"You ready? Yes! Thank you cousin for making me this bird table." This week is all about how I
built a giant bird table for my cousin's communal garden. And he shares it with other lads who have
disabilities. Hopefully it'll give them much enjoyment of bird watching and a routine of
feeding them every morning. Let me show you how I made it. So we'll start with an offcut
of birch plywood, which will be the table's main platform. And I'm marking the longest length of it
on a ripped down renegade strip of skirting board that I found. As usual, I'll leave a free set of
plans and links to things I'm using below. And I cut two of those lengths on the crosscut saw,
but hand saws, if more accessible, are absolutely fine. Then place them behind the platform piece.
Pushed all three against a flat edge, then I can work out the length of my next two side pieces.
And now it's a matter of gluing and nailing or pre-drilling and screwing the sides
on. Then with the old skirting board being ripped in a position
where I left a beveled edge - I belt center of the corners to match it.
Next, I'd cut four studs for the corners. These were originally ripped CLS which will
hold the roof later. And they had some sharp edges which I rounded off with sandpaper.
While I was there, I sanded off the table's edges as well before I fixed those corner posts
in place. I held one in each corner to pre-drill holes from either side
and one from underneath before gluing and screwing them on.
Now I've got what looks like a small coffee table,
so let's give it a pitched roof. With another off-cut that was at least twice
the length of the longest edge, I marked and cut to the same width as the base.
And marked a lower piece on either side.
Then a center point. And using a straight edge, I could then draw my apex shape
before taking it to the bandsaw to cut. If you don't own one of these (because I don't at home),
some clamps and a jigsaw or handsaw will work too.
Pretty sweet! Now to cut another two sides, I held another offcut along the two corner posts on the
shortest side to match the width from the bottom. But don't take the measurements from towards the
top as it's less likely to be correct. By the way, this offcut is also the same one that I
used to mark the shortest height, so I knew it would match. And glued and screwed it together.
After slotting it on top of the corner posts, I'd cut and clamped four pieces of wood
to the post itself which would prop it up while I pre-drilled and screwed the top on.
To make it more rigid, I also nailed another structural piece in the center
at the top. This would also give me somewhere to nail the roof on
and some trim. However, while placing some lap panel offcuts on top for a visual,
this is where the roof started to look a little bit too flat. So I grabbed the cuts
I'd created from cutting the pitched roof and nailed and screwed those back on top.
And then another structural piece in the middle to reinforce it and screwed from underneath.
For the roof, back to those off-cut lap panels. These are pressure treated and overall as you've
probably noticed this project is great for using offcuts. And I overlapped them by about an inch
with the thickest edge facing down towards the slope. Although I had to take my time
while lining up and nailing because the top's apex frame was quite thin.
But before I added some scrolly trim, I cut more studs with a miter
to meet in the center. And clamped it to the lap panels so I could nail it from above.
It's not vital that these mitres are perfect as we'll be adding another detailed piece later.
But before I hand saw the protruding lengths, I also found some quadrant beading which I nailed
top center, leaving some overhang so I could cut down to match the roof.
Back to the scrolling trim that I was talking about. I used more lap panel offcuts.
And here's my dad encouraging me to freestyle a pattern which
initially felt really wrong, but actually my wavy design worked out really cool.
So feel free to get creative or just leave it as it is. But once I'd cut one with a bandsaw,
I then took it to the rest of the pieces. Drew around it and repeated cutting.
Then nailed them on the front.
And covered the miter join with another off-cut bandsaw shape.
Now, you don't have to, but this time I used tongue and groove offcuts to draw some
curved corner gussets and attach them to the posts. I initially just made four to nail on,
but ended up loving the detail so much that I made some more and added to the other sides.
And drilled a few drainage holes along the sides for water to run off. For anyone wondering though,
this is exterior plywood. Then to stain and treat it all, which I often tend to forget
to share what I'm using, so this time I got it on camera and it's called Aquashield in brown
which is environmentally friendly. For the bird table stand, something that I've always wanted
to do and that is to create a half lap join. So I'm taking some lessons from my dad on the best
way to measure it. I've got two pieces here, which will be the upper part of the stand.
And I need to cut a notch in the center of both. Place one on the end and mark it. Then measure the
remaining distance and found the center point of that. Now hold the timber against the mark
and recheck the distance from the other end to see if it matches.
If it is, mark on the other side of it and remove it to draw a line with a speed square.
Then repeat with the other piece, which will eventually make a cross
for the notch that needs to be exactly halfway down. And after measuring and marking it,
my Dad's setting up the crosscut saw for me, so I could make a series of notches
again. If you don't have this, I'd just use a circular saw set to the right depth.
And glued and screwed it together.
I was going to use a 3 inch wide post for the leg, but my Dad found this fancy newel post for some
more extravagance. Then glued and nailed some mitered supports before moving on to drilling
and screwing to fasten it properly. But just a reminder though, I'm still working on the post
while it's upside down. The feet need to be a lot bigger than this due to the size of it.
But it was way too high, so I clamped and hand sawed it down to 1.2 meters.
For the large base though, I found much bigger pieces. And instead of the half lap join,
this time I glued and stacked them on top of each other to screw an easy cross, then added
feet blocks to make up the difference before screwing it to the post itself.
But this time, I screwed on bigger supports and more screws throughout to make sure I
didn't miss any and make sure it was robust. Now the base gets treated so I could leave it to dry
before taking it to its new home. Although I had a camera fail here because my tripod
sloped down while I got help to put the table on top. And after making it level, I asked my cousin
if he'd like to pop in the final four screws which I'd already pre-drilled holes for him.
"Keep going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bit more. That's it. That is perfect!
Yep, done." Right, let's make an offer the birds can't refuse. Fat balls, peanuts and seeds. And I
think they're gonna enjoy topping the table up every morning as part of their routine.
They've also promised to send me some pictures of customers. "This is how I do it and I'm really
putting myself... you have to be quiet though! What about this? Hi everyone, this week I'm going
to show you how to make a giant bird table for my cousin Joel. That was embarrassing, that end. I'll
do it... I'll try it one more time because the ending was a bit like.... Joel: I've got it now.
This week, I'm going to show you how to make a very large... see, I've just messed up. This week
I'm going to show you how to make a very large bird table for your garden, so keep on watching.
I just keep it short and sweet because I know that I'm going to mess up. Iif
I have too much to say, I'll be here all day!