Foreclosure Bowl

Step 3 Boltin'

The bends in this bowl are pinned in place with #10 x 3/8" zinc-plated round head slot-screw machine bolts. 3/8" is about the shortest you're probably going to find, even though it is a little long for our purposes. Get some matching nuts and washers.

This step can require a good bit of hand strength. Grab two adjoining tabs and force one over the other, pulling them together so that the planes of each tab are parallel and the holes align. One hole might be higher or lower than the other; just drill out your holes a little bigger if need be. Force a bolt with a washer through the hole. Tighten the nut with a screwdriver and a ratchet or wrench until tabs are tight to one another. Repeat on all four corners.

Now you have the bowl; to cover up the holes in the corners, drill them out again to the diameter of your bolt. The corner holes are necessary for the bends to work, as they provide a negative space as "relief" for the stress of forcing the metal to do something it doesn't want to do. Use two washers and two nuts to secure each corner bolt, leaving the head down to serve as a "foot."

Glue a little neoprene washer or felt pad on the bolt head. While its flipped over, use a rubber mallet or just your hands to bend the bolts so that they all sprout from the bottom of the bowl at a roughly similar angle. If the bowl still doesn't sit flat, you can usually flex the whole bowl some to get the right level of adjustment.