finish (1:1 beeswax and food grade mineral oil). The first coat was a bit tough as the finish in the can was pretty solid. I heated the finish with a hot air gun and applied a second, thicker coat this morning, and left the trays to soak in the rest of the finish and allow the wax to fully harden.
Oh, the deadline was this coming Saturday morning. My wife said that I probably wouldn't get these done in time ... Mission Accepted.
Since I already had the blank glued and flattened, the entire project took 4-1/2 hours to complete. This includes redoing the cut file to work around a puzzling issue with the cut-path software, and recutting the roughing pass twice.
For the roughing pass, I was using another Jesada bit, this one was 3/4" diameter, and it had issues plunging into the work ... as a result my depth was not accurate (the CNC router tried its best but the initial plunge caused the Z-axis stepper motor to stall (there is no active feedback on these steppers). I ended up editing the file on the fly to just cut the bottom pass on the round tray, and in the end, all worked out well.
When I continue on this journey, I'll probably get some bowl cutting bits (no larger than 1/2" diameter) and just accept that it will take a bit longer. I'll still do a roughing and finish path, but will make the roughing pass 1/8" less than final dimension to ensure a much cleaner cut.
Ash is fun to work with, but it splinters given the chance. I'll be looking in my wood stash to find another contrast layer (maybe hard maple) ... as I'm trying to give these trays a mid-century modern appearance.
As always, be safe out there!
Rick
I'd already built up a blank 36" x 10" x 1.5" from some ash and cherry, so a quick visit back to the drafting program produced a round and a rectangular design.
While this was done on my CNC router, there is no reason you couldn't use a template and a guide bushing in a hand-held router ... just ensure you have a router base wider than your desired cutout.
The cutouts are 1" deep, and for the final finish I used a Jesada sign-cutting bit (1/2" diameter with a 1/8" edge radius). Jesada is sadly no longer in business, but there are similar bits available.
Here is the round version (9" overall diameter, with one coat of hard wax oil finish applied.
Here is the 9" x 18" rectangular tray, the corners are 1.5" radius.
This is the bottom view of the round tray. I used a 3/8" radius router bit to ease the edge.
Here is the rectangular tray, again I eased the bottom edge with a 3/8" radius router bit.
I used a 1/8" radius router bit on the top edges. All the radius cuts were done on my router table.
For those wondering, I cut the outline with a 1/4" compression bit to 1.25" depth. I then cut the trays from the blank on the band saw, ensuring the CNC didn't try to chomp on the newly freed parts (yes, that is a thing).
As I mentioned, I used my hard wax oil finish (1:1 beeswax and food grade mineral oil). The first coat was a bit tough as the finish in the can was pretty solid. I heated the finish with a hot air gun and applied a second, thicker coat this morning, and left the trays to soak in the rest of the finish and allow the wax to fully harden.
Oh, the deadline was this coming Saturday morning. My wife said that I probably wouldn't get these done in time ... Mission Accepted.
Since I already had the blank glued and flattened, the entire project took 4-1/2 hours to complete. This includes redoing the cut file to work around a puzzling issue with the cut-path software, and recutting the roughing pass twice.
For the roughing pass, I was using another Jesada bit, this one was 3/4" diameter, and it had issues plunging into the work ... as a result my depth was not accurate (the CNC router tried its best but the initial plunge caused the Z-axis stepper motor to stall (there is no active feedback on these steppers). I ended up editing the file on the fly to just cut the bottom pass on the round tray, and in the end, all worked out well.
When I continue on this journey, I'll probably get some bowl cutting bits (no larger than 1/2" diameter) and just accept that it will take a bit longer. I'll still do a roughing and finish path, but will make the roughing pass 1/8" less than final dimension to ensure a much cleaner cut.
Ash is fun to work with, but it splinters given the chance. I'll be looking in my wood stash to find another contrast layer (maybe hard maple) ... as I'm trying to give these trays a mid-century modern appearance.
As always, be safe out there!
Rick
