Pallet Wood Bird Feeder
Introduction: Pallet Wood Bird Feeder
A bird feeder has been on my "to do" list for a very long time, and especially one made of pallet wood. When the slats are cut down into strips and laminated into full panels you end up with a beautiful alternating pattern that is completely unique.
However, an important point for my neighborhood was the eternal presence of squirrels who love eating bird seed as much as the birds themselves. So being able to stop them from eating it was a crucial point, and I found several examples online. One of the most notable examples was by <PERSON>, where access to the seeds is limited to the birds only by using entrance holes that are large enough for the birds but too narrow for the squirrels : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F4k13Yx3w8
That design came across as a really elegant one, but I was looking for an approach that was as close as possible to being 100% wood, so my approach is a little different. It features the same 1.5" holes on both sides of the feeder so only birds can get in, and has a slanted roof that can be removed by sliding it back on rails attached to its underside. The rails are basically elongated trapezoids that fit into dovetail notches at the top of the walls. The feeder measures 12" wide (at its widest), 8" tall (at its tallest) and 16" long.
Supplies
Pretty much 99% of the project is composed of pallet wood, but there's also a small amount of 1/8" plexiglass for the sides. For attachment purposes, glue and dowels are used to attach the base and the walls, while the roof and the rails are attached with glue and wood screws. For the finish there's also outdoor-rated varnish.
Step 1: Creating the Panel Blanks
Preparation is a very straight forward part of the project and starts by simply taking the pallets apart. There are multiple ways of doing it: you could hammer them apart, use a reciprocating saw to cut through the nails, use a pry bar, a pallet buster, etc. 826
In my case I've found that using the pallet buster is the easiest method and leaves the pallet slats in the best possible condition, but as mentioned - there are many ways to do this and plenty of other projects that deal with the subject.
Once the pallets have been dismantled and all metal removed, the slats get planed and cut to 1" wide strips, the strips are glued together to make boards, and voila - the bird feeder's base material is ready. For this project I ended up using three boards measuring roughly 20" by 14" and then cutting and refining their shapes further in the next steps.
Step 2: Designing the Shape
Playing around with the design in real time was one of the fun aspects of this project. I just took the floor panel and tried figuring out how I would like the walls to look by molding and cutting pieces of cardboard. The design definitely needed a wooden front and back, plexiglass sides and a sloped roof, but other than that there few criteria.
With the cardboard I was then able to try out a few designs, and settled on walls that flared outward since it seemed it would provide some protection from the wind and would simply look pretty good.
Step 3: Setting Up the Walls
With the overall design figured out, it was time to make the walls. They were basically the same shape, with the back wall being a bit taller so the roof would slant forward. With a taller wall, though, came the ability to have more holes in it so that design aspect ended up a little different between the two. The back wall ended up with six equally spaces holes while the front one only had three, but both sides have enough room for birds to easily get in and out of the feeder.
Once the holes were cut out and sanded down, the "wings" of both walls had to be made. I played with a few angles on the floor section, found one that I liked and measured it to see how the wings would be cut. It turned out to be 96.5 degrees, so the angles to cut on both the walls and the wings was 48.25 degrees.
The last step before gluing the walls together was to add the channel for the plexiglass to slide down. The channel was routed on the inside of both walls, and was done using a 1/8" bit, a Dremel and a makeshift inclined template so that the plexiglass would end up sliding into place and each the opposite wall properly. 599