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| Mis-designed cutting board with integrated crumb tray |
I spent today playing with my new workshop, after trekking to the hardware store again. I can see this will become my new Sunday past-time, after meeting my friend A for breakfast at Valerie's.
A few weeks ago I had purchased a nice bread cutting board/frame made of oak, with a special feature - a crumb tray. This is an interesting idea - you cut the bread on the wooden lattice, and the crumbs fall through the lattice into a tray. No more crumbs all over the kitchen floor!
Unfortunately the one I bought is a typical mis-design - the crumb tray could not be removed from the tray. It could be pulled out, but stopped just short of coming out completely. So every time you want to empty the crumb tray you have to take the entire cutting board-tray assembly and upend it over the sink to shake out the crumbs, half of which end up on the kitchen floor.
Since I now have a workshop, and tools, I decided to sort out this idiotic contraption. I pried the bottom off the tray, and the top as well - this is an extremely well-made, sturdy, mis-design! Then I discovered what stopped the tray from coming out - two tiny, 3 mm wide plugs on either end of the crumb tray. I snapped them off with a chisel, and then glued everything back together with wood glue. Some of the top horizontal lattice rods had also come loose, so I glued them as well. Then I clamped the lot with my newly acquired mini-clamps.
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| All clamped up |
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| The tiny plugs that caused all the trouble |
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| That's where the tiny plugs sat |
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| Crumb tray half pulled out of the cutting frame/board |
