How to Make a Bird Feeder // Woodworking | I Like To Make Stuff

I wanted to replace an old, dingy bird feeder with a new one!

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Now that I live in my grandad's old house, I find tons of his woodworking projects around. One that we really enjoy is this big bird feeder right outside our dining room. He made it a while back, and it's a little worse for ware, so I thought it was time to remake my grandad's design with some fresh materials.

If you've ever taken a shop class in school or done a woodworking project as a child, there's a pretty good chance you've made a birdhouse. Wood selection may not have been a priority, probably using cheap pine boards from the home center. Whatever wood choose must be able to withstand the rigors of outdoor use.

My research has shown that the cedar bird feeder shouldn't be finished with anything, unless you wanted to paint it. I thought some spar urethane or protective coating was necessary, but many, many opinions pointed to leaving the cedar bare and letting it resist the weather like it should.

I purchased some cedar 1x4s from the home center to make this bird feeder. My grandad's design required mostly wide, flat boards to make up the roof, walls, and base, rather than dimensional planks. In order to get those flat panels, the 1x4s had to glue together on the short sides. Typically, pine 1x4s shrink as they dry and original 90 degree cuts end up rounding over. To remove these soft and distinct edges you can use a jointer or a table saw to create a flatter face appropriate for panel making.

Cedar doesn't shrink in the same way when drying, so these short faces were pretty flat and clean. To join the boards together, I simply used a biscuit jointer to keep the 1x4s aligned during glue-up. I cut and glued the sections that would become the roof, the two walls, and the bird feeder's fenced-in floor.

I didn't have any dimensions or plans to go by, I just used my grandad's existing bird feeder and tried to replicate it as best I could. Using some double-sided tape to keep the wall pieces together, I cut them both with the circular saw to form their final shape. The two roof panels just needed a simple bevel on one edge so when glued together, it matched the pitch of the roof. To find the roof pitch, I simply used the cutoff pieces from the side walls and set my table saw blade to that angle. I then cut a small dado in the sides of each wall panel so that glass walls could slide into place.

The two remaining walls will be made of glass panes so that you can see how much bird seed is left in the feeder. I had some left over pieces of glass, but they were too big for this project and needed to be cut down. I used a hand-held glass cutter with a straightedge to score some nice clean lines on a few sheets of glass. After applying some slight pressure at the edges, the glass snapped along the score lines and the remaining walls were ready to be slid into place. I cut some small spacers out of scrap cedar to stop the glass walls from hitting the base panel. This gap will allow the bird seed to spill out the bottom but create enough of a jam that the seeds will trickle out over time.

Now that the roof is all glued up, the walls have been cut, and the base panel had a small retaining wall added, it was time to assemble the feeder. I attached the wooden walls to the base panel using glue and screws from the underside. I went outside and took down the old bird feeder from its post and removed the old mounting screws. Using some new outdoor decking hardware, I screwed the updated bird feeder's base onto the post. Once mounted, I slid in the two glass pieces onto the small spacers.

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How to Make a Bird Feeder // Woodworking | I Like To Make Stuff

I Like To Make Stuff

[williampeppers]

I just watched with my daughter. She 100% on board in making this. Thanks for the video. Simple and easy to follow.

[jeffro-ch]

Getting ready to make a new bird feeder. Like your design. Will probably use plexiglass. Love working with cedar. The spring idea is great!

[sgsax]

Great back-to-basics project that anyone can do. Family-friendly too! Thanks for sharing!

[MrBernie]

Great idea, great punchy presentation, many great thanks !!! Kind Regards, Bernie, SW Wales UK 👍👍

[johnsmithSongbird]

Good show
Please remember safety is always a must
If you cut off a finger they don't grow back

[JJPetro]

Nice looking job, looks great! I offer the following: sand the edges of the glass so that no one (or bird) can be cut on the edges, and biscuits absorb the moisture from the glue to actually swell in the pocket. Helps lock them in place. A nice bit of info for the newcomer to biscuit joinery.

[temersonAP]

Great project, Bob! A quick tip to make cutting the glass easier: use a cheap brush to run a little WD-40 along the cut line before you score it. When you do this, the cut has less of a tendency to run wildly when you snap them apart.

[stafdehat]

Bob, for cutting the glass - score one side. Experiment with angle and pressure 'til you find something that works for you. Be sure that you only do one clean pass, though - no rolling back & forth. Also, don't go completely off the edge of the glass - just go right up to ~1/8" of the edge. After it's scored, don't try to fold it. Instead, flip the whole sheet over, and tap on the uncut side along the score line. The glass should crack cleanly along the the score line. This tapping method is why glass cutters always have a cutter on one end and a metal ball on the other end.

[NitchMakes]

Bob I love how you make replacements for old items around your home. Awesome

[beamerA]

Quick tip about cutting glass do not go over your score line. Score the glass once then break. id it a straight cut you can line the score line with the edge of a table and push down on the over hang. I loved your video. Great Job.

[johncichon]

You did a great job of communicating. I'm an experienced wood worker but never built a bird house. My grandson and I will be doing some next week. Thanks!

[RSpudieD]

This turned out really nice and I like that you remade an old version. Good job, bob!

[MakeThings]

Bob, I'm glad to see people use biscuits, especially people with large subscription numbers. I feel like the biscuit joiner needs some love, so thanks for that. 😁

[NowieC]

I love the smell of a wood shop! Great project!

[cliffcarlo]

I went to the lumber yard and picked up some nice T&G floorboards, glued 3 together at a time to make some wider boards. They were pretty inexpensive too.compared to other boards/planks. Wasn't sure if they would hold up in the weather even after treating with wood preserver (outside only) 2 years later and they are still doing well (all 3). They hold way more seed than those tube feeders. I particularly like the roof construction with less chance of the weather seeping in through a hinged lid. Nice build, so thanks for sharing your design.

[comanderhomer]

This is you going to be great for a summer project for my kid.

[CGagnon]

I personally found that using a bit of oil helped with scoring glass. You are definitely right that you don't need to push hard; I made the same mistake the first time I tried to use one. If you push too hard the scoring tool doesn't spin, and that's what actually scores the glass. I struggled with those things for a while making some custom mirrors for a nursery. I went through many bad cuts before I finally got the hang of it

Great work as always!

edit: oh wow, the way you set the blade for the roof was genius. I would not have though of that! Great tip

[richardbertrand]

Great Job On The Bird Feeder. Will Be Looking At Building A Couple Of Them For At Home And At Thr Cottage.

[ryanedwardking]

Very cool. A little big for us but easy to scale. Thanks Bob!

[leocookie]

your back yard alone is bigger than any place me or my whole family have ever owned....
got them youtube views...
love you though you deserve it