A weekend of birdhouses

[chrispitude]

This weekend our friends Jim and Kendall came up to visit from Baltimore. Jim had previously expressed interest in the Shopsmith, and we had come up with the idea of building some birdhouses as a weekend project. Jim and I would handle the construction aspect, and the womenfolk would handle the decorating. We decided to crank out a dozen birdhouses assembly line style, six for each couple.

For all pictures below, you can click on them to see a more detailed image.

First I started out by finding a rough plan to go by:

some birdhouse plans

I chose the one on the right but made some slight modifications to the way the roofs attach. I decided to use 1x5 lumber for the sides/bottom, and 1x6 for the front/back/roof. I created a spreadsheet which takes the two lumber widths and the roof angle as input, and gave me all the cut lengths needed. First we cut all the various pieces out:

[ATTACH]1796[/ATTACH]

The side pieces have a straight bottom and a slanted top. To cut these, I added the short and long sides together in the spreadsheet, and added another 1/4" as margin. I then cut long pieces out to this length, one per birdhouse. I then cut at 30 degree to bisect the piece, resulting in two side pieces. After this was done, the pieces were slightly longer than they needed to be (due to the extra margin I added). This was an extremely easy operation thanks to the miter gauge extension and its stop block:

[ATTACH]1797[/ATTACH]

This is easier to see if you click on the picture above to see the closeup.

One thing I noticed was that the acute angle side being drawn against the saw blade rotation developed some fuzzies:

[ATTACH]1798[/ATTACH]

This only happened for the specific combination of acute angle being pulled against the blade. It did not happen on the very same pieces when they were cut straight across. I have a Freud blade which is supposed to be good, but maybe this is normal.

The next step was to put 30 degree bevels in both ends of the roof panels and one end of the front panel. This was accomplished by tilting the table:

[ATTACH]1799[/ATTACH]

All the panels were originally cut from stock with a flat table, and the panels which needed bevel cuts were cut slightly oversize to allow the bevel cut with the tilted table. You can see how I cut them above. I used masking tape and taped a stop block to the rip fence. This prevented the stop block from getting pulled toward the blade as I advanced the miter gauge. The stop block automatically moved up and down the table as I adjusted the rip fence to cut a precise bevel from the flat end of a piece of stock.

I think a normal table saw would have been easier. Since the blade tilts and not the table, I could have loaded up the full 8' length of a piece of stock and just made repeated slant cuts to the precise length of the needed panels, instead of having to straight-cut the panels then bevel them afterwards.

Next we converted the Shopsmith to drill press mode to cut the entry holes and perch holes:

[ATTACH]1800[/ATTACH]

Using the bimetal hole saws was a bit scary because I was not sure what speed to run them against (it was not specified anywhere in the Milwaukee hole saw manual) and they made some interesting noises when first engaging with the wood surface. We had to clean up impacted sawdust from the hole saw teeth often. A good spade bit would probably have been easier. We cut holes at 1.5", 1.75" and 2" in diameter.

The Shopsmith in drill press mode made this operation trivially easy. We moved the rip fence to the desired vertical position of the hole, and used the flip-down stop to always keep the bit centered horizontally centered on the front panels.

...continued...

[chrispitude]

Once all the panels were cut, we began assembly. We used Titebond II interior/exterior wood glue and a Harbor Freight brad nailer with 1" brads. Jim spread glue on the joints, and I nailed them up. This was pretty easy with a pneumatic nailing tool; we could not fathom how much more difficult this would have been trying to hand-nail panels together with the glue joints slip-sliding around. We got a pretty good rhythm going about halfway through.

Here's a picture of the assembled birdhouses:

[ATTACH]1801[/ATTACH]

Holy cow, were we up late assembling these things! Yep, that's AM:

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Here was the state of the dining room table when we came upstairs after a hard night's work:

[ATTACH]1803[/ATTACH]

It looks like the women have been busy too!

The next morning, Jim and I got to working on the roofs. I wanted to figure out a way to keep the roofs on the top of the birdhouse, but without using any fasteners. I came up with the idea of putting a stop block at the front underside of the roof. The interior width was 4", so I attempted to rip a leftover piece of 1x6 stock to 4". However, despite doing a full alignment the previous morning (using the dial gauge and the whole nine yards), I was getting some nasty binding after each fresh foot of ripping. The wood was trying to close up pretty good:

[ATTACH]1804[/ATTACH]

but the splitter was in place and it should not have been binding the blade so severely. I clearly don't have something set up properly.

Here is a picture of the finished roof panels:

[ATTACH]1805[/ATTACH]

The stop blocks are located on the forward roof undersides, and "catch" the edge of the front panel, keeping them securely attached. It was a bit tricky getting these blocks precisely attached so that the roofs would remain straight, but we got it done. We first scribed lines across all 12 roof panels, then Jim used two scrap wood blocks (same width as the side panels) to center the stop block, and I slid it just past the scribed line and shot two brads to attach it.

...continued...

[chrispitude]

While we were getting the roof panels finished up Sunday morning, Tricia and Kendall were hard at work decorating the houses themselves. Here are some pictures of the finished results:

[ATTACH]1806[/ATTACH]

Here are some more pictures:

[ATTACH]1807[/ATTACH]

You can see the ventilation/drain slots in the underside. This was done simply by cutting the bottom sides 1/2" short, and splitting the difference to 1/4" on each side.

The houses mount on trees by removing the roof, screwing through the back panel to attach it to a tree, then replacing the roof. However, the houses are so pretty that we may hang them along the stairs instead of mounting them outside!

Jim and I had a fantastic experience building these birdhouses with the Shopsmith. This was our first real woodworking project to actually "build" something with wood, and it was an absolute pleasure to do it with precise equipment that allows repeatable operations. The pieces fit together perfectly, the straight edges were straight, the slanted edges were slanted. The biggest sources of imperfection were when I slid the pieces around due to the glue when trying to nail the panels together.

Feel free to ask any questions!

- Chris

[a1gutterman]

Nice project, Chris. Good to get the whole group involved! I can picture some happy birds in your future! Thanks for sharing.

[beeg]

Great looking birds houses. Bet ya didn't mind staying up late to work on them. Didn't you see the tip from Nick about using sandpaper grit to hold the position?

[dusty]

Thank you so very much, Chris. This was a great post and it detailed what seems to have been a really fun and really productive "all night" affair for good friends.

The birdhouse idea was fabulous and so were the bird houses. You photographic talents are showing as well. This was a great set of pictures.

It also answered a question that I have had for a week or two. NO, you haven't finished your overhead garage storage shelves.

[bigmoe]

Great Idea. My wife has been after me to make a few birdhouses. I just showed her your photo's, now she thinks I can do the same thing, and make Christmas gifts for friends. Thank You for sharing.

[chrispitude]

Hi beeg,

I forgot about the grit idea! What a help that would have been - I bet I will remember this the next time I am fighting a glue joint.

Hi dusty,

I knew one of you regulars would catch me. I have not been making any physical progress, but I have been figuring out some details on how to get the support boards up on the ceiling. I am going to be trying it out this week, and I will be sure to share more pictures!

- Chris

[charlese]

Hi Chris - Thank you for keeping us posted on your work.! I had many things to say in answer to you bird house thread, however it was bedtime so it's best to wait until some sleep.

First of all and most important - the completed project is really exciting! The involvement of your friends and the excellent artistry of the women-folk was almost as much fun for me to read, as it was for you'all to do! A neat project with a wonderful end result!:)

Your photographic expertise continues to amaze, and you gift of gab doesn't suffer either. Your writing is fun to read!

Now if I could - I would like to throw in a couple of critiques of the woodworking. I do this only because I know you are just beginning on what will be a lasting hobby.

Let me comment on the pinching (while ripping) you observed. You didn't do anything wrong here except choose the wrong board (or the wrong edge of a board) to rip. If you look at the 'pinching'/ saw kerf-closing photo, you can see you have a plain sawn board. (Nothing to cause concern yet) - - You can also see that this board was sawn from the log in a manner that was not parallel to the grain of that log. The way that happens is: if there was a crook or bend or severe taper in that log - the side of the log resting on the sawmill carriage presents the top of the log at an angle to the sawmills blade. (the sides of the log are also similarly affected)
At any rate, when the slabs are removed you get a cant of wood where the grain runs does not parallel with the sawmill carriage. The resulting boards will have grain that runs in a slant to the edges of the board. This is what you have/had. When you find that situation, the chances are greater that the board will contain wood under stress, or reaction wood. Some reaction wood is non avoidable. Your board looks to have a goodly amount. Although there is no way for most of us to avoid reaction wood, it (if possible) behooves us to inspect the boards before buying to look for signs of it. Diagonally grain is one sign.
Personally, I prefer rift sawn or quarter sawn straight grained. Sometimes out of wider boards, you can rip narrower boards that have better grain configuration and if necessary edge glue them back together. - -
*With all that said - birdhouses really do not justify a lot of "board scrutiny", but you can always expect some cull wood when pulling boards off a shelf, and pinches like that have nothing to do with your doing something wrong while sawing. In Fact - you did right by having the splitter in place. That is what it is there for! Perhaps the other edge of that board was rift grain that would have been more stable.

Next - I would like to throw in a minor critique of the positioning of your miter gauge when sawing the slanted sides of the houses. I wish you photo had included a floating table on the left side of the blade to support the miter extension. This would have made your cuts perhaps a bit less fuzzy on the bottom. Personally, I like to use the other side of the blade for making such cuts. The wider table on the right side gives more base without adding floating tables. (I use the same aluminum extension)

Speaking of the right side and left side of the blade - Although you properly used a spacer so our cross bevel cut did not ride on the fence, you really should have used the other side of the blade and kept your workpiece under the blade and the cutoff to the upper side. Reference: PTWFE Pg. 33. This is a safety issue. If the workpiece slips, it will not fall into the spinning blade as easily, and you can remove the workpiece from below the blade, rather than above it.

How did Jim like the Shopsmith?

You and Dusty have answered my question about the ceiling storage shelves.

Thanks again, for your thread it is a happy thing to follow along with your excitement and progress with you new hobby. Keep making sawdust!:)

[nuhobby]

Super job & writeup & fun, Chris!