I made this to be a raffle prize for the FOB (Friends of Bruichladdich) 2026 charity drive which this year is in aid of the local Bruichladdich village hall.
Thought I’d document the background to the making of it which funnily enough all starts with an empty tin. This time it’s an Octomore 14.1 which I must say is a mighty dram.
First thing is to protect the tin and for this I use some thick paper which I tape to the outside. I then take Mr Grinder to the back seam and bottom seam of the tin basically opening it up.
I then nibble my way at 4-5mm gaps round the top of the tin with my shears which relaxes the tin and lets you get it almost flat.
I then have to take out the back seam which comes out like the backbone in a fish.
It’s here where you’re likely to cut your fingers if you haven’t already so be careful. With a file, smooth off any edges so they’re flat; they don’t have to be straight just flat. You can also ease open the tin; I use a flat surface and a large rounded piece of wood you can see in the picture below, you could as easily use your kitchen roller; just make sure you’re rolling it on a flat surface as any bit that’s not flat will cause problems and look nasty, so that small indentation on the tin which was there before you cut it will stand out when it’s flat.
I mark the paper with the top just so that it’s easier to orientate once you’ve cut off the curled edge of the tin (future step).
It’ll be almost flat naturally now but get it as flat as you can.
The next step involves a bit of 3mm plywood which is slightly larger than the tin. It also needs at least one square side to align the top of the tin.
Spray both the plywood and the inside of the tin with adhesive, personally I use carpet adhesive as it gives a nice strong bond and is easy to apply.
You’ll see in the photo below the square edge of the plywood is towards me, also towards me is the top curled edge of the tin. I’ve pencilled out on the plywood where it’s going roughly.
I slightly bend the tin backwards and align the curled edge of the tin and the square edge of the plywood, then slowly lower the tin using my roller to ensure flatness as you work your way towards the back of the bench. Trust me; don’t mess about at this stage; any misalignment is permanent especially using this adhesive. It’s a touch and it’s bonded glue, you don’t get a second chance so be sure of what you’re doing. It will not come back up without damage to the tin.
Ease it down from the front to the back.
Personally I leave some heavy weights on the tin just to ensure it’s down down. Remember you still have the paper there to protect the tin outside but be careful.
Get yourself some wood; personally I like cherry primarily because I’ve had a pile of offcuts from a fireplace I made years ago of which the pile is rapidly dwindling.
Cut it to size. I like about 12mm thick and 70-80mm wide but it depends on how high you want your tray.
You can then cut it to size for the ends and sides of the tray. With the tin being flat you roughly know what size it’s going to be.
Making sure it’s square all the way round or alignment later will be problematic.
CNC
Once you’ve got it to size for the sides and the ends it’s into the CNC to cut out the designs you want.
The ends I make reflect the Victorian gates that used to adorn the entrance to the distillery complete with their Charles Rennie Mackintosh design features at the end.
e.g.
This cuts it out using a 1.5mm end cut bit. Takes 30 minutes to do an end but I’m not in a rush and it’s quite therapautic to watch.
The sides, in this one I wanted Port Charlotte on one and Octomore on the other in the correct fonts.
Once they’re done being cut it’s sanding and making sure that the ends match the same height as the sides; if not, it’s out with the plane to nip off a wee bit.
Painting
If you paint them directly, the paint will leech into the fibres and you’ll never get it out so it’ll look terrible.
I coat the area to be painted with MDF sealer which provides a protective layer for the wood. I’ve blacked out the other one I made at the same time as the owner has not yet received it and I don’t want to spoil it’s arrival.
MDF Sealer on and outside drying.
I then mask up the outside bits I don’t want to be painted.
Then it’s out to the grass to spray paint using graffiti paint in the colours that are required. Laddie aqua for the ends and black for the lettering.
As I make a few of these I made a template to paint the laddie ends so that I don’t have to mess about blanking off the ends as it’s a bit of a faff.
With the masking tape removed.
With the paint dried, it’s time for the orbital sander (80 grit) to remove the excess paint, leaving the recessed paint intact.
The pieces are then sanded up to 240 grit.
With the sides and ends 80% done, I normally jump back to the base.
Using the top of the tin which if you remember is aligned to the square plywood, I mark out the maximum I can get from the tin as the sides are never normally exactly square.
I invert the base so the plywood is ontop and then markout where I’ll be cutting to provide a right angle tin (i.e. square corners).
Using a cutting guide I dig out my hand sized circular saw and use that to cut the plywood and tin to size. The circular saw cuts upwards which because I’ve inverted the tin, the tin will be cut against the plywood rather than the other way out which would cause the tin edges to be blown up away from the plywood.
Once that’s cut, I run a file round the edge of the tin just to make sure there are no sharp edges.
The sides and ends get a visit to the table saw to cut a 4mm groove in the bottom into which the tin and plywood will sit inside. Since the blade is 3mm thick, I do a cut then adjust a little and recut, testing on a scrap to make sure it’s not over or under cutting.
I also cut a 45° bevel on the ends so it’ll fit together nicely.
Assembly
Assembly is relatively straight forward but it would help if you had the arms of an octopus.
I use PVA glue to do the initial glue up of the sides.
You may notice that the pieces in the last couple of pictures are no longer on my bench but are on a piece of granite which I use specifically for things that I want to be flat.
Glue the corners and cover with masking tape to hold them together, insert the tin into the slot in the orientation that you want it and then put some weights to keep it all flat making sure the corners are tight fitting.
Yes those pieces of rail track work a treat.
Once it’s set overnight it’s time for some sanding by hand. The tray isn’t really strong at the moment for any machines to go on there.
Starting at 80, then 120 and finishing at 240 grit.
Now that it’s sanded it’s time to put some rigid strength into the corners of the tray by fitting some splines.
I’ve made a jig for this for my table saw which makes life a doddle.
You’ll see that I’ve already cut two slots right on the corners into which I’ll insert a 3mm hardwood slice which will give the corners vertical and horizontal stability.
The splines are glued in. Here the two trays I’m making are stacked to let the glue dry.
The splines are then cut and sanded off again back up to 240 grit so they’re flush.
Oiling
My favourite part which I savour seeing the American Cherry pop on the initial load of danish oil. You may notice on the bench there’s a couple of pieces of carpet gripper which I find work as an excellent way to keep pieces that are drying off the bench.
It’s left to dry, then given two further coats of oil to give a total of three until the cherry doesn’t want to accept any more. Between coats two and three I run some superfine steel wool over it to remove any funny parts in the finish.
Finished
Only once it’s had it’s three coats of oil do I remove the protective paper and I get to see what it’s going to look like.
If you’re still reading this well done. Hope you enjoyed seeing what goes into making one of these.