Another Bird House?

   I almost hate to admit this, but I found myself building another bird house this past week.    The log cabin bird house that I had built last month and placed on the silent auction table for the Christmas fund raiser sponsored by the wood club I belong to, now has a bid of  $100.00.   I had placed a starting bid below $50 on the feeder thinking that I would end up bringing it back home.  (The feeder I am now using is 15 years old and needs to be replaced.)  Today it looks like that feeder is going to find a nice home somewhere else so I needed to build a new feeder for me. 

   I have several scraps of green pressure treated wood that had been given to me which I am not sure what I will end up doing with all of it.  This project required several small pieces so it was an opportunity to use up some of those scraps.   Not only was the wood given to me, but Vanessa had given me a "Lowe's Creative Ideas - Weekend Projects" magazine last summer that had this plan in it.   It came out of their spring/summer issue 2011.   (Of course what is a weekend project for some could be a week project for others...)

    The picture to the left shows the start up.   Several pieces of wood were trimmed to 1 1/2 inches wide.   What I love about projects like this is that there is very little sanding.   Just needed to touch up the ends a little where there may have been a some tear out from the saw.   Since I have made the move from the garage shop to the basement shop, Pam also likes it when there is a minimum amount of sanding.   (If Mom is happy, everyone is happy.)  One wants to be careful anyway when handling pressure treated wood.    Most articles I have read say that today's pressure treated wood is an eco friendly product.    Still when sanding I would think one would want to be careful to not breathe in the dust.  (That's my reason for not sanding and I am sticking to it.)

   The picture to the right shows the bin part of the feeder coming together.    The inside of the bin is lined with plexiglas.    For the sides I used 1/8 inch thick plex and for the exposed sides I used 1/4 inch.  I had both on hand.    The plan calls for 1/8 inch all around, but we have a high population of squirrels and they seem to think they have to eat.   When they do, they have gnawed at the 1/8 inch plastic, but have trouble with the 1/4.   Of course we use exterior glue and when using pressure treated wood you need to use stainless steel screws.

  To the left is the completed version of this bird house.    Lot's of plastic in this one.   This picture shows the top off and to the side.   Those boards on the side of the top actually slide down in slots made in the side of the bin part of the feeder.   When I take the old feeder off of its post I will take the pipe flange from that feeder and mount it to this feeder.   I did make a couple mistakes when building this project.   One major one was that I was in a hurry and ended up building two left sides.    It was a reminder to me that I need to use tape to mark my pieces.    Oh well, as I said I had plenty of scrap so we just built another side. 

  Well above is the finished house.    When it is mounted I will have to take a picture outside.    Just did not have time before posting the blog to get that done.   (Busy buying my Christmas presents for myself for 2013.   The wife says that I have already spent my allowance for Christmas presents on myself for 2011 and 2012.  That Internet shopping can get addictive.  Once again, doing my share to help the economy)   I have to admit that I like the log cabin feeder more than this one.    The design for this one looks like it could have been done by Frank Lloyd Wright.    The log cabin house looks more like a DAG project. 

   Next week I plan to post some pictures of items that were made for the silent auction that I wrote about.   Saturday, Dec. 17th, the bidding comes to a close.   You have a good week.

Dec. 16th, 2011, and no snow.     No birds...   Must be scared of the new wood.