colesar

hine and CNC, this is the way I envision I'll be cranking 'em out for a while...

Here I have selected some 5/4 Quarter-Sawn White Oak to use as the primary wood for the tray.  I'll sandwich a slice of Claro Walnut between two pieces of the White Oak, and cap it off with some more Walnut.  Here I have a 6" wide board freshly milled.

I am setting up to rip the 6" White Oak down to 3 pieces, 1.5" wide.  I like to use the bandsaw for this, as the blade is rather thin and it minimizes the waste from the ripping process.

The view on the right shows you that I was able to get three pieces with very little waste.  The boards came out rough from the bandsaw, so I'll run one side through the jointer to get a smooth surface, then run it through the surface planer to make sure all of the pieces are smooth and of a uniform thickness.

The boards have been run through the planer, and I have taken off less than 1/32" on the pass.  Using the slow setting on the Dewalt 735, the boards come out silky smooth, and there is no need to sand them down at this point.

Since I am planning on making 8 trays for this project, I 'll need a total of 16 pieces, cut to 10" each.