Kurt’s Poker Chip Tray

Viewer Project - By Kurt Bouma from Dorr, MI
Added on November 22, 2015

I had some purple heart and maple left over from Marc’s end grain cutting board that I made a few years ago when I happened across the poker chip tray video. And I thought, why not give it a whirl?

Pretty fast, fun, and easy project. Against Marc’s advice, I only made one set to start, just to avoid making a bunch of them with the same glaring error that went unnoticed until the end. I already have people requesting some for themselves, so I’m going to have to do a batch run of them now. Marc was right…again!

Instead of using just purple heart or just maple, I thought I’d rip some strips, glue them back together, and see what happened. I kind of like how they turned out.

My biggest problem came when I went to rout the shallow arcs in the bottom side of the tray. I did not have a bit like Marc’s, but I DID have a free night (no wife, no kids) to get the project done. So, I ran to Home Depot to get myself a bit. Surprise, surprise, nothing even close to the right size. So, I went home, sat on a bucket, and said to myself “Kurt, those trays are getting finished tonight and they are GOING to have those fancy grooves in the bottom. How ya gonna make em?”

That’s when I remembered some video I’d watched about a guy who made really neat looking coves on the face of a board by passing it diagonally over his slightly raised table saw blade. After a bit of trial and error, that’s how I made the arcs in the bottom side of my trays. I took a few different shots of that process, hopefully you all can make sense of them.

Finished the project with rattle can lacquer and can’t wait to make more. Thanks for the inspiration Marc!

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