Bamboo Serving Tray

Challenge

The challenge here was a little more specific: build a tray with all pieces cut from a CNC router and only using wood glue for assembly - no other tools. The tray also had to include coasters (no specific number given).

The challenge I gave myself was making my tray with a single piece of wood to try to eliminate the need for any assembly and reduce waste wood for sustainability.

Process

This presented many obstacles to work through and learning the capabilities of the CNC router. When I discovered pocket cuts, it was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me.

I love to entertain and prepare snacks, so I wanted a tray that could fit the various occasions I would entertain guests (or even just entertain myself). Something modular with different sized coasters that could fit a variety of serving dishes: mugs, teapots, small bowls for dipping with a large bowl for chips, etc.

It took many iterations of prototyping out of card stock and peer critiques to reach a final design which I then plotted and translated into a die for the CNC router.

Design

The final design is made entirely of the same repeating diamond. The main body is a large pocket cut diamond filled with smaller diamonds, alternating in height. The end pieces are cut all the way through to create handles for easy serving while the interior is designed to allow for various configurations with the included coasters.

Each coaster is a single piece of wood, pocket cut to fit serveware including mugs, bowls, teapots, etc. The pocket cuts also create a lip on the coasters, giving the objects stability and ease of placing and replacing the coasters on the tray.

The setup gives the user freedom to configure the tray as needed.

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The tray is cut from a single piece of sustainable bamboo wood on a CNC router. The tray is then sanded to remove any hard edges and the finished product is then coated with a protective clear coat.