Bluebird House Plans-domek dla ptakow.pdf

Bluebird House Plans

If you have kids, and if they belong to Cub Scouts, Brownies, Indian Guides,

Indian Maidens, etc., then you know how hard it can be to come up with good,

interesting, meaningful projects that the kids can finish in a single meeting. This

article describes how to create a bluebird house kit that is easy to produce and

costs very little. You can use the kits as a youth project, or you can assemble

them yourself and put them around your property if you are interested in

attracting bluebirds (see the links below for help on creating a "bluebird trail").

If you have a lot of grandkids, you could make a set of the kits and give them to

the kids as Christmas presents. If you are a teenager you can assemble the kits to

and sell them as a money-making or community project.

I designed and created a set of the kits for a friend who was faced with leading

an Indian Guides meeting. The whole project went over very well, and the boys

and their fathers enjoyed it immensely. The boys were easily able to assemble

and paint their houses in one meeting. Although this project requires a fair

amount of your time prior to the meeting to get the kits set up, you will be repaid

many times over by the pride and excitement the kids will feel when they finish

building the bluebird houses themselves. The assembly process is nearly

foolproof and therefore has an extremely high probability of success for

everyone in the group.

This article has two parts. Part 1 shows you how to create the kits. You will do

this part before the meeting, preferably with another parent who: 1) you enjoy

being with, and 2) is not afraid of tools. Part 2 is the assembly instructions for

the kids.

Overview of the Project

Before getting to the instructions, here is a quick overview of the project. The goal is

to assemble a kit that allows a typical 8- to 12-year old to successfully build and paint

a birdhouse in a single meeting, and have fun doing it. The kit goes together like this:

The back is nailed to the two sides. The roof is nailed on top of the back and the two

sides. The sides are nailed to the floor. The door is nailed to the two sides so it pivots

from the top, and is held in place at the bottom by a latch nail.

What you need to do before the meeting is buy the wood, cut it to the proper sizes,

and drill the entry and nail holes. You will create for each kid a kit that includes the

six wooden pieces that make up the house, a set of nails, a wire loop for hanging, and

a paintbrush. You should request that the kids each bring a hammer with them to the

meeting, but have a few extra hammers on hand for those who inevitably forget.

It is not a bad idea to cut the pieces for one birdhouse and assemble it prior to creating

an assembly line to create 10 or 20 kits. That way you can work out any kinks before

you cut all of your wood.

Part 1 - Assembling the Kits

Go to your neighborhood lumber yard or home improvement center and buy the

following items:

• 1 x 6 (one by six) boards (4.5 linear feet per house)

• 1 x 8 (one by eight) boards (8 linear inches per house)

• A box of 5d (5 penny, or 1-3/4") nails. You want to buy normal nails with

heads, not finishing nails

• Some white, brown or green exterior paint, preferably latex so that it washes

up with water

• One cheap disposable foam paintbrush for each kit

• Heavy single-strand wire (see below for discussion)

• Two or three $2.99 hammers for the kids who forget theirs

You will also need:

• A 1.5" hole saw for your drill

• A 1/16" and 1/8" drill bit

• A drill

• A circular or hand saw

• A hot glue gun and some glue

The 1 x 6 and 1 x 8 boards should be kiln-dried, finished lumber. Typically you will

find this sort of lumber in the "shelving" section. As an alternative, you could

substitute 3/4" (or even 1/2") plywood and cut it to the same dimensions. If you are

making a large number of kits, the plywood option might be cheaper depending on

where you live. If you use 1/2" plywood you will have to modify dimensions slightly.

The wire is used to make a loop that is used to hang the house. Farmers would use

baling wire or electric fence wire to make this loop, but most urban people will not be

able to buy such a thing in small quantities. So look for single-stranded copper or steel

wire that is perhaps 16 or 18 gauge. Picture hanging wire is a reasonable substitute. If

you get desperate, buy some 14 or 16 gauge romax (3-wire house wire in a white or

gray plastic sheathing), strip off the insulation, and use that.

Each kit consists of a roof, a floor, a front door, a back and two sides. The two sides

and the back are 12-inch long pieces of 1 x 6. The roof is an 8-inch long piece of 1 x

8. The door is an 11.5 inch piece of 1 x 6 ripped down to 4 inches wide. The floor is a

4.5-inch piece of 1 x 6 also ripped down to 4 inches wide. The exact dimensions of

the six pieces are shown below:

A 1 x 6, despite the fact that it is called a 1 x 6, has a thickness of 3/4" and a width of

5-1/2". A 1 x 8 has a width of 7-1/4". Knowing this makes the dimensions shown

above seem more sensible.

Let's assume that you want to create 8 kits. Here is what you will need to do.

• At the lumber yard buy an 8-foot long piece of 1 x 8 and five 8-foot long

pieces of 1 x 6.

• Take one of the 8 foot long pieces of 1 x 6 and "rip" it (cut along the long edge

of the board) with your circular saw so it is 4 inches wide. Discard the 1-1/2"

strip. The lumber yard may be able to do this for you, and if so it will save you

some time.

• Cut another 1 x 6 in half and rip one of the 4-foot pieces down to 4 inches

wide as well.

• These 4-inch wide pieces can then be cut into eight 11-1/2" doors and eight 4-

1/2" floors.

• From the remaining 1 x 6 boards cut 24 12-inch long pieces for the backs and

sides.

• From the 1 x 8 cut eight 8-inch long pieces for the roofs.

Now, using your 1.5" hole saw, drill the entry hole in the door. Position it as shown

below:

You now need to drill starter holes for the nails to make it easier for the kids to put the

house together. It will be very easy to figure out where those holes should go if you at

this point try to assemble one of the houses. Using your 1/16" drill bit drill six holes

in the back piece. The holes should be 3/8" in from the edge, and 2 inches from the

top and bottom:

Drill 5 holes in the roof piece. In the picture below, the dotted lines represent where

the side and back pieces will lie when the roof is in place. The hole in the back center

should be 3/8" away from the edge and centered.

Drill 3 holes in each side piece. Two of the holes will hold the floor in place, while

the third will hold the hinge nail for the door.

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