How to Make a Bird Feeder Out of Ikea Plates

by PaulEl

15K3310

Intro: 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.


STEP 2: Step 1. Drill Some Holes in Ikea Plates

Step 1. Drill a hole in the center of each of your Ikea plates.

Note: I used the largest bit I had which was slightly smaller than the bolt. Bamboo is a soft and easy material to work with so I lightly filed the hole until it fit the bolt.

STEP 3: Step 3. Thread the Bolt Through the Plates and Secure With Washers, Nuts, and Fasteners

Step 3. Thread the bolt through the two plates and use your washers, nuts, and fasteners to secure it in place.

I used a few different washers and fasteners to give the feeder the best support I could.

Note-The head of the bolt will be the bottom of your feeder

STEP 4: Step:4 Drill Two More Holes on the Top of the Feeder.

Step 4. Drill two more holes on the top half of the feeder, roughly 1/2" from the bolt, this is where you'll loop through your wire or string.

Note: Try to keep the holes evenly allingned with one another to help prevent the feeder from hanging lopsided.



STEP 5: Step 5: Loop the Wire or String Through the Holes on Top of the Feeder & Tie It Off on the Keychain.

Step 5. Take your wire or sting and loop it through the holes you drilled in the top half of the feeder. Tie it off being sure that you've worked the string through the hoop on your keychain before tying.

STEP 6: Step 6: Hang Your Feeder, Fill It With Birdseed, and Enjoy!

Step 6: Find the best spot to put up your feeder, hang it, fill it with birdseed, and enjoy!

Overall, the feeder cost  $2.19 to make, I only had to buy the bolt, everything else I had on hand. The design is simple enough that it could be applied to most things you might have lying around your humble dwelling.

10 Comments

geessebeschleier 9 years ago

great idea. made one. a bit different though the two metal rods are recycled off a broken lamp arm, i cut the aluminium plates from scraps I got from our mechanics trainee shop ( I work for an airline)
I drilled a third hole on the bottom part to allow water drainage and used a screw hook on the top part

Hillbillee 11 years ago

I bet this same idea would work great using frizbees and if you turned the top one up you could use it as a bird bath.

PaulEl 14 years ago

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

Mycophiles 14 years ago

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 12 years ago

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 14 years ago

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

PaulEl 14 years ago

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!

lemonie 14 years ago

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

L