Cutlery Tray

At the request of my girlfriend, I have been 'busy' making a wooden cutlery tray out of Pine - my first 'commissioned' piece!

As with the small toolbox I used box joints for the sides and chopped mortises with a chisel for the dividers to fit into. This time I made sure I used an aesthetically pleasing number of fingers for each side of the corner joint.

Unfortunately, my clamps were not big enough for glue-up, so another online trip to Axminster tools was in order to buy three Sash Clamps. Also 'unfortunately', the three clamps and some glue I was buying didn't come to the £50 required for free postage.

Soooo ... I was 'forced' to purchase one of these.

I have a feeling that I will be using this little shoulder plane a lot, it will definitely be handy for my next intended project - a Coffee Table using Mortise & Tenon joints.

The major lesson learn't from this project is not to use too much glue. The squeeze out stuck the wooden blocks I was using to the project and I had to separate them with a chisel. The small 'scar' on the facing side in the photo will be my reminder. Luckily, the cutlery tray has been made to fit tightly into a sideboard draw and the mark wont really be seen.

I'm learning so much and gaining confidence with each small project, another few projects with increasing complexity and size and I will be ready to buy some decent wood such as Oak. It can be quite frustrating using Pine, especially Pine that has been 'rescued' from the dump!