Each year for the past couple of years I've been asked to make something to donate to my local Woman's Club Silent Auction fundraiser and I always like to take this opportunity to make something unique with some of my leftover scrap wood from the previous year's builds. This year I decided that I would tackle creating some router trays using some Walnut & Cherry lumber.

For my particular build, I created a template simply using some printed out images but there are lots of other creators who do a good job at designing templates, some of which you can even purchase to make your own router trays. I've seen lots of cool templates from Designs by Donnie as well as DIY Montreal, just to name a few. I just cut my template out using my scroll saw but you could definitely tackle this step with a jigsaw or bandsaw.

The options are endless in terms of what you can store in these trays. I thought they might make a good serving tray for cookies or candies during the holiday but you can also simply use them as decorative pieces for storing keys, wallet, etc.

I hope you guys enjoyed watching me tackle building some of these router trays for the first time. I definitely learned a couple lessons for the next time I attempt some of these trays.

In this video I attempted to make some end-grain cutting boards from Southern Yellow Pine. This is the first time that I have tried to make a cutting board out of this type of wood. I know pine is generally not the first choice for cutting boards but I like the unique pattern variations you can get from the end grain.

Unfortunately, these boards didn't turn out exactly like I had planned. There was too much blue stain color in the wood which I wasn't a big fan of. Plus I'm not educated enough about what the blue stain color is from to feel confident using it as cutting boards. It might not be an issue at all but to play it safe I won't be using these as cutting boards.

I try to be 100% authentic with you guys in my videos and sometimes that means that things I build don't always turn out like I had hoped. I think of them as learning lessons though and I will definitely try to make this again and avoid using pieces that have that blue stain.