Dog feeder with drawer

[Kelley Nelson]

Hi guys,

It's my first post! I am a fairly new woodworker and interested in building an elevated dog feeder with some built in storage. (A drawer.)

I actually found a design on Flickr that I'd love to use as a basis, but because I am not terribly experienced, I'm not sure how this piece is constructed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastvoldcustom/2870616638/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastvoldcustom/2869782893/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastvoldcustom/2869784671/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastvoldcustom/2869787807/

I hope I'm not doing something considered bad form on the forum, but I'd like to reverse engineer this and make one of my own.

Is this just a mitered face frame and otherwise constructed like a base cabinet with a drawer? I don't see any hint of a joint on the top or sides where you can see the face frame attached to the top and sides. It's almost as if those faces join in a bevel/miter.

Other things I am pondering are the moisture/water considerations. (The finish, or water sneaking under the lip of the bowls.) and general rigidity. I could use some stretchers across the bottom and a solid panel for the back face. Extension of the drawer may need to be considered to the piece may not topple over?

Thanks much, if the project piques any interest, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts.

[Kelley Nelson]

Looking at this some more, this is probably just built from one solid piece of stock beveled at the corners? (See the knot that wraps around the corner.) Hogging out that much material for the bowls must have been fun. (Drill press, cleaned up with a router?) The weight of the piece must solve some of the issues of counterbalancing the drawer when it's opened

Could this look be replicated with thinner stock?

[Lee Schierer]

It looks to me like the feeder is covered with a plastic laminate. Making an item of that size from solid material would make it weigh a lot and it would be difficult to move. You can easily reverse engineer it because they give you dimensions and a photo at their web site. Use ratios of measurements taken from the photo and those given in the description to determine any dimension on the piece. For example they tell you the width is 25 inches. Print out the photo and measure the width. You will get some dimension saw 4". Then measure some feature in the same direction as the width say the width of the vertical piece. If you measure say 3/8", then the real dimension would be = (3/8) * (25/4) or 2-3/8. The stainless bowls are readily available at Pet Smart and others. Here's a simple feeder I made for our dog.

I cut the holes for the bowl with a router and circle cutting jig once the frame pieces were glued up.

[Shannon Kruse]

Reverse engineering something like this isn't hard, just may take some time and creativity. Most of my projects are reverse engineering of what I find online (with my own little twists).

Several years ago I made my brother an elevated dog feeder with a drawer. This has constantly been covered with water (the dog dribbles everywhere) but it still works great. The only issue I had was it was built in New Mexico (humidity <10%) but lives in Texas (humidity >50%) and the drawer expanded after the move and had to be resized before it would close. There is a shelf between the bowls and the drawer that prevents water from getting into the drawer since the drawer was supposed to contain kibble. The third picture (the unfinished pic) is what it looked like before the front panel was attached.

This was my introduction to real woodworking. At the start of this project my brothers bought me my tablesaw and I was able to use it and the router grandpa had just give me, both for the first time.

What kind of dog is this going to be for and how tall is he/she at the top of the shoulder?