Platform feeder bird feeder plans

Parts

Cut list

Kerf 1/8″ included. Every cut runs edge to edge.

Steps

• Tape measure
• Speed square
• Pencil
• Drill/driver
• Clamps
• Safety glasses
• Hearing protection
• Dust mask
• Circular saw or miter saw
• Miter saw, or circular saw in two passes, for 4×4 posts
• Sander, 120 and 180 grit

Underlined words have a short explanation: hover or tap them. All of them are on the glossary page.

1. 1Before you start

   Read every step once, start to finish, before you buy or cut anything. Each step names the parts it uses by letter; the parts list gives their sizes.

   Set up somewhere flat with good light. A pair of sawhorses with a sheet of plywood on top makes a fine work table.

   Wear safety glasses whenever a tool is running, hearing protection for saws, and a dust mask for sanding and for cutting treated wood or sheet goods. Tie back long hair and loose sleeves. Keep children and pets out of the work area.

   • Tip At the store, pick straight boards: hold each one up to your eye and look down its length. Skip boards that bow, twist or have big knots near the ends.
   • Tip Measure twice, cut once. Most mistakes are a misread tape, not a bad cut.

2. 2Cut and label the parts

   Cut every part on the cut list. Cut the longest parts first: if one goes wrong, it can still become a shorter part.

   To mark a cut, hook your tape on the end of the board, make a small V with its point exactly at the measurement, and draw a square line through the point with a speed square. Put an X on the waste side.

   Cut on the waste side of the line, so the blade's kerf (about 1/8″) comes out of the scrap, not your part.

   Write each part's letter in pencil on a face that won't show, and stack the parts by letter.

   Sand the faces before assembly while they're flat and easy to reach: 120 grit, then 180.

   ✓ Lay the parts out and count them against the parts list. Measure a few: if one is off by more than 1/16″, recut it now.

   STOP. Let the saw reach full speed before it touches the wood, keep both hands clear of the blade's path, and never reach under a board you're cutting. Support long boards on both sides of the cut so the blade doesn't pinch.

3. 3Pick the boards and the screws

   Cedar for the feeder: look for boards with mostly reddish-brown heartwood. Pale yellow-white streaks are sapwood, which rots years sooner; keep those streaks on the inside or skip the board.

   Pressure-treated pine: read the end tag. Parts that touch soil, sit in wet mulch or go in the ground must say "ground contact"; "above ground" lumber is fine for everything else. New treated boards are often wet and heavy: stack them flat with scrap sticks between them for a week or two in the shade so they dry and stop twisting.

   Sight down each board at the store like a rifle barrel. Skip boards that twist, bow more than about 1/4″ over 8′, or have big loose knots near where you will cut or screw.

   Use exterior screws only: coated deck screws (labelled for treated lumber, "ACQ compatible") or stainless steel. The copper in treated wood eats plain and zinc-plated steel within a few years. Indoor wood screws and drywall screws rust and snap outdoors.

   Animals chew and lick wood. Keep pressure-treated lumber to the legs and frame outside the living space, and use cedar or exterior plywood for anything they touch inside.

   • Tip Buy one extra board of the most-used size. A split or a mis-cut then costs you nothing but a few dollars.
   • Tip Cedar splits easily: predrill every screw within 2″ of the end of a board with a bit about the size of the screw's inner shank.

   ✓ Every board is reasonably straight, and the screw box says exterior, coated for treated lumber, or stainless.

4. 4Build the tray

   Lay the two tray floor boards (A) side by side, edges tight, good faces up. Together they make a 16″ × 11″ floor.

   Screw a side rim (C) to each end of the floor, on edge, bottom flush with the floor bottom: three 1 1/4″ screws through the rim into the floor ends. The rim stands 3/4″ above the floor and keeps seed from blowing off.

   Screw the front and back rims (B) along the long edges the same way, covering the ends of the side rims. Four screws each.

   Drill 3/8″ drainage holes through the floor every 3″ or so, about 1″ in from the rims. Wet seed rots and grows mould that makes birds sick.

   • Tip Predrill every screw near a board end: thin cedar splits at the slightest excuse.

   ✓ The tray sits flat, the rim corners are tight, and water poured in runs out through the holes.

5. 5Add the roof posts

   Stand a roof post (D) in each inside corner of the tray, tight against both rims.

   Drive one 1 5/8″ screw up through the floor into each post and one through each rim into the post.

   The posts hold the roof high enough for birds to land and eat under it out of the rain.

   ✓ All four posts stand straight up and are the same height; a level laid across two of them reads level.

6. 6Put on the roof

   Lay the two roof boards (E) face down, edges tight. Screw the two roof cleats (F) across them, just inside where the posts will land: two 1 1/4″ screws into each board per cleat.

   Set the roof on the posts, cleats down, overhanging the same amount all round, and drive one 1 5/8″ screw down through the roof into each post.

   ✓ The roof overhangs evenly and doesn't rock on the posts.

7. 7Protect it from the weather

   Decide how you want the feeder to look in five years. Bare cedar and bare pressure-treated wood both weather to silver-grey and still last many years; doing nothing is a real option.

   To keep the colour, use an exterior oil or semi-transparent stain: brush it on, let it soak in 15 minutes, then wipe off whatever is still shiny. Renew it every one or two years. Avoid clear varnish or polyurethane outdoors: sun cracks the film, water gets under it, and it peels.

   Finish only the outside. Leave inside faces bare, and let any finish dry and air out for at least a week before an animal moves in: fresh fumes are hard on small lungs.

   • Tip Finish on a dry day above 50°F with no rain forecast for 24 hours.
   • Tip Oil-soaked rags can catch fire on their own as they dry. Lay them flat outside to dry or keep them in a sealed metal can of water.

   ✓ The finish is dry to the touch everywhere, with no wet or shiny puddles in corners.

8. 8Dig the post holes

   Dig a hole 10″ wide and 30″ deep with a post-hole digger.

   That depth is 24″ for the post plus 6″ of gravel underneath so water drains away from the post end.

   Make the holes slightly wider at the bottom than the top, like a bell. Frost then can't grip the concrete and lift it.

   Pour 6″ of gravel in each hole and tamp it with the end of a 2×4 or the post itself.

   • Tip Your town knows the frost depth: it's how deep footings must go so winter frost can't push them up. Enter it in the options and the holes will be dug deep enough.

   ✓ Every hole is 30″ deep before the gravel and 24″ deep after it.

9. 9Set the posts plumb

   Stand a post in each hole. Run a string between the end posts at the height you want, to line up the ones in between.

   Hold a level against one face of a post until the bubble is centred: that face is plumb. Then check the face around the corner. Both faces must read plumb.

   Brace each post with two 1×4 or 2×4 boards: screw one end to the post and the other to a stake hammered into the ground, one brace on each of two sides at right angles.

   ✓ Every post is plumb on two faces, in line with the string, and the braces hold it there when you let go.

10. 10Mix the concrete

    You'll use 2 bags of 80 lb concrete mix for the post hole. Mix one or two bags at a time in a wheelbarrow: concrete starts to stiffen in about 30–45 minutes (faster on a hot day), so only mix what you can place right away.

    Pour about 2 quarts of clean water into the wheelbarrow first, then empty one bag on top. (Each 80 lb bag needs about 3 quarts in total.)

    Mix with a hoe or square shovel: pull the dry powder from the corners and bottom into the wet middle and chop through it. Keep going until there are no dry pockets.

    Add the last of the water a cup at a time, mixing between each.

    Get the thickness right. It should look and feel like thick oatmeal or stiff peanut butter. A hoe dragged through leaves ridges that stand up, and a handful squeezed in a gloved hand holds its shape. Too dry: it crumbles and won't stick together, so add a little water. Too wet: it flows flat, water pools on top, and the concrete will be weak and crack. Then add some dry mix from a spare bag.

    • Tip More water makes concrete easier to push around and much weaker. Resist the urge.
    • Tip Rinse the wheelbarrow, hoe and shovel before the concrete sets on them. Don't wash concrete into drains or onto the lawn: let leftovers harden in a scrap box and throw them out.
    • Tip Buy one more bag than you need. Running out halfway through a pour is the most common mistake.

    ✓ Even grey colour throughout, no dry powder, no puddles of water on top; a ridge made with the hoe stands up.

    STOP. Wet concrete is caustic and burns skin. Wear waterproof gloves, safety glasses, long sleeves and long pants. Open bags slowly and wear a dust mask: the dust has silica. Rinse any concrete off your skin right away.

11. 11Fill the holes

    Shovel concrete into each hole around the post. Every 6″ or so, poke it hard with a stick or a piece of rebar to work out air pockets.

    Fill to about 1″ above the ground and shape the top into a little mound with a trowel, sloping away from the post so rain runs off.

    Check plumb again on both faces while it's still wet, and adjust the braces if needed.

    ✓ Posts are still plumb and in line after the concrete is in.

12. 12Let the concrete cure

    Concrete hardens by reacting with water, not by drying out, so keep the concrete around the feeder posts damp for the first 7 days: mist it with a hose morning and evening, or cover it with plastic sheeting held down at the edges.

    Keep it from freezing for the first week. Don't pour when it's below 40°F (5°C) or frost is forecast in the next two days. On hot days, pour in the early morning and shade it.

    You can walk on it or remove braces after 1–2 days. Wait 3 days before putting real weight on it. It reaches full strength in about 4 weeks.

    ✓ The surface is hard and grey-white when dry, with no powder when you rub it.

13. 13Mount the feeder on the post

    When the concrete has cured, centre the feeder on the post top. Screw two corner braces to opposite sides of the post and up into the tray floor, and two more on the other sides: four braces, all screws in.

    Fit the baffle around the post about 4 ft up, below the feeder, so squirrels and cats can't climb past it. Keep the post 10 ft from anything they can jump from.

    ✓ The feeder doesn't wobble on the post when you push it.

14. 14Fill it and keep it clean

    Black-oil sunflower seed feeds the most kinds of birds. Cheap mixes with red milo and wheat mostly get kicked onto the ground.

    Every two weeks, empty it, scrub the tray with hot soapy water and a stiff brush, rinse and let it dry before refilling. Rake up old seed under it.

    If you see sick birds (puffed up, sluggish, crusty eyes), take the feeder down for two weeks and clean it with 1 part bleach to 9 parts water.

    ✓ Seed runs freely out of the gap and the tray drains dry after rain.

15. 15Finish

    Ease every sharp edge and corner with 120-grit sandpaper so nobody gets a splinter.

    Sand all over with 180 grit, always along the grain (the direction the wood fibres run). Scratches across the grain show through stain.

    Wipe off the dust with a barely damp rag and let it dry.

    Outdoors, use an exterior finish: a penetrating deck oil or exterior stain, or primer and exterior paint. Leave cedar bare to weather silver if you like. If it holds soil for food plants, leave the inside unfinished.

    Let it dry for the time on the can before using it.

    • Tip Try your finish on a scrap of the same wood first: stain looks different on every board.