Project: Raised Dog Dishes

Raised dog dishes Pt. 6

The bad mojo is gone, and I’m back on track now. Last night, I wrapped up construction of the top, in spite of it being 50 degrees in the shop. I know I know I’m a big sissy; but I like to be warm, when I’m working in the shop. It’s kind of hard to focus on the task and hand, when you keep pondering what temperature frostbite start to become a concern.

The first thing I did, and forgot to take a picture of, was crosscut the tops to length. Routing holes for the dishes, was the second and most time consuming step of the evening. While it’s time consuming, it’s simple with a router circle jig. Step one is to locate and drill the hole for the centering pin. Step two is to pick the appropriate radius, and the final step is to start making saw dust.

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Raised dog dishes wrap-up

They’re done, and I’m really happy with how they turned out. This was my first experience with black walnut, and I must say, I really like the wood. It was really easy to work with my limited hand tool collection and skill set. Most of the work was done with power tools, but I used my hand tools for a lot of the finishing and finesse work.

I have read that walnut is the “premier” North American furniture making wood, and after this project I can see why. The only real drawback of walnut is that it has large pores/grain. I had originally wanted a glass smooth surface for the top, but I quickly changed my mind when I realized how much work that would require. Ok, that’s enough of me babbling on it’s time for the photos.