Serving Tray

Jim DeLaney

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I've been working on this serving tray on and off for several weeks, and just got it finished yesterday.

The bottom is about 10" by 16", composed of 110 equilateral 60° parallelograms, each about 1¼ inches oer side. The three woods used are walnut, cherry, and poplar.

The sides and ends of the tray are half inch thick cherry, and are beveled and mitered at 15°.

Finish is two coats of Sealcoat®, followed by three coats of Arm-R-Seal®.

The glue-up was a real challenge, and I could only do one row at a time, so it took quite a while to do, but I really like the result.
 

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Wow, Jim that tray is just stunning, Well worth the effort! :thumb:
Amazing how the shapes play tricks on the eyes!

Dave
 
Outstanding !

That's beautiful Jim. I am always amazed at the precision required for these optical illusion works. This is spectacular.

It sure was nice to meet you and your wife at 5 Barns !
 
That looks great, Jim. Those are called "Louis cubes" because the design became popular during the reign of Louis XIV in France. The design is actually older but was not that popular previously. The floor of one of the great halls at Versailles is tiled in Louis cubes (if I remember correctly).

I've done those in veneer but never tried to do it in solid wood.

Good job!

Mike

PS you can see one of my Louis cubes projects here. Scroll down a bit.
 
that should be on display in a china cabinet, never used.
Its too beautiful to use, should be admired as art.

Actually, it probably won't see much use. I'll display it at the county fair next month, then retire it to the center of the wife's china display cabinet.

Beyond that, it might see occasional "tea & crumpets," but certainly not regular usage.
 
Jim,...Did you really cut all those pieces individually? You have way more patience than me! ...Bill

Yeah, Ripped strips to length, then cut the pieces using a jig I built for the tablesaw. I cut about 150 pieces, then sorted for 'best' as I glued the panel up. Pretty time consuming, but the glue-up was way more tedious.
 
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