How to make a bird feeder out of Ikea plates

Spring is here and with it comes the birds. Why not give them a little grub with this simple, cheap, and visually pleasing bird feeder.

Step 1 What you'll need to get started

1. Two 12" Ikea Hultet bamboo plates

2. A 3/8-16 Carrige Bolt 12" long

3. A drill

4. Any washers, nuts, fasteners your heart desires
   (so long as they fit the bolt)

5.Some string or wire

6. A keychain clip

Note: These are merely the materials I had to work with, feel free to experiment with whatever materials you may have.

Comments

[PaulEl]

Good point. You could easily apply some weatherproofing spray or paint to the plates and that would do the trick.

[Mycophiles]

Maybe some thompsons  waterseal would do it.  It would need good curing time though.  Better yet, polyurethane spray.  That would work great!  and w/ no problems to the birds if that eat the bamboo.

[Marcos]

Mineral oil would probably work too. It's cheap, and food safe. Great for cutting boards too. (Don't use vegetable oil on cutting boards, it gets rancid and sticky!)

[Mycophiles]

I made one of these guys as soon as I saw the  post as a parrot has shacked up in a neighbors tree and I wanted to entice him down. 

Just for pricing: so everyone knows.  The Ikea plates pictured are in the "home and garden" area of Ikea and are 7$ for the small plates and 10$ for the larger plates ( about twice as large ).  Unlike the instructor above I drilled through the rod ( already had one ) and put some metal twine through to tie a string through ( can use twist ties ) to keep the string from being cut by the metal plus I did the same ting to the other end and tied a weight to keep it from swinging.  Also, on the nuts I used some epoxy to lock them in place as *if not torqued down .. which I wouldn't do on bamboo* the plates seem to loosen themselves if they are spun.

I used nylon string for elongevity but it's a bit ugly.  If you can find black nylon it would work nice.  Also, painting the rod might look nice also.  The bamboo doesn't seem to be holding up however.  Around the edges it seems to want to peel off.  ( in just days now w/ 2 wet days ).   I put two plates right side up unlike our intructor.  The top is bigger and has food for larger birds and the bottom is fairly close to the top to allow only small birds to get to it.  It seems to be working.  ( plus I put drain holes in both plates.)  Good luck intstrucables.

Here's a (bad) photo.
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh206/1234Mycophiles4321/Misc/bird.jpg

[Mycophiles]

Better Pic

[PaulEl]

That's great! I've had two wet days myself and I've lucked out thus far but I imagine the bamboo may start to peel. The reason I made the feeder in the first place was because the bottom of one of the plates peeled off after being in the sink. Anywho, great design, this was the highlight of my morning!

[ChrysN]

Nice!

[lemonie]

It's nice, but how do you think it will stand up to weathering?

L