How to Build a Bread Tray

By Chris Baylor, About.com Guide

In the last woodworking step of these free woodworking plans, we'll ease the edges of the ends and sides.

Set up a 3/4" roundover bit with a bearing tip in your router. You may use your router and ease the edges by hand, or place your router into a router table.

Either way you choose to handle this task, set the depth of the bit so that you only use a portion of the profile. In this manner, you'll ease the edges and give a bit of a rounded look without fully rounding over the edges. Use your discretion as to how deep to set the profile.

Ease the edges on the tops of the four sides (inside and out) and the insides of the handle holes. The piece will look better if the bottom of each side piece is not rounded over.

One tip to keep in mind when easing the edges: on the two ends with the handles, don't route all the way to the ends on the top-inside edge. You'll want to stop at the beginning of the dovetail, because if you route all the way to the edge, you'll have an unsightly connection at the top of the dovetail when you assemble the piece. If you don't route far enough, you can always clean up the intersection with sandpaper later. The outside top edge can be routed all the way around the piece.