How To Build A Bird Table With Pictures

If you’re unsure, start with a tabletop roughly 12 by 18 inches (30 by 46 cm) in size. The top of your table won’t need to support a large amount of weight, so any large sheet of wood should work. Make sure the wood you use for the tabletop and all other parts of the table is properly weather treated. If it’s not, you can waterproof the wood yourself.

Making the trim shorter than the tabletop will allow water to drain off it when it rains. If you’re making a table that is 12 by 18 inches (30 by 46 cm) in size, for example, you will need 2 pieces of trim 10 inches (25 cm) in length and 2 pieces that are 16 inches (41 cm) long.

Use clamps to hold the wood in place as the glue dries fully. Make sure that you put the smaller pieces of trim on the shorter sides of the table. You should have a flat tabletop with trim around the edges, leaving a small gap between each piece of trim in the 4 corners. The wood glue should be dry after around 30 minutes to 1 hour. Check the instructions on your specific brand of wood glue for further advice on drying times.

To make sure the screws go into the wood straight, drill some pilot holes first. Use a 3⁄32 inch (0. 24 cm) drill bit to drill a small hole through the bottom of the tabletop and roughly 1⁄2 inch (1. 3 cm) into the trim.

If you’re making a bird table that is 30 by 50 inches (76 by 127 cm) in size, your 2 base pieces should be 50 inches (130 cm) in length. This will make a very sturdy table, but you could also make the base smaller than this. Try finding a measurement between the 2 dimensions of your tabletop. Anything too much smaller than the shorter dimension may be too unsteady, but something halfway between should work well. If you don’t want to make a base for your bird table, you could also screw it into the top of a wooden fence post installed somewhere in your yard.

This should leave you with a 4 in (10 cm) wide notch that goes halfway through each piece of wood.

This will create a flat bottom on which the bird table can sit. For extra stability, cover the inside of each notch with a little wood glue to hold the cross together.

If you have a different wooden post that you’d like to use, such as an old table leg or a different dimension of wood, this will work as well. Make sure it’s not bigger than 4 by 4 inches (10 by 10 cm), or else it will overlap the wooden base.

A pilot hole will help make sure that screws go in properly and that everything is lined up perfectly. Rather than using a measuring tape, you can rule a straight line from each diagonal corner of the wooden post. The place where the 2 lines intersect is the center.

For extra stability, you could drill pilot holes and add additional screws in other corners of the post. This will prevent it from rotating, so make sure it is perfectly square with the base before doing so.

If you are using a smaller base or making a larger table, you may need braces of a different size. Position a ruler at a 45-degree angle between the post and brace. Adjust it until the length looks good relative to the size of your table and use that measurement instead.

If you don’t have a miter box or circular saw, you could also mark a 45-degree line on the wood with a protractor and pencil. This won’t be as accurate, but with a little extra sanding and some wood glue, it should still be functional.

It may help to drill pilot holes with a 3⁄32 inch (0. 24 cm) drillbit first. The screws should go through the angled wood at an angle so that they go into the post or the cross completely straight.

This will help ensure that the tabletop is perfectly balanced on the post and perfectly centered. You can also find the middle point of a post and the tabletop by drawing a straight line between each diagonal corner. The point where they intersect is the middle.

For extra stability, drill extra screws through the tabletop and into the post.

If you have an orbital sander available, it will make this process go much faster.

Make sure that whichever paint or stain you choose won’t be harmful to any birds. As they eat off the table, they may ingest small amounts of paint or stain, so make sure it is completely non-toxic.

You can buy bird seed online or from your local pet store. For extra stability, hammer some metal or wooden pegs into the ground on either side of each plank in the base of your table. Tie a piece of rope over each plank between the pegs to hold the table in stronger winds.