Solid Teak Wine and Charcuterie Serving Set

It's the holiday season and Sawdust Willy's workshop has been in high gear operating as an extension of Santa's workshop. I've made four domino puzzle boxes (need to publish an instructable on these sometime), a wooden fly rod case, a wooden monogram to decorate a present, and two teak wine/charcuterie serving sets. The charcuterie set was my wife's idea... well, sort of. I was supposed to make a simple serving tray out of teak for my sister-in-law to use in her new pool area... to match the teak bar top that I made last summer. I really enjoyed working with teak and was excited about coming up with a design for a serving tray. So I drove up to the place where my brother bought the teak for the bar top... Landscape Systems Garden Center in Keller, TX. Neat place. They even have 2 or 3 big friendly dogs there that greet you when you come into the store. I figured 1 board would be plenty of material for the project but to be safe I bought 2 since I live about an hour away from the store. Ha... sure enough... one board ended up being enough for the serving tray. Though it was nice to have the two boards to be able to pick and choose sections to use where the wood grain was particularly pretty. But I ended up with a lot of leftover material. Hmmmm.... what the heck am I going to do with the rest of this teak? I know, my brother and his wife are wine aficionados... I'll make a nice little wine serving board to hold two wine glasses and a bottle of wine. So I finished that project and still had more wood. Now what? Hey how about a charcuterie board to go with it! That will help me use up all these scraps I have. So what was supposed to be a simple serving tray evolved into an elaborate wine and charcuterie serving set. That's usually how it works with me. My wife makes fun of me for complicating things but once she saw the finished set she wanted one too. LOL. So I made two. I learned a lot from making the first set and came up with a better process for making the tray. I'll include a few pictures of the first set as well but I'll describe the process I used to build the second.

Picture one is the first set that I made for my sister-in-law. Picture two shows how all of the pieces fit inside the serving tray. Pictures three and four are the second serving set that I made. Picture five is all of the stuff I've been making for Christmas. Last pic is my shop... I have several projects going on at once. I built the base cabinets a number of years ago. I was going to build wall cabinets too but my brother and his wife remodeled their kitchen and I scored the old cabinets. So they're a bit of a quiltwork but who cares. It's a garage shop... besides I think it all looks great. Ha. The picture reminds me of one of those games where you have to find the hidden items... find the guitar, find the cowbell, find the beer mugs, find the glass float, find the clock, find the radio, find the...

Materials

Teak - Two boards measuring 1.5 inches thick, 5 inches wide, and 76 inches long.

Teak Oil

Food Grade Wax

West System Epoxy - 105 Resin, 206 Slow Hardener, 406 Colloidal Silica

Titebond 3 Wood Glue

Tools

Table Saw

Surface Planer

Router Table, 3/8 Round Over Bit, 23/32 Straight Bit, 1/4 and 3/8 Spiral Bits

Random Orbital Sander

Miter Saw

Disc/Belt Sander

Drill Press

Scroll Saw

Assorted Clamps

Custom Tools

Teak Grate Router Table Jig - Instructions in Step 1.

Miscellaneous

Craft Sticks

Masking Tape

Cotton Cloth

Paper Towels

Plastic Mixing Cups

Spray Adhesive

Paint Thinner

Paper Patterns - PDF files included below.

Usually, for these types of projects, I have a vague notion of what I want but I like to search the internet for images to see what other folks have done and what's available commercially. It's a great way to get some good ideas going and sometimes I'm surprised by stuff that I might not have ever considered. Once I figure out what I want the end product to look like in my mind I then draw it up in AutoCAD to refine the design and generate a 3D image. I end up saving myself a lot of time and wasted effort this way. It is extremely helpful to be able to see a virtual image of your project before you start cutting wood.

When I made the first teak grate serving tray I had a very convoluted process that took me 3 days to cut all the parts. I ended up with decent results but holy cow it was a gigantic pain in the backside. So when I started working on the second one I figured I'd better come up with an improved process. Prior to working on this project I had spent a few weeks building domino boxes for double six domino sets (Instructable for these in the future). I had made a box joint jig to use with my table saw. Made it pretty easy to cut the joints and once you had it dialed in the results were quite good. I figured that I should be able to do basically the same thing to cut the parts for my teak grate. What I came up with is a simplified version of a box joint jig. Wow... Super easy to make and excellent results!

The jig is made from a 1/2 inch thick MDF project panel from Home Depot. The base is 18 inches by 24 inches. My router table is also 24 inches so I laid everything out so that the base edge would be flush with the router table edge. A 1.5 inch inch hole is cut with a forstner bit to give me access to the router bit height adjustment and a 1 inch hole is cut to accomodate the router bit. I mounted an 18 inch miter bar from Rockler on the bottom of the base and cut a dado across the top of the base to accomodate the fence. Using the router table to cut the dado ensures that the fence will be perpendicular. Once all those cuts were made the router fence is glued in place using cabinet clamps (pic one). Once the glue is dry set the jig in place and raise the router bit flush with the top (pic two). Turn on the router and cut all the way through the fence (pics three and four). Raise the bit to 5/16 inch above the top of the base and cut through the fence (pic five). Also in pic five we're gluing down the key. The key is 23/32 inch wide, 1/4 inch thick, and an inch and a half or so long. It needs to be the same width as the pieces that will make up the teak grate (23/32 inch), a little thinner than the depth of the dado in the lap joint (5/16 inch). The length isn't critical... just make it at least an inch. It is also critical that the key be perpendicular to the fence. The spacing from the router bit slot to the key is whatever spacing you want in your grate. I went with 3/4 inch. Typically on your standard box joint jig this dimension would be adjustable to adjust the fit of the box joint. But it's not critical here so no adjustment feature is required.

For safety I glued down a cover block on the back side of the fence (pics six and seven) and set up clamps to act as stop blocks to keep me going to far forward or back when I cut parts (last pic).

There are adjustment screws in the miter bar that you can adjust to get a good fit in the track. You want the assembly to be able to easily slide along the track without any wiggle.

Now you're all set and ready to cut chips!

All of the parts for this project are made using 5/8 inch thick pieces. First step is to cut down the board to manageable size. For my serving tray I was shooting for a finished dimension of roughly 16.5 by 24 inches and the sides are 3 inches tall. I cut the rough pieces just a bit oversized and will trim them down later. I don't have a band saw so I used my table to saw to resaw the 1.5 inch thick teak boards. Not the greatest method but it got me there. Once the boards were ripped down the middle I ran them through the surface planer and worked them down to the finished thickness. The wine serving board and charcuterie board are sized to fit inside the serving tray. The charcuterie board is approximately 15 inches by 15 inches and the wine serving board is 15 inches long and 6 inches wide.

Picture one shows my setup to start breaking down the board into rough pieces. I love my Husky adjustable height work tables. Picture two shows the rough boards to make the serving tray. I like to use my shop vac to try to keep down the mess as much as possible (picture three). Makes shop cleanup quite a bit easier when the project is done. Resawn boards in picture four and then running them throught the surface planer in picture five.

The individual strips of wood for the teak grate are 5/8 inch thick and 23/32 inch wide and there are two different lengths... 23 inches and 15-5/8 inches. There are 11 long and 16 shorts pieces. All of these are joined together in a latticework of half lap joints which are cut just a tad over 5/16 inch deep. The width seems odd but I have a straight bit used to cut dado slots for 3/4 inch plywood... and 3/4 inch plywood is actually 23/32 inch thick. Weird. Seems standard in the woodworking world... a 2 by 4 is not 2 inches by 4 inches and 3/4 inch plywood isn't 3/4 inch thick. Oh well. Finally, the dado cuts made in the strips are spaced 3/4 inch apart which happens automatically when you use the jig.

First step (picture one) is to cut a test piece 23/32 inches wide. Check the width to make sure it matches the width of the router bit (picture two). It shouldn't be too tight but it's best to err on the thick side... you can always sand it down. Ready to cut strips in picture 3 and once all the strips are cut then we're ready to cut the slots in picture four. Picture five... the jig works just like a box joint jig where you move the slot you just cut onto the key and then you're ready to cut the next slot. The process repeats until all of the slots are cut. In picture six a little light sanding to clean up the finished part. Picture seven... all of the parts ready for assembly. Picture eight shows the assembled teak grate. If there are any joints that are a little too tight all you need to do is sand the sides to make them a little narrower. You want the parts to fit together fairly easily. I like to start with the dry assembled part (oriented as shown in picture nine)... then remove each short piece one at a time and then glue it back in place. Everything is already aligned and it makes the process much easier. I load up a large syringe with wood glue to get better control. I wanted enough glue to get a good bond but I didn't want any squeeze out that would be a pain to clean up. I worked from left to right (pics ten through thirteen). Once all the joints are glued I set a piece of MDF on top of the grate and load it up with weights (pic fourteen). Pics fifteen and sixteen show the results. Hey... nice lap joints. Woo hoo!

Figuring out dimensions in the first picture. The front and back parts are three inches wide and are ripped on the table saw (picture two). The parts are cut to finished length with 45 degree miter cuts on either end. To come up with the correct length you need to use the measurements for the teak grate. The grate is going to fit inside a 1/4 inch recess that is rabbeted into the sides. So the length for the front and back pieces will be the length of the teak grate plus 2 times 5/8 inch (the thickness of the sides) minus 2 times 1/4 inch (the depth of the rabbet) and then add 1/16 inch just so you have a little extra room to glue in the grate. The grate is 23 inches... add 1.25 inches (2 times 5/8)... subtract 1/2 inch ( two times 1/4) and add a sixteenth. You end up with 23 and 13/16 inches (just a little over 23 and 3/4). Repeat the process for the two side pieces.

Picture three shows the side pieces with the handle template glued in place with spray adhesive. Make a center mark with a pencil on both side pieces. Align the bottom edge of the template with the bottom edge of the side piece and line up the center marks. I use Elmer's Craft BOND spray adhesive to glue down the templates. Also notice the cuts on the ends of the side pieces. When I ripped the front and back pieces down to three inches I made little test cuts in the ends of the side pieces too. In picture four I use a straight edge to complete the line from the template to the test cuts. I poke a little hole in the parts using an awl to help align the drill bit (picture five). Drill two 1 inch diameter holes with a forstner bit (picture six). And then use the scroll saw to make the remaining cuts... result in picture seven. To remove the paper templates wipe the surface with some paint thinner and let it sit for a couple minutes and then peel off (pics eight and nine). Use a little more paint thinner to clean off any remaining spray adhesive (picture ten).

The router is equipped with a 3/8 spiral bit that is set to just a tad over 5/8 inch high and the fence is adjusted to make a 1/16 inch deep cut. We will advance the fence in small steps and make multiple passes until we get to 5/32 inch deep. Repeat the process for all 4 pieces (pics eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen).

Picture fifeen... all the parts ready for assembly! Picture sixteen is a test fit (no glue yet). Everything looks good time to mix up some epoxy (picture seventeen). All the pieces are masked with clear packing tape, epoxy is appled, and everything is clamped up. I used a combination of frame clamps,trigger clamps, and cabinet clamps (pics eighteen and nineteen).

After a 24 hour cure the clamps and tape are removed, the finished piece is sanded and then I used a cotton cloth to apply several coats of teak oil... last two pics. Wow! The teak oil really brings out the color in the wood.

Again, all the parts were made from 5/8 thick material. The top and bottom parts for the wine serving board are six inches wide. This required me to edge glue a couple pieces together. Once the glue dried the parts were run through the surface planer to clean them up and then they were ripped to six inches and cut to a 14 inch length (pics one, two, and three). I wanted the finished assembly to fit crossways in the serving tray so the overall length of the piece needed to be less than 15 inches. Making the handle pieces followed the same process as the serving tray sides except that I used the disc sander to shape the top. You use the same paper template that you did for the serving piece too. Just make sure when you are printing out the template that you don't use any kind of "FIT TO PAGE" setting. It needs to be printed out actual size (pics four through ten). A 5/8 inch wide by 1/4 inch deep dado is cut in two places of the handle parts. One cut at the bottom and the other 1/8 inch below the handle cutout (pics eleven and twelve). For the top print out and glue down the template along the centerline and then cut out the part on the scroll saw (pics thirteen through fifteen). Picture sixteen shows all the parts ready for assembly. Everything is masked before glue is applied and clamps are fitted (pics seventeen and eighteen). Teak oil is applied in picture nineteen. Close up of the wood grain in last pic. Man I love teak.

The serving board will accomodate up to a 3.5 inch diameter wine bottle and wine glasses with up to a 3.5 inch diameter base and 1/2 inch diameter stem.

I used two different strategies when I made the two boards. For the first board I cut end grain sections from a 1.5 by 1.5 piece of wood and another that was 1.5 by 3 inches. Each piece was 1.25 inches thick (pic one). For each subassembly I used 4 of the rectangular pieces and 1 square piece and glued them together as shown until I had nine subassemblies (pics two through four). I cleaned up each subassembly on the disc sander and then glued them together in threes (pic five). Once those had dried they were cleaned up again and then all three sections were glued together (pic six). After another 24 hours of dry time the part was sanded smooth and then coated with a food grade wax made especially for cutting boards (pic seven). Ha! The end grain is really cool!

For the second cutting board I wanted to try something different so I made a 15 by 15 square teak frame that was 1.5 inches thick and I filled with with over a hundred separate small pieces that were cut from the scrap pieces I had left over from the serving tray and wine board. Once I got all the pieces cut and fitted I labeled them and took a picture so that if I got lost in the glue up I'd have something to refer to. Ha! Good thing because I screwed up at one point. That picture saved me (pic nine). Next three pics show the glue up. Another note... don't make the pieces fit too snugly when they are dry fit. The parts swell when glue is applied and it makes it hard to get the pieces to fit... yep, there's a reason I know that. No matter if all the parts don't fit nice and flush (mine didn't in pic thirteen). You end up sanding the heck out of it until it's all nice and smooth. After that I used a 3/8 inch roundover bit on the router table (pic fourteen). Then sanded it some more and and applied the wax finish (last two pics). This board is a chunk and would make a great cutting board too. Plus it's really pretty.

At our house during Christmas we have always made lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner. What better time to break out our newly made wine and charcuterie sets. Ha... I meant to take a few pictures but totally forgot. Oh well... I'll update this Instructable the next time we use it. Hopefully I won't forget. By the way... Emeril Lagasse has an outstanding lasagna recipe. But to make it extra special make your own pasta and crank out home made lasagna noodles. It is worth the effort and makes a huge difference.

As always comments and questions are welcome. If you make your own serving set post pictures and click the I Made It button.

So Merry Christmas y'all and a Happy New Year from the Sawdust Willy Family!!!!!!

Until the next project....

SW

UPDATE: I got a couple shots of charcuterie trays my sister in law did... plus a little wine out by the fire pit.