Tray Molds

  I have a friend that is a potter. and the other day she asked me to make her a couple of moulds for making trays.  Generally pottery is thrown on a wheel, ( a mud lathe?!) but another way to shape the clay is moulding it and wood makes the best moulds, I was told.  

mould with the mud on it

8 x 16 mould

square mould 8 x 8

  Making these moulds is not high art and it was nice to find purpose for some of the bits of wood that are still laying around in piles.  This imagining oneself as the most primitive of pattern makers. One day I will have to buy more wood, but 'not today'. 

   Making the moulds was an exercise in 45 degree angles.  A sliding mitre saw makes short work of a project like this.  I bought my 'slider' quite a few years ago and have been working it hard. Bosch has continued to develop their saws, and I would certainly look to Bosch for my next saw too.

My only complaint with this saw is the dust.  It maybe the biggest mess maker in my shop, it is almost a messy as a lathe.

  After I made the two moulds I got a brain wave.  What about an eight sided mould?  And, why not just make inserts that fit inside the square mould?

  

   Why not?  Because you end up having to cut a whole bunch of 45 degree angles on very small pieces.  If anyone decides that they want to try something like this I suggest you make a larger mould so that you have bigger pieces with which to work. Since some of the pieces were too small for me to cut on the sliding mitre saw I used hand tools to cut the angles, even at that  the pieces were so small that they were very hard to hold on to while cutting.

  If you were to make a dedicated 8 sides mould it would be like cutting crown moulding for a tiny, tiny room.  If my friend is interested I would give it a try.

cheers,