[Music]
well welcome to another Memphis Monday
Memphis Monday 136 making a purple
martin birdhouse man my buddy was
sitting out in this front yard and we
were looking at the birds this last
spring and we're talking about purple
martin birdhouses and we discovered we
didn't know anything about them how to
build them we knew there were some
things you had to know so I volunteered
to figure all that stuff out and build
us one so here it is and pretty fun a
lot of takeaways I think but we're not
going to get any takeaways done we're
not going to get anything done less to
do what that's right we need to knock
off that chitchat and get to work
[Music]
I got those box joints in there and I
kind of stuck this thing together but it
just seems it just seems too big let me
show you what what I got necessary the
problem these purple Martin houses have
to have to be up on top of a pole that's
you know between 12 and 20 feet tall and
so that tells me that that that pole is
going to sag if that birdhouse is too
heavy I may not know very much about
building the purple martin birdhouses
but there are whole websites talking
about purple martin the housing and how
to build the how to build the boxes and
what the requirements are are and so
forth and so on
so let's zoom in here a little bit okay
right here you can see that the minimum
compartment size is six by six but I've
read other places that if you put a six
by six nesting box a lot of Martins will
just turn away they don't they want them
to be deeper and in this side anyway
says that research has determined that 7
by 12 is the
is the size that the margins alike so
I'm using pine to construct the box but
since the sides and the front are so
similar in size what I've done is I'm
using the southern yellow pine here for
the Front's I'm using this clear pine
for the sides that way I could keep them
straight okay this pops together my side
there's my fronts
[Music]
this seems a little bit more compact I
feel a lot better about this let's go
bro on the board and I'll show you how
we're going to put the dividers in for
the different nesting areas these
dividers these are nesting dividers will
be set into dedos cut into this sides
and top so we need to put to divide to
dedos in the top and bottom and one dado
in the sides so that will be the next
job now what i'm doing here is drilling
the holes for the front of the box
but
then the only
special
thing about it is that these holes are
drilled at about a five degree angle so
they kind of slope downward so that the
water any water that accumulates in the
hole
will drain out
I'll go ahead and do these dados and
I'll show you what the sides look like
here's the pieces of the box all the
sides in them have
a finger joints or box joints and we
have these
these dados here and those days will
receive our little spacers can't only
cut out the spacer so I'll get this
thing glued up I'm always cheating when
I make boxes and I use the I use the
bottom to square the box up but you
can't do that with box joints
they're too
they're too stiff
this is my jig for gang sawing the
little dividers basically just had them
all stacked up there and squeezed
together with some sacrificial to the
horse I'll go ahead and knock these out
and they'll put the dividers in and get
a good look at the concept
so our loan dividers go in just like
that and and the beauty of them is you
can if one's damaged you can just
replace it with make a new one you can
also take them out and clean the box out
and then it's got six six nesting areas
on each level and there's two levels
I'm attaching the bottom cells I'm using
half-inch plywood and I'm just using
screws no glue no staples someday
somebody's going to want work on this
thing
you know make some repairs or clean it
out of something and I think they're
going to appreciate the fact that they
can remove this bottom without
destroying it this is a roof I made it
very light
I made it very light and the height of
the roof is the same debt as the other
two stories sudden it kind of makes it
symmetrical there's a little roof it's
nice and strong it's light and I think
the design the roof stacks up just like
the rest of the storage do and I think
the design make them roof the same
height as the other floors gives the
thing some nice nice proportions yeah
gain access to the box each individual
layer comes off and
and so you can inch the box but just by
lifting off the individual layers so
I've installed these cleats along here
to cover up the scene between the boxes
and also provide a catch cover to align
the boxes when to stack them on top of
them
and then these little clasps sphere will
sense
we'll cinch down the hatch covers not
for strength just to keep the wind
blowing the thing apart let me assure
you has been works here's how it all
works there's the first level with six
nests
here's second level see how the cleats
automatically line it up and you take
these little spring latches lock it down
I'll get the winds and blows off
[Music]
and that's how that's how it works but
don't go away because we're still got to
do the porch we're going to put a finish
on it so you got plenty to do I'm going
to be painting the roof but I'm going to
put a preliminary coat of epoxy on it
seal it from the weather and then I'll
put I have some boat paint paint you put
on boat paint that's real
waterproof I found this picture on the
Internet
it looks a lot like ours we're going to
do is we're going to build these little
of this little predator predator guard
here and actually this dowel that goes
through there that's to keep any birds
that you know that crawl out of the nest
baby birds now they fall out trees and
find them on the ground well this little
rail here will keep it from falling out
so easy so we making a total of 16 these
little blocks and then we'll run a dowel
through it and that'll make up our porch
but the first job in building our little
porches I got to trim out this deck
permanent with the cedar back over here
to the
pitcher
and have these little dividers I've
already cut those out now what I'm doing
is I'm putting in this the hole for this
dowel it will be for dowels
two on this side and two on that side
now it's critical that that dowel be in
exactly the same position of all the
pieces usually I'm doing it I made these
little these little blocks is copy them
off the picture off the internet and I
built this little jig so it's all solid
and I can slide my blocks in there
I've got these things made yet but I'm
curious to see what they're going to
look like some threatened one on South
basically that's going to how's it going
to look I'm going to hold those little
dividers up I'm going to tack them in
there with pocket screws you got next
I'm attaching our little portrait not
using any glue and this is a totally non
this is a totally non structural
arrangement here so I'm just packing in
with the pocket screws the dowel here is
just a press fit I want to be able to
take that dowel in and out remove these
things make this thing we're terrible in
the future here I'm just trimming off
the end of the dowel I'm leaving a
little a little pigtail coming out here
just so you can grab a hold of it if you
need you
[Music]
it looks like we start worried about put
stain on this thing
finishing outside with cedar oil
some people say these things need to be
painted but other people
stained them
this cedar oil will both preserve the
word enactus final finish to
well I got everything explained and I
got the I remember to stain underneath
too because remember I'm going to be
looking up at this thing this is the
bracket came to the pole it looks a
little flimsy me I went ahead and
installed it in accordance with the
directions and one sustained rise a
little bit we'll see if let's we'll put
this thing on the pole see what happens
well there's our nifty
little purple Martin birdhouse it's a
two layers deep stackable didn't take it
apart
putting the boxes out box joints
we didn't know anything about purple
martin birdhouses when we started that
this looks pretty good to me
well that'll do it for another Memphis
Monday Memphis Monday 1:36 making
designing and building a purple martin
birdhouse turned out to okay he I think
I would allow to preferred it may be a
little lighter but you know it is what
it is so thanks for watching
tweet and Facebook and like and favorite
comment and all that stuff you doing the
Internet
but most important what is it make sure
your back your next week for another
exciting Memphis Monday thanks for
playing along
[Music]
you
[Music]