Bird table project

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
18,140
Location
Lancashire
Just found these pics on my camera and thought i'd post them for anyone interested. These cost around £180 at my local garden centre, so very rewarding to make one yourself for around £15-£20 in materials.

Cut out a base from exterior plywood or alternatively you could use solid redwood pine. Its best to use a few strips, so there is less chance of the boards warping. I mitred beads around the base to cover the end grain and then moulded it with my router.

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Cut a square of 6mm external plywood the same size as the base. This will be used for the roof. Then screw in a centre post and screw the rafters in place. The rafters should have 45o angles and should be pre-drilled and screwed into place from underneath the ply. At the tops where they meet the centre post I pre-drilled and nailed into the post.

For the frame that the roof will sit on, I used some 40mm square timber, joined together with 8mm dowels and polyurethane glue. The frame should be smaller than the base to give a ledge around the frame.

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I then put a curve on the top rails and used my router with a round cutter to make it a little more decorative.

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To make the slate roof I measured them up and then cut them out with a grinder. To hold in place I used low modulus neutral cure silicone. Dont use **** silicone as it wont hold and the slates will come loose.

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Put loads of silicone on the edges of the rafters and lay the slates onto it. Once it's gone off they will be hard to remove and it should be very strong. to stop them sliding down while the silicone set I used some masking tape to hold them in place.

Once the silicone is dry you should grind the tops of the slates to get them nice and flat. You could use some rough sandpaper and a sanding block, or a diamond sharpening stone.

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To make these I used a 45o chamfer cutter in my router and a V-groove and rounded cutter for the inside cuts. You could do it with a table saw or even a plane and chisels if you don't have anything better.

To top it off I cut 2 pieces of pine and added a chamfer to one and shaped the other. Then pre-drilled through them both with a 4mm drill bit, and then drilled halfway through the top board with an 8mm drill bit. This then allows the spire to slot into the counter bored hole to finish it off.

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To make the spire, I glued an 8mm dowel into the edge of some square timber. Then rounded the edges off with a plane to get it roughly rounded. I don't have a lathe, so I put the dowel into a drill and clamped it to my workbench, then rested a chisel on a block of wood. It worked surprisingly well :D.

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Silicone the dowel into the 8mm counter bored hole drilled earlier, to cover the screw.

That's pretty much it. Screw the frame to the roof, through the top rails and into the 6mm plywood. Then screw the base into the frame. I also added silicone to stop water ingress into the bottom of the frame legs.

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This is the smaller one and a larger one I made in the background. I'm not happy with the colour of the stain so going to try and source some lighter, more transparent stain.

Here's a couple of pics of the larger bird table I made.

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Next project will be a hexagonal roofed bird house :cool:.
 
I was going to put a few drainage holes in but I was worried that it would allow water to get into the timber. I could do with some sort of plastic/ metal tube with a lip at the top that I can set into the holes.

I might be making a few more as my mums work has asked for a price for some, but I have no idea what to charge.
 
Idea of pricing here, designs similar to yours. You could try making a hexagonal one they look quite interesting.

I finally got around to making a few more bird tables for some family and decided to have a go at making a hexagonal one for my front garden.


I got a load of 42mm square pressure treated redwood offcuts, leftover from a fencing job, which were perfect for making the columns. They would have just been burnt or skipped, so it's great to put them to better use.


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Looks like this Dewalt table saw is pretty accurate, they all line up \o/. i was expecting the angle to be off and have to get the hand plane out, but its spot on. It gives me some ideas for some turning projects when i get hold of a lathe!

Speaking of lathes, this is my current one :D

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This is as far as I got today. There are some 8mm dowels used as well as them brackets. probably a bit over engineered for a bird table but it wouldn't be as fun if I just nailed it together :p. I'll be adding a curve to the top rails later.

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Sanded it and cut the curves into the top rails today. Should look pretty awesome once the roof goes on.


By the way, does anyone know of a good semi transparent stain, that's safe for birds? I have been currently using a Cuprinol water based garden furniture stain, but its really hard not to get overlaps and brush marks in it. Plus i'd prefer something that allows the grain to show through.
 
I decided to get this finished off so thought i'd update the thread for anyone interested. Just need to add some drainage holes and then stain it now. I think i'll have to concrete a post into the ground for this as it weighs a lot! I'll be staining it with some leftover Sikkens in natural oak I have, so it should stay quite light in colour.


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I could do with some sort of brass tube insert with a lip at the top for the drainage holes. I dont like the idea of just drilling a hole in the ply as I want this to last a long time.
 
Thanks :).

Hex one looks very swish, how long did it take to make?

It's hard to say as I have just been doing an hour or so here and there, i'd guess around 20 hours, spread over 6 months. Now I know all the measurements and angles etc it would be a lot faster.


Just need it to stop raining now so that I can slap some stain on it..
 
Could you not drill the drainage hole, then pour some stain down it to stop water getting into the timber?

That's what I have done with the others I have made, but as this will be for my Mum i want it to last as long as possible. All the timber was free as it was completely made from offcuts from work, so I dont mind buying a few bits.



I think these will be perfect. I have a 12mm drill bit, so they will slot into the holes nice and tight if i put a coat of stain on as well. Then just tap it down into the timber so the lip is embedded into the ply. Should stop any water getting to the ply and will be easier to poke any crud out of the holes.
 
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Looks great! I like how you have continued the molding on the roof corner covers around to the front edge. Glad someone found it useful :).
 
I have a cheap router table which makes it a lot easier. I screw a piece of scrap plywood to the fence and then move the fence with ply toward the cutter so that the cutter goes through the ply. This means there is a continuous fence for the workpiece to be pressed against and reduces the chance of the part getting stuck between the cutter and fence and then being flung back. I'll also take a few passes, so that a small amount of material is being removed at a time.


If I was to do it without a router table i'd screw the work piece down and add some same thickness material around the work piece to support the router base and stop it tilting and use a cutter with a ball bearing to follow the shape.

The very small chamfered piece at the top would probably be best done by hand with a sharp block plane, or with a file/ some rough sandpaper and a block of wood.

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The part in the middle is what you want to shape. Screwed down to stop it moving. Then a piece of scrap wood of the same thickness placed around the workpiece (also screwed down) with a hole cut out to allow for the workpiece, plus enough space to allow a channel for the ball bearing of the router cutter.
 
My sister moved into a new house so i am making her a bird table as a moving in present. Decided to try an easier way of constructing it as the last one took way too long with all the dowel joints. Managed to knock this up in a day so far, so a lot quicker to build.

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Quite pleased with this one, I think the proportions are better than the last one i made. She is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, so I'll leave it bare wood and let her pick out a colour as I think she wanted it painted rather than stained.

Cordyline said:
Now I'm looking for a Scroll-saw - Hegner for preference

A proper scroll saw then! Mine is just a cheapo £45 Parkside from ebay. It does the job but theres a lot of vibration and the base doesnt seem very stable. I guess you get what you pay for.

Liking the new bird table. Slate base is a good idea as the plywood is always the first thing to rot.
 
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This might be the beginning of a custom bird table business!

I don't mind making a few every now and then for friends and family but think i'd get pretty sick of making them all the time.

I think my next project will be a wheel barrow planter, but need to get some scrap wood.

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Finished until my sister comes to visit and picks out some paint. Hope she doesn't go for some horrible colour like pink :eek:. Think green or cream could look ok.

Went for a cartoon nuclear missile for the spire on top :D
 
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