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Fotodog
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TV Tray
One of our neighbors is a nice elderly Japanese woman who lives alone, and ever since I gave her a cutting board she always loves to see what I’m building. I asked her a couple of months ago if I could make her something else, and although she is shy about asking for anything she finally mentioned that she would love a folding tray to take out on her patio. I have never made anything like this, so I spent some time researching and came up with my own design for the folding legs.
The top was fairly straightforward, using a couple of glued up Walnut pieces with Alder and Maple inlays. The leg assembly proved to be much more challenging than I expected and required some tweaking to make everything work smoothly. I used binding posts for the leg connections. My go-to finish for most projects is Osmo Polyx, but knowing that there would probably be liquid spills on the top I did some testing with wipe-on poly. My previous experience was using a water based product with results that were just okay, so I tried oil based Minwax poly and was actually quite happy with the results. This turned out to be an interesting project and I learned some new skills along the way.
The top was fairly straightforward, using a couple of glued up Walnut pieces with Alder and Maple inlays. The leg assembly proved to be much more challenging than I expected and required some tweaking to make everything work smoothly. I used binding posts for the leg connections. My go-to finish for most projects is Osmo Polyx, but knowing that there would probably be liquid spills on the top I did some testing with wipe-on poly. My previous experience was using a water based product with results that were just okay, so I tried oil based Minwax poly and was actually quite happy with the results. This turned out to be an interesting project and I learned some new skills along the way.
14 Comments
What a beautiful folding tray. Walnut is always a top choice. Such a nice gift that I'm sure will be greatly appreciated.
That's one of the nicest folding tray I have seen! And it sounds like it will be appreciated.
Uh oh, I just showed this to my wife. Now she is coming up with ideas ... 😁
Thanks for the nice comments. She does not take phone calls or texts, so I haven’t seen her in a couple of days. I am still looking forward to giving her the tray as a surprise.
A great gift! And beautifully executed. Does that horizontal bar on the underside slide back and forth to facilitate closing?
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
Yes, the horizontal piece at the top of the inside leg assembly is a 3/4” dowel, which seems to be fairly common. What varies with different designs is how that piece is captured when it travels from front to back as the legs are opened and closed. I chose to make 2 long C shaped pieces that keep the dowel contained as the legs are opened and closed and act as a stop on each end. You can see those pieces in the main photo. I had to make these pieces twice to get them right.
The order of assembly was important; outside braces glued and screwed to the top first, outside legs attached to the braces next with binding posts, inside leg assembly attached to outer legs, C shaped pieces doweled and glued last. I spent much more time thinking things through than it took to actually assemble it.
The order of assembly was important; outside braces glued and screwed to the top first, outside legs attached to the braces next with binding posts, inside leg assembly attached to outer legs, C shaped pieces doweled and glued last. I spent much more time thinking things through than it took to actually assemble it.
Nice job, gorgeous! Would love to see some dimensional drawings or general explanatory blueprints for those folding legs. Seem very well executed, especially how folding them also tilts down the tabletop. I’m not making any TV trays like this in the near future, but could see myself borrowing the same principles for other projects.
a lot nicer than the ones we had when i was a kid !
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
Bugout_Boy, I usually design my projects in Sketchup, but I felt I was better off laying things out after the pieces were milled to their dimensions. I started with the top at 14” x 18”, inset the outer supports 1 1/2” from each side, then put the legs in place temporarily. This allowed me to determine the width of the inner leg assembly, which I glued up. After all the holes were drilled, everything was dry fit with the binding posts. The C brackets were temporary put in place which determined the position of the outer supports. Sorry if this sounds confusing. Here’s my shop notes for the project:
Top: 14” x 18”, inlays are 1/8” and 3/8”
Top: 14” x 18”, inlays are 1/8” and 3/8”
Legs: 5/8” x 1 1/8” x 31”, trimmed to ~30” at proper angle after assembly
Outer Supports: 5/8” x 1 1/8” x 11”
3/4” Dowel: 11 7/16” inset on each end into inner legs
Horizontal leg brace: 5/8” x 1 1/8”, trimmed to length after dowel is dry fit
C Brackets: 12” long, height allows dowel to slide easily
Binding Posts used for leg hardware, 2 washers in between, heads countersunk with Forster bit, Locktite added
Notes:
Next time make legs slightly wider and thicker
When holes are drilled to attach outer legs to outer supports, legs must sit higher than supports to allow room to slide easily
lovely and very useful table. Well done.
Ron
Great work.
Nice tray and a great design on the top!!
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
That’s without a doubt the classiest, most attractive TV tray I’ve ever seen. Nice work!
Wow, thanks so much!
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