Bird House

I have some old lumber leftover from some palettes for materials I had delivered last summer. The wood is tough stuff and has a few mail heads stuck in it here and there from where I cut the palettes apart with a sawzall. I finally decided to use the lumber to make bird houses and feeders to put in the flower gardens and to give away. My wife agreed to paint the bird houses and feeders.The first attempt only took about twenty minutes to build. I cut the 4 sides out (two rectangles, two rectangles with triangles on top) using my compound miter saw. I lucked out in that the left over piece was the right side for the bottom. I then cut two rectangles out of another board for the roof. All cuts were square (no angles). I used a hole saw on my drill press to cut out the entry hole and a bit to make a hole for the dowel perch.

Assembly was done using an air nailer. I glued the perch in with wood glue.


I chose rustic looking wood for the whole project. The nail heads and mishapen edges seemed to add to the character. Some of the wood was slightly different sizes, but the small gaps (less than 1/4 inch) only seemed to add to the rustic feel of the project.


My wife painted flowers and a "Home Sweet Home" sign on the birdhouse.


More to come later as I try new designs.

Recycled Wood Rack

We had an old dining room table with a glass top that broke. I decided to reuse the frame to make a wood rack for my garage.

The frame had the legs removed. I drilled four holes through the ceiling in my garage, making sure to go through one of the 2x4s lined up with the outline of the frame. I drilled matching holes on the frame. I put threaded rods down, putting a large washer and 2 nuts above and a washer, nut, and codder key below to hold the frame.




Obviously with an aluminum frame, the key thing for use will be not to overload it. Still, it should be able to hold a fair amount of lumber up and out of the way.