RUSTIC PALLET WOOD SERVING TRAY

 

I think it’s a rite of passage for anyone tackling a Pallet Project to at some stage make themselves a Rustic Pallet Wood Serving Tray. One quick search on Pinterest and you’ll find a plethora of examples…..some good…some not so good.

The one l made below is so simple to make and l reckon it looks pretty good! What l like about the project is that it follows my Three Golden Principles which are:

• Quick,
• Cheap, and
• Easy to build!

 

We just recently purchased a beautiful old recycled outdoor table and a pallet wood serving tray was exactly what we needed to set it right off.

 

Before we venture on, please read this regarding Pallet Wood Safety:

Pallets are used around the world to transport goods and as a result are treated to protect the wood from fungus and various pests. This is why you need to be careful in your pallet selection. Please read the following the following article titled How to Tell if a Pallet is Safe for Reuse link before you tackle any pallet wood project. Many thanks to 1001 Pallets who authored the article.

 

With that out of the way, let’s get on with the build!

 

I chose a pine pallet for this project that had a little age to it as well as some wear and tear characteristics that lends itself to a nice rustic build.

 

 

Finding pallets for you project is also not as hard you may think either. Check out this awesome article from 1001 Pallets  that will transform you into a Pallet Scavenging Jedi in no time at all ??……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The serving tray project is probably about as basic as it gets when it comes to pallet wood projects which is why it’s such a fun weekend activity. It’s cheap to make and uses limited tools so for me it’s Big Ticks all round!

 

Let’s first of all have a look at what materials are required for the build.

 

Materials List:

• One Pallet. Free!
• One 500ml tin of Clear Satin Varnish. $22.00 but you will have some left over for another project.

Tools:

• Hammer
• Chisel
• Wrecking Bar
• Nail Gun. If you don’t have a nail gun, don’t panic, an everyday hammer and nail will do the trick.
• Reciprocating saw. Not 100% necessary but incredibly handy and a massive time saver!
• Circular Saw. If you don’t have a circular saw, a hand saw will suffice.
• Biscuit Joiner: If you don’t have a biscuit joiner, you can simply just glue and clamp the boards together.
• Bar Clamps:
• Builders square or combination square.
• Drill. Cordless or corded…doesn’t matter.
• Jig saw.
• 88mm Hole saw. This size hole saw will cater for most bottle sizes.
• 12mm drill bit.
• Woodworkers glue.
• Nail Punch, also known as Nail Set.

Please note that all of these tools are available from my Recommended Tools and Resources Page.

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The majority of the links on my Tools and Resources Page are affiliate links which means that if you choose to make a purchase, l will earn a small…and l mean small, commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you but it certainly helps to keep the lights on here over at DIY For Knuckleheads so that we can afford to keep producing great, informational content for You.

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Dimensions of my Serving Tray:

From the get go, let me be upfront and proud and declare myself to be a Metric Man through and through. So to make it a little easier for you Imperial folk out there, l have included a link to a very handy Metric to Imperial Conversion Chart. Click on this link to access it.

 

These sizes are by no means set in stone. You can make yours any size you want.

Overall length of the tray including the ends: 525mm

Overall width of the tray including the sides:  350mm

Overall height of the sides of the tray: 83mm

Bottle hole size: 88mm

Width of glass holder slot: 12mm

 

Let’s Make This Thing!

 

The first step after locating and lugging your beautiful pallet home is dismantling the thing. I like to include all the imperfections of the pallet in my creations which often means saving the entire length of the board so that l save all those lovely old nail holes. This is where my reciprocating saw really comes in handy. Check out the video below to see how l do it. So far close to 950,000 people have viewed the process on YouTube! Check it out!

HOW TO DISMANTLE A PALLET….THE EASY WAY!

 

PRO TIP:

There’s no medal for quickly dismantling a pallet so take your time and save your back from injury as it can be a bit awkward. To ease the risk of injury during the dismantling process, l like to put my pallet up on a couple of sawhorses so that l’m working at waist height and not bending over as much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the pallet has been dismantled, it’s a simple matter of choosing the planks you want to use for the serving tray. Do yourself a massive favour and choose the straightest planks you can as that will make the cutting and assembling process that much easier. If by some chance you have a Table Saw, now is the perfect time to run the boards through the machine to get yourself a really nice straight board.

 

 

Once you’ve selected the boards you’ll need to assemble the base of the serving tray. To do this is a really simple process using a Biscuit Joiner, some biscuits, glue and clamps…. oh yeah, and also a

nice hot cup of tea to tide you over while the glue dries is always welcome.

 

Glueing the Serving Tray Base is as Easy As 1,2,3.

Step 1:

Add some glue into the biscuit slots and along the entire the entire length of the board

 

Step 2:

Squeeze the biscuits into the biscuit slots that are filled with glue. Line up the boards up and clamp together

 

PRO TIP:

Wipe the excess glue off the boards before it dries with a wet cloth to prevent the excess glue from soaking into the surrounding boards making it hard to sand out.

 

Step 3:

Once the boards are clamped together, l find it useful to weigh the boards down to keep them nice and flat during the glue drying process.

 

Leaving the serving tray base to dry for 24 hours is a good idea. Once completely dry, remove from the clamps and cut to size with a Circular Saw. If you don’t have a circular saw, don’t worry, you can cut the boards with a Hand Saw.

 

Time to cut the sides for the serving tray. I like to mitre the corners on the sides so that you finish up with a slightly more professional looking job once assembled. To do this accurately l like to use my trusty old Dewalt Compound Mitre Saw.

If you don’t have a mitre saw, or maybe you are just scared of using power tools, a Mitre Box that can be used with a handsaw will suffice, and if all that mitring seems to complicated, you can simply just butt join the sides together which you can see on a large number of serving trays.

 

 

It’s at this point when things start to come together. See, you can do this stuff! Assembling the sides of the serving tray is basically just a simple matter of nailing the sides to the outside edge of the serving tray base. Applying glue to the boards prior to nailing together is also a good idea.

If you have a nail gun to do this…. great!…. if you don’t, then using a hammer and nail is also pretty effective as the pine boards are quite soft and easy to hand nail through.

 

So far….so good! To make your serving tray a little different l decided to add a length of pallet board to the top of the tray to act as a wine bottle and glass holder. It actually worked out really well.

 

Before l cut the hole and slot for the glasses, it was a good time to add some vintage wine label image transfers to the top of the board to give it some wine growing heritage. Unfortunately, my printer was low on ink so the image transfer wasn’t as vivid as l wanted it to be but l think you get the idea of what can be achieved.

 

Check out the video below that l made a little while ago where l explain how to do a very simple image transfer on wood. The explanation starts around the 5.40 minute mark and ends around the 7.30 minute mark …

 

 

Below are couple of more examples of jobs that l’ve completed where the image transfer worked out well.

 

 

OK…let’s get back to the serving tray. An 88mm hole saw was used for the bottle hole and the slot for the glasses was cut using my jig saw to a width of 12mm.

 

 

For the serving tray handles l wanted a material other than wood so l found myself these nicely battered up old esky handles that look fantastic! To make the decision even better, they simply screw to the ends of the tray.

 

Pheww, you can give yourself a good pat on the back if you’ve gotten this far as you’re almost done! Time for a quick sand followed up with a couple of coats of Clear Satin Varnish.

PRO TIP:

To achieve an authentic, aged, rustic feel, round off the edges, paying particular attention to areas where you think the object has been handled the most. These areas will be slightly more worn than others so sand these back a little more.

I try not to sand to much off the surface as l want to keep the character of the board. I’ll initially give it a hit with a 120-grit sandpaper and then lightly finish off with a 240-grit sandpaper which will leave the surface silky smooth!

PRO TIP:

Fill up any new nail holes with black paint. Wait to dry, and then sand back to give that aged vintage look.

 

PRO TIP:

Blocks of wood with a nail or screw driven through them make a fantastic prop to support your project during the painting process.

 

In regard to the finish, l like a Clear Satin Varnish for a rustic type job. It just gives off enough shine without it looking to new.

 

PRO TIP:

Lightly sand with a 240-grit sandpaper between coats of varnish. This will remove any wooden burrs that have surfaced as a result of applying the first coat of varnish which vastly improves the finish of the final coat.

Watch the How to Build a Rustic, Pallet Wood Serving Tray Here!

 

Here are just a Few Photo’s of the Finished Pallet Wood Serving Tray. You can see all the other photos at the end of the Serving Tray Video.

 

 

 

 

And that’s it folks!! A very simple project to undertake which looks fantastic while at the same time being practical. All it needs now is a homemade cheeseboard to sit alongside the wine bottle and glasses….and that my friends… gives me the idea for my next project.

 

Thanks again for reading and watching and if there are any pieces of equipment you think you need for this project, or for any other future projects, please feel free to check out my Recommended Tools and Gear under the Tools and Resources Tab on the Menu Bar. ?

 

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Thanks again folks. Be safe and till next time….Cheers!