Serving Tray from Pallets // How-To

Using a pallet and some spray paint, you can make a stylish serving tray.. and it's EASY.
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Get the digital plans for this project:
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HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
- Wood glue
- Table Saw
- Miter Saw
- Dewalt DW735 planer
- 1 1/4" forstner bit
- Spray lacquer
- Spray paint (teal)
- 3M painters tape
- Hold down clamp (for jig)
- Stainless steel ruler 12"
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FOLLOW:
I grabbed a boards from my pallet slat stockpile.
I removed the cut off nails in the places where a saw might hit them, but left others when they were not in the way.
I marked the length of the tray bottom on my darker boards.
I cut all of the bottom boards to length, being careful to avoid nails.
I used a simple hold down jig to get a clean edge on one side of each piece.
This clean edge can be used against the fence to get a parallel cut edge. This jig is a create alternative to a joiner in some cases.
I cleaned up the opposite edges of the bottom pieces.
My side pieces were pretty straight, so I trimmed off the rough edge.
Then I ripped the side pieces down to 2" strips.
The end panels were cut to length on the miter saw.
I cleaned up the faces on these as well.
I glued up the bottom pieces as a panel, clamping from the top and bottom.
I ran the side and end pieces through the planer to smooth the faces. You could also just sand them with an orbital sander.
After it had dried, I put the cut edge of my glued panel against my sled and squared off the other edges .
I sanded down the top surface of the panel, just enough to loosen dirt and remove splinters, but not enough to remove coloring or character.
I set my side pieces against the panel and marked where to cut so that they were an exact fit.
These were cut to length on the miter saw.
I sat the side pieces in place and measured the full width for the end panels.
I marked the center line and measured out the width and height on the end panels. Then I added two nails at the same height as the side panels.
Using the nails, I bent a flexible ruler into an arc and traced the shape onto each piece.
I cut out this curve on the bandsaw, but a jigsaw would work as well.
These pieces were both squared off on the miter saw.
They were not exactly the same, so I clamped them and sanded then to match.
I marked circles in the center and 1 1/4" on each side.
Using a 1 1/4" forstner bit, I drilled out all three holes, which slightly overlapped.
I cleaned out the opening with a chisel.
I used a flexible sanding block to smooth out the inside of the handle.
The outside of the panel, and inside of the handle, were lined with blue painters tape.
I trimmed the tape off to be flush with the inside face of the panels.
I made sure to get this trimmed as closely as possible.
I sprayed a coat of spray lacquer over all of the pieces to seal up the edges of the tape. This will stop paint seepage.
Then I sprayed several thin coats of spray paint over the pieces, doing a light sanding after the first coat to smooth the raised grain.
When the tape was removed, the edges were very clean and sharp.
I sat the pieces around the bottom panel, and nailed them together with a brad nailer. I nailed the pieces to each other and to the bottom panel.
The whole piece was finished off with a few coats of spray lacquer. Second channel: bit.ly/iltms-2