I’ve been thinking about teaching a very basic one-board-birdhouse project class in the wood shop. This class would essentially take a 6 foot 1x6 and build a classic birdhouse. These are plans from Birds and Blooms: Build a One-Board DIY Birdhouse | Backyard Projects - Birds & Blooms
The skills required are minimal but it would use the cross cut/radial arm saw, a drill and the air powered nail gun. You could also customize your birdhouse any way you like with exterior paint or other hardware.
The cost of the class is one 1x6 6 foot #2 pine or cedar board which is less than $10. I would be happy to buy these from Lowes or Home Depot for the class. You can also use another wood if you like. If pine is used you would want to weatherproof it with some exterior paint.
I’m gauging interest in a class like this. If you’re interested please post a reply or email me at [email protected].
This is also a class where you could involve a child with intermediate skills sets. The parent will probably want to cut the board but the child could use a hammer to help assemble it and of course to decorate it. This is a picture of the birdhouse from the website:
Spring is coming and you can never put up too many birdhouses. They can also be given as simple holiday gifts.
I’ve got some plans for Bat Houses - great mosquito and other bug eaters. Maybe do both.
@uglyknees Maybe this could be a spring project: Bird Houses, Bat Houses, and Apiaries! Sort of a back to nature theme. I like the one board concept - decorating and "stylin’ " would be the catch.
I have some plans for bat houses, too. Both birds and bats are great bug eaters, but birds are a little prettier to look at.
I like the idea of doing both, but the original idea was to limit the project to one-board projects. (That is, building things from a single board preferably an inexpensive pine or cedar board). I have a whole group of one board projects I’d like to teach. It is in hopes of getting more people interested in building things in the wood shop. I’ve been approached by people who just don’t know how to get started with a wood shop project. I’d also like a project that we can complete in a single evening.
I’d be happy to have a “projects” class where we build bird houses, bat houses and bee hives, too. (We have a resident beehive expert who I’m sure would be happy to help.) These would probably best be taught on a Saturday or Sunday. I believe Alex has taught several.
There are certainly many wood projects for the garden. I have several books dedicated to the subject. I love to build birdhouses because they are so varied and because frankly there are not enough of them for our fine feathered friends.
They lend themselves to some crazy decorations and adornments. The birds don’t seem to care.
I love this idea, and would dearly love to participate. I don’t know that I can, but I will watch the schedule and hope these prove successful (and align with my “free time”).
Yes, I’ll post a class here. Based upon the feedback I think there is enough interest for a class. I like to teach classes on Monday or Wednesday nights. There seem to be fewer people using the equipment then. This will mostly be a hands on class so access to the equipment is essential.
I have scheduled the One board birdhouse class for 11/30/2015 at 7PM. I will be purchasing the lumber for the class. There will be a $10 fee for the class to pay for the materials or you can bring your own 1x6 at least 6 feet long to class. Please let me know by email if you plan to make the class at [email protected].
That is a super busy week for me, so I may not be able to make it. I have set up for a show on Tues night, show Wed and Thur, set up for sat and sun show on Fri night.
If you bring your own board you don’t need to buy a ticket. I don’t like the extra cost of the Eventbrite ticket but it does make collecting the money easier.
I’ve only had one person use Eventbrite to purchase a ticket. I purchased 6 pine boards yesterday for the class. If you are interested in this class feel free to stop by. I should have enough lumber.
If you have lumber you can bring feel free to do so. It need not be pine and can be pretty much any width larger than 6 inches, too.
I will have to skip this one. I have 2 shows from the 2nd to 6th and if I feel like coming out, I WANT and had asked for the needle felting class and the Inkscape class! and I have the crud
So I held the class tonight and only one student was able to attend. I noticed that there were only a few people at DMS tonight, too. I probably picked a bad day to teach the class. Elijah still built a nice birdhouse though.
I was interested, but I have been sick and I am behind on getting ready for my 2 shows this week. It was one of 3 classes tonight that I missed and wanted