Google Maps Place Marker Bird House

As soon as I saw this post on Lumberjocks I wanted to make this bird house design.

I downloaded a photo of the google place marker. Imported it into Sketchup to use as a guide for the proportions. I'm still learning sketckup but once I found the "offset" button things went really smoothly --hint the inner boarder is an offset of the outline. I set the print to 1:1 and printed off a number of blank pages. If anyone knows how to control how to position a drawing on a page please let me know--I still have not figured it out other than printing only page 5 of 9 pages.

I spray glued the template on a piece of 1"x 10" pine; roughly cut it out on the bandsaw; then sanded up to the line. I then cut some scrapes to the shape of the can and attached to the back side of the facade; drilled some pilot holes and attached the facade to the can.





The can is a reused coffee can. I drilled holes in the bottom for drainage and attached some "L" brackets on the back. If I was to make another one I'd just drill the holes though the back of the can and then attach the facade.

Up until this project I've only spray painted things using one colour. I traced out the wood shape on a piece of cardboard and cut out the shapes to mask out the areas. I think it turned out pretty good as the paint didn't bleed as much as I thought it would.

Enjoy making your own google place marker bird house.

A Designer, Shu-Chun Hsiao, has installed his google map bird houses around his city, ccheck out his site here.

Handy Manny Birthday Party

I crafted 14 hammers (Pat) and screwdrivers (Turner) for a Handy Manny themed birthday party to go with tools belts my Wife made. The kids will be painting their tools so I left them unfinished.

The hammer heads are 3” cut from a 2×2 with a 3/4”dowel for a handle. I clamped a stop block on the drill press, drilled 3/4” deep, added some glue and hammered in the dowel (no nails or screws used in this project).

The screwdriver handles are 1” dowel 3” long with 5/8” dowel drilled and glued in place. I cut the flat heads on the band saw. The 5/8” dowels are 3 1/4” long set in the handle 3/4”. I made a jig out of 1/2 plywood to mark the dowel centres and to hold the dowel on the drill press.

I sanded down the edges and corners.

Swiveling Screwdriver Shelves

Made these two swiveling screwdriver shelves to help keep my bench free of tools. The idea was from a CD that came with a sample of Woodsmith magazine. Made from leftover maple hardwood flooring. The factory finish is holding up well.  The plans called for a lock nut but all I had were blots with a lock washers and regular nuts so that is what I used and it works.

Note the small clamps are just being stored on the edge of the rack.