Shop update #349 (7-17-24) Custom Cat Bowl Stand

We have 2 cats in our house and the main feeding station is downstairs.  My wife likes to have a water bowl upstairs and made this temporary setup.  One of the cats keeps moving it in front of my son’s door and spilling water on the carpet.

I have some scraps of 1/2″ plywood leftover from another project so I’m going to see if I can make a water dish stand to replace the current setup.

I started by cutting everything down to size on the table saw.

I then used my CNC to cut out 2 – 4″ circles in one board.  I used the CNC because it can make perfect circles and I hate the jigsaw.

4 inches ended up being too small so I cut 1 – 4 1/2″ circle instead. It’s a snug fit so I will make the next one a little bigger.

I made sure that all of the boards were the correct length and then cut out the curves on the CNC machine.  I am going to try and design the next one to be fully cut out on the CNC machine just to see if I can do it..

I used glue and brad nails to attach all the pieces together.  I then added some wood putty to fill in all the holes and let it dry.

Once the putty was dry, I sanded everything down with 120 grit paper.  The best waterproofing is paint so I used a sample that I bought a couple of years ago and gave the bottom 1 coat and the top 2 coats.  Normally, I would have put a couple more coats on but I’m going to remake this in a couple of months so this should be good for now.  I am also going to try spray paint next time as this was a pain to paint by hand.

I found a silicone mat on Amazon for $6.99 and ordered it before I started the project.

Hopefully this will keep the cat from moving the water bowl and spilling it on the carpet.

On a side note, my son is allergic to cats so I built a frame that fits inside his doorway that has a zippered mesh like a tent attached to it.  This way he can open the door without the cats going in and covering all his stuff with cat hair.