How to: Finish a wooden dice tray

I thought I would put up an explanation on how to finish a dice tray out of a wooden tray. It's not too late to get one made for gift giving this holiday season, and they are a luxury item most tabletop gamers would be delighted to have. I'm writing this DIY guide for the rank beginner - someone who has never done any wood finishing before. If you have, go on, git! You don't need my tutorial! 😉

Truth is, you don't have to do anything at all, if you don't want to. It's perfectly legit to roll your dice into any tray you might already have, or just on a table. The advantage of a dice tray is that dice stay on the table, and DMs aren't navigating "I got a nat 20!" when the dice is sitting at an angle in the crack of somebody's open Player's Handbook. And there are two advantages to converting a wooden tray in the manner I describe, but they're not earth shattering, either. The first is that unfinished wood picks up grime after awhile, and is less esthetically pleasing to look at. Some people don't care. I like to establish an ambience, I love making props, I like trying to provide toeholds for people to latch on to an immersive experience, and I confess to being a bit of a clean freak, so I care. The second reason for finishing a wooden tray is that the combination of wood covered with felt is pretty much perfect for rolling dice - this is why casinos have felt covered tables. The surface is hard and resonant, and the felt muffles the sound a bit. The result is unambiguous rolls with a satisfying sound and less bounce than on a wood, stone or metal surface. It's also a more protective surface to roll expensive hand carved stone or metal dice.

I'm going to assume that you will be staining your tray. It isn't necessary, but stain conveys some advantages beyond opening up esthetic choices, especially when combined with a polyurethane topcoat. Stain is a pigment that absorbs into the wood fibers. Because it occupies those spaces between fibers, it prevents other non-desirable pigments (like your spilled coffee) from getting in there and discoloring the wood. For the same reason, it helps protect against mildew or insect damage. When you add a polyurethane topcoat, the wood becomes considerably more water resistant, and the polyurethane protects against mechanical damage, too, like abrasions and dents.

Alright, so now I've established the why, let's talk about the what and the how.

What you'll need:
* indicates optional depending on circumstances

An example of shop towels.

• A wooden tray with vertical sides (see below for possible sources)
• Gloves - I like nitrile gloves
• A well ventilated space to work in 
• Rags, shop towels or foam brushes
• Sand paper: 60 grit*, 100 grit*, 150 grit*, 300-400 grit
• Craft paper or some way to protect your work surface
• Pre-stain wood treatment
• Wood stain (depending on the type of box, you may wish to consider using a gel stain)
• Oil based polyurethane (I prefer satin finish, this is an esthetic choice)
• Toothpicks*
• Mineral spirits for clean up*
  
• Felt in a large enough sheet to cover the interior of the tray, preferably enough excess to allow for mistakes
• An Xacto knife with a fresh blade 
• A wide lucite straight edge and a rotary cutter (or you can go with scissors if you have a very steady hand)
• Rubber cement 
• "Feet" for your tray, if you want them (either cork or rubber, picture frame supply houses carry these)

A Melissa and Doug toy tray.

Okay, let's talk trays. You can stumble into one from catering like I did - I scored a rustic soft wood tray used to deliver smoked salmon, capers, tomatoes, onions, etc. You can repurpose a wooden tray from children's toy sets... Melissa and Doug toys often come with wooden trays that come with a plexiglass sliding lid. This means your dice tray could also be dice storage. So once your kids have inevitably lost most of the pieces, you can repurpose that tray instead of tossing it. You can also buy an unfinished wood tray from craft stores or Amazon. 

Depending on where you got your tray, you may need to sand down the sides to remove corporate labeling. Nothing destroys that dank dungeon vibe quite like Melissa and Doug's cheery red logo. 

I'll also take a moment here to discuss gel stain vs. traditional (liquid) stain. Wood stain has been around for eons, and by comparison gel stain is relatively new. It contains a thickener, and this changes a few things. First, it doesn't run and drip like traditional stain. It can be easier to shove into cracks and gaps (which is a plus and a minus). It is far more forgiving about being applied over wood that has already been painted or stained before, giving good consistent coverage. It de-emphasizes wood grain without eliminating it, which is good for wood types that might have an unattractive grain pattern. It does not soak into the wood. It generally gives thicker pigment coverage. It generally dries much faster than traditional stain. It is less forgiving regarding over sanding. If you have lovely wood and want to show it off, go with traditional stain. But if you are taking a cheap-o tray and coaxing it into looking decent, or you are using wood that has been finished before, you may want to try out gel stains, instead. In my example I am using gel stain because I wanted to minimize the grain (it's lousy quality wood) and I wanted a nice deep and consistent walnut color.

How to create your masterpiece:

1. Set up your workspace. Make certain you have good ventilation. Cover your table with craft paper or a tarp. Have your materials all at hand, and don't forget the paint tin opener or screwdriver! Keep the glove box handy. If you're working indoors, you may want to have a vacuum cleaner at the ready to deal with the sawdust.

   

   unfinished, partly sanded

2. Prep your wood surface. If you have bought an unfinished wood craft box, you don't need to do much. It should have come from the store sanded and ready to go. But if you have a rough hewn tray like I did, or you've got a kid's toy tray with logos that need to come off, you've got some sanding to do. Start with the lowest grit number: 60. This is the roughest sandpaper. This is used for tough jobs, and will take off a serious amount of wood if you keep at it. It cannot give you a glass-smooth finish, so the moment the big splinters/logo is gone, you're going to want to switch. If the wood has been previously finished, you will want to be certain you've taken off all of that previous finish before you stain, because it will act as a "mask", giving you lighter spots. Sand using motion that is in the same direction as the wood grain. Switch out to successively higher numbers of sandpaper to get a uniform finish, but don't bother going above 150 just yet. 

   

   first coat of stain applied

3. Don those gloves, and apply the pre-stain with either a shop rag (the high class badass version of a paper towel) or a regular rag. Follow the instructions on the can, which generally tells you to apply generously and wipe off excess, and to stain within a certain window of time after applying the pre-stain. What does pre-stain do, you ask? It soaks the wood with a solvent that allows for more even distribution of pigment. In regular-speak, this means that stain goes on much more evenly, with fewer blotches of light or dark areas. It also means that the stain goes on a little lighter, giving you a lot more control over how light or dark you want the wood to remain. 
4. With the gloves still on, apply your first coat of stain. Follow the directions on the can, which generally say to apply generously, let sit for about 5 - 10 minutes and then wipe off the excess. You can use a toothpick wrapped in a shop towel to get into the corners and hard to reach cracks. I do not bother to stain the area that will be covered by felt. 
5. Let it dry. My can said a thin coat takes 6 - 8 hours, and I find that it is quite dry by then even though I live in a humid environment.
6. Sand

   

   I didn't actually miss the
   right corner. That's a beam
   of sunshine.

   between the first and second coats. I see a lot of people online saying that gel stains don't raise the grain. This has not been my experience. I find that a quick buff with 300 - 400 grit sandpaper makes a world of difference in my finish quality. That said, I don't buff between later coats when using gel stain because the stain generally sits on top, and you're just removing pigment.
7. Repeat numbers 4 - 6 above as needed. I used two coats of stain on my tray which was plenty for the look I was going for. This is an esthetic choice.
8. Coat with polyurethane as per the directions on the can. I use oil based which stinks like hell. I hear floor refinishers telling people the water based is just as good, but let's just say they have a vested interest in you needing to refinish your floors more often. My experience has been that oil based is more durable. If your tray wood was cheap, you probably want the extra protection. If you really don't have great ventilation, go with the water based stuff. I coat the entire tray with polyurethane, including the part that will be covered by felt. This means one complete layer of polyurethane will take twice as long, because I have to do that coat of the interior after the outer coat is dry enough to set down on the work surface.

   

   squaring up the felt

9. I use multiple coats of polyurethane, with full dry time in between coats - I like three thin coats vs. 1 thick because I think it gives nicer results. You can buff with high-number (400 and up) sand paper for a glasslike finish. Be aware that even a little sanding can take you back down to stain level, so less is more here.
10. Let that polyurethane really dry. Give it a few days unless you live in a desert environment in which case you can shorten the time.
11. Square up one corner of your felt, to a dimension that is in
    excess of the interior of your tray. Do this by laying your lucite straight edge overtop it, and cutting with either an Xacto knife or a rotary cutter. Wide lucite straight edges (especially quilting ones) have horizontal lines that allow you to make a perfect right angle very easily.

    

    scoring felt with an Xacto knife
12. Butt that corner up inside the tray so that it's flush along two sides, with the excess flowing up and out of the tray. Using one hand spread-fingered to keep that corner in place, crawl your other hand to one of the edges, forcing the felt to lie flat. Use the Xacto knife at an angle, score the felt along one of the edge of the interior of the box.
    
13. Remove the felt from the box, and using the score mark as a guide and your lucite straight edge, cut the full thickness of the felt down the length you scored, making sure you cut well past the amount you will need in the other direction. (I usually just hack off the piece I'm cutting from the bolt with at least 2 - 3 inches to spare. (6 cm?)

    

    applying rubber cement

14. Replace the felt into the tray. Check to make sure the felt is trimmed properly with no gaps or excess. Correct any errors of excess. Three sides of the tray should be properly trimmed, leaving excess to flow over the fourth.
15. Repeat steps 12 and 13 for the last side. You should now have a piece of felt that fits perfectly in the bottom of your tray.
16. This part is going to be very stinky. Carefully fold back the felt half way, leaving the other side positioned correctly. Apply rubber cement very generously to the wood you have revealed by folding back the felt.
17.  Carefully roll down the felt into place, smoothing as you go. You get one shot - this stuff will not reposition well without tearing up the felt. That said, for the first few minutes, you can use your fingertips to stretch the felt to mush into the corners, easing it up to the edge. 

    

    rolling the felt back into place

18. Repeat 16 and 17 for the other side, and let that thing air out.
19. Flip over and apply cork or rubber feet if desired. And then, roll the dice!

    

    using your fingertips to
    ease the edges into place