I can\’t sit around doing nothing, so this morning decided to do a small project I have been putting off, and that was to make a \’dog table\’ for our second dog, he is a rescue dog, and struggles to eat because of a deformed jaw, due to abuse as a pup, as a result he ends up pushing his bowl all over the room, to try and get the food, it was time to put this right.
Firstly I had to decide how high to make the table, the internet was no use at all, everyone has their own ideas as to how high it should be, so I decided that about two thirds his leg height would be comfortable for him, if not, I will have to make some adjustments.
I had some laminated oak board, left over from another project, so decided to use that. Now was the first time I would be using my circle cutting jig in anger, so I was interested to see how hard or easy it would be to use.
I set it up with my trim router
That part was easy 🙂 I cut the board which is 5/8\” thick in three passes, on the last, I turned the board over and cut, to avoid tearout
I was very impressed with my scrap jig, it will certainly be getting more use.
That done I cut out the side supports and cross rails
I decided to shape the supports, and then using my trim router freehand, rounded over all the exposed edges that the bowl and the dog would come into contact with. I also prepared the pocket holes to attach the legs to the top.
Once assembled, I took the table down to the house to ensure the bowl sat correctly
Then it was back to the workshop to put some finish, I decided to use varnish, as the dog will probably be slobbering over it, so I used 50/50 varnish to mineral spirit, and wiped it on. So far it has had four coats, it will have a few more before it goes into use.
You will see that I put screws in the feet so I could complete the varnishing in one go!
A couple of hours and some scrap wood…job done!
UPDATE:
An Englishman in Colombia 