Someone recently suggested a birdhouse as a good project to work on with our granddaughter, and I thought that was a great idea. We wanted something that would attract finches, sparrows, chickadees, that sort of thing. A bit of internet research gave me the basics: The entry hole should be 1 ½ inches diameter, situated about 4 inches above the floor. The house should be about 10 inches deep so the nest can be built near the back — The chicks will be less likely to fall out of the house. And there should be a way to clean out the old nest materials once the birds are done with it for the season.
Next, what should it look like? Again, to Google for some ideas. I found a nice looking rustic asymmetrical design and thought, “I can make something like that.” Asymmetric is good. I won’t have to worry about making super-precision cuts and the like.
with the design sort of set, it was time to scrounge up some wood. I had an old pallet leaning against the back of the shed and some random scrap pieces in various sizes and shapes laying about, so problem solved.
Prepping the wood.
Most all of the prep work was done ahead of time — A seven year old would get bored pretty quickly watching me saw, plane, and glue pieces of wood for several hours, no doubt.
Almost as exciting as watching paint dry.
For the front and rear walls, I glued a couple pieces of pallet wood together, planed them smooth, and cut out the shape with a jigsaw (The only electric tool used on this project).
The side walls are made from some extra baseboard trim — I cut it into roughly 1 ½ inch strips by about ¼ inch thick. I pre-drilled the nail holes in these pieces to prevent splitting.
For the roof, there was a piece of 1/8 inch plywood that I again cut into strips and pre-drilled the nail holes.
A roof needs shingles. Looking around, I found a package of cedar shims. Perfect. I just broke them into rectangular pieces and sanded most of the rough break edges away. I needed about 150 of them. It was beer time for sure when I finished this part!
Nearly ready for assembly.
We’re ready to put it together now that our granddaughter is here for the weekend to help. Keep in mind she’s seven, so her idea of helping was to scatter nails all over the workbench and bring me random pieces of wood. When she got tired of that, she drilled some holes in a piece of scrap wood. Then she went swimming..
The only things I had to buy were the hinges and latch for the floor and a piece of copper sheet to cover the peak of the roof. I have a few different wood stains left over from earlier jobs, so I varied the coloring on the shingles.
The finished project!
So we (well, I) managed to get it all done before she had to go home today. She’s very proud of it and can’t wait to show her mom. Mrs. R. likes it too, so much that I’m making another one for her now. Job security!
Finally, check out what came in Saturday’s mail. Another Ebay purchase — I think I’m personally keeping them profitable..
This is a 1940’s Disston and Sons backsaw. Back in the day, Disston was the premier saw manufacturer in the world.
I didn’t do much with this. I took it apart and soaked the steel in Evaporust overnight. I scraped the old varnish off the handle and gave it a few coats of boiled linseed oil. This morning, I cleaned up the brass bits and reassembled with the now rust-free blade. I probably spent a total of an hour on this one — I was after a user tool, not a perfect restoration.
After clean-up.
These guys knew how to do human-machine interface (HMI) before the term was ever coined.
I love the handle on this saw. It fits perfectly in the hand, and is a joy to use. I haven’t sharpened it yet but it cuts nicely as-is. I’ll still sharpen it, though. Tools can never be too sharp, you know.
Stay safe, everyone!
