New serving board

So when I was experimenting with applying service before, the wooden mallet I modified left me a rather unsatisfied with its performance.  It was ungainly, too long, and the cable kept slipping out of the groove.  There was only one thing for it, to waste my time making one!

Luckily I have heaps of scrap wood lying around.  Found some likely plywood and screwed it together to form...something.  Later I would realise that I put some of the bloody screws in a dumb place.  Oh whale!

Outline ready for cutting

I got out my trusty workbench and saw and got to work.  A few minutes later, and the result.

All cut out

Of course I figured there probably needed to be a groove in there to hold the cable in place.

Groovy

The edges were sanded down to make everything smooth and curvy.  Don't want any twine to run over a sharp corner, especially under high tension.  Some loud sanding later...

It's just 'curvy'

I was not please at all with the spool holder I had made on the serving mallet.  Its sharp edges caught the twine and the spool rattled around causing uneven tension and jerkiness.  For the new one I rounded the corners off some more scrap I had lying around and came up with this.  It fits the cardboard tube of the spindle perfectly and allows it to turn nice and smooth.

Spindle

Twisting the twine around

Construction finished I am ready to give it a go.

Twirling towards freedom!

So far so good.  The serving board has a much easier time staying on the cable.  There still is a tendency for it to try to ride up out of the groove when the tension gets high though.

More on how the twine should be wrapped

Some more service done!

All in all it's a vast improvement on the old serving mallet, but it's definitely not perfect.  It's tricky to make sure that there is just the right amount of tension so the service is tight, but not too much that the cable rides up out of the groove.  More thinking needed.