Woodworking Project for a Cat That Loves to Play with Water

My daughter has an energetic cat who loves to play with water and make a mess. I'm building a cat bowl holder that will prevent the water bowl from being moved or tipped over to tame that problem. This woodworking project starts with selecting the healthiest food bowls for pets, and that's stainless steel bowls. They don't hold the bacteria that ceramic and plastic bowls do, and some ceramic bowls can contain harmful chemicals. The next step is choosing the wood for the bowl holder. I decided to use plywood as it's stronger than solid wood and this project has some narrow areas that could break if I build this out of solid wood. The disadvantage of using plywood is the edge needs to be covered up... but I turned that into an opportunity to customize this pet bowl holder. I positioned the two food bowls on the plywood and traced them out. I then used a compass to draw an inner line to cut to, so that there would be a lip for the bowl edges to rest on. I cut them out with a jigsaw after drilling a hold in the circle to start the jigsaw blade with. I used solid wood edging that's thicker than typical iron-on edge banding. I made up a thin strip of maple, which is a light coloured wood, to contrast with the cherry edging. I used this to lay out the letters K I T, which is the nickname for my daughter's cat, Kitten. With the letters drawn on the edge banding, I positioned it where I thought it looked best on the bowl holder. I then cut out the parts by hand using a Japanese pull saw. I glued each part, one at a time, using CA glue because it holds the pieces together in seconds. Once I had the letters in place, I finished off gluing on the rest of the edge banding. I trimmed off the excess pieces using a Japanese flush cut saw (I love this tool!). Then I planed down the letters so they were flush with the edge banding. I followed that up by using a card scraper on the top to level out the edges of the edge banding with the plywood veneer and lightly sanded all the surfaces. I quickly cut up some legs with a 5 degree angle on the ends and attached them with PVA glue and screws through the bottom of the legs. Everything looked great except the top of the letter T, where the edge grain in the maple was lighter than the end grain of the other pieces. I stained this with a touch-up stain marker. The first part of the finish was boiled linseed oil to highlight the richness of the wood. I then added 5 coats of shellac to protect the bowl holder and make it easier to clean. The last step was to apply non-slip furniture grip feet on the legs to prevent the bowl holder from shifting on the floor. Here are some video, product, and tool links you may find useful. Purchases with these links help fund our video production work so we can make more free videos. RELATED VIDEOS Dust Collection Fundamentals - https://youtu.be/-c2YyFw7g1U Stain Marker Testing - https://youtu.be/DgQGijY8P2g 10% off STARBOND CA GLUE LINK Use Coupon Code "WIBN" for 10% Discount - https://bit.ly/3gx2ROb PRODUCTS & TOOLS Stainless Steel Cat Food Dishes - https://amzn.to/3iKmK72 IAMS Dry Cat Food - https://amzn.to/3wvoTHQ Non-Slip Furniture Grip Pads - https://amzn.to/2SsDrtf 2 Inch #8 Wood Screws - https://amzn.to/35me0ft Japanese Pull Saw - https://amzn.to/3vsGE9w Flush Cut Saw - https://amzn.to/3xARRGB Card Scraper - https://amzn.to/3zt75iC DeWalt Jigsaw - https://amzn.to/3gEZbv5 Boiled Linseed Oil - https://amzn.to/3iJKW9G Shellac - https://amzn.to/3gq4dvi Dispenser Bottle - https://amzn.to/3pYVzqF Ultra Fine Scotch-Bright Sanding Pad - https://amzn.to/3zrLOpr Tack Cloth - https://amzn.to/3xCE4iT Our Newsletter - Sign up at https://WoodenItBeNice.ca Our Woodworking Plans - https://woodenitbenice.ca/collections/woodworking-plans Our 1-on-1 Woodworking Advice Sessions - https://woodenitbenice.ca/collections/woodworking-advice-sessions See the tools we use in our workshop and the tools we recommend: https://www.amazon.com/shop/homeimprovementwoodworking 🇨🇦 Canadian link - https://www.amazon.ca/shop/homeimprovementwoodworking For more woodworking knowledge or to contact us directly, visit our website https://WoodenItBeNice.ca Hosted by Scott Bennett, owner of Wooden It Be Nice in Brooklin, Ontario, Canada #Woodworking #Pet #Cat