The Bird Feeder
For my final project I wasn't sure what I was going to reuse, recycle or upcycle. Me and Jack both did this project together so we both were looking on google for an idea. We were thinking about making a clock that would be made out of wood where we would 3D print the hands and we would laser engrave the numbers. After scrolling through the website we then found a bird feeder on the website architectureartdesigns.com. Me and jack then agreed that this would be a good idea to make a gravity flow bird feeder out of wood, a snapple bottle, and some sort of bowl. I then made some sketches in my designer notebook. Me and jack then divided up the work. My task was to create the bowls using inventor and then print them using the 3D printer. The bowls that I created were 3 1/2" in diameter and 3/4" tall. I also needed to cut out birds using the vinyl cutter, get bird seed, and get some wire to hold the snapple bottles. Jacks job was to cut out the two pieces of wood. The bottom piece of wood is 6" by 6" and the back plate is 6" by 10". The wood was cut down to 3/4". After Jack cut out the pieces of wood Jack laser engraved the wood pieces to put a nice background on the wood. Jack also had to get both of the snapple bottles. After all of the bits and pieces were cut and printed out, we began to assemble our bird feeders. Since me and jack worked together on this project we each needed to create our own bird feeder.
Initial Sketches
Cutting Out Wood
The first picture is the bottom plate of the bird feeder. The bottom plates dimensions are 6" by 6" and the thickness was .75". The back plate for our bird house was 10" by 6" and the thickness was .75". We then connected them using torx screws.
Creating the Bowl on Inventor.
On inventor the bowl had a diameter of 3.5" wide and a it was .75" tall. I then needed to extrude out the inside of it to make it an actual bowl. The whole in the bowl had a diameter of 3.25" wide by .5 inches deep.
Setting up the Bowl on Maker bot
3D Printing Process
Final 3D Printed Bowls
Laser Engraving Sketch on Illustrator
Laser Engraving Process
Final Laser Engraved Product
Vinyl Birds on Illustrator
Vinyl Bird Cut Out
Applying Vinyl to Snapple Bottle
Drilling Holes for Wire
Gluing Bowls Down and Feeding the Wire Through it.
Assembling It All Together
Final Product In Action
What I learned
Throughout this project I learned how to build something using objects that usually are thrown away. In this project our task was to reuse, recycle or upcycle produced used in our everyday life and turn it into something that can be useful again. This final project was also a good refresher on how to use the different machines such as the vinyl cutter, laser engraver, and the 3D printer. Another thing that I learned during this project is that when laser engraving wood, you have to change the settings around so that you do not burn the wood. Lastly it is beneficial learning the concept of making something out of everyday "trash" makes me more motivated things such as a bird feeder. In the future if I were to ever build another one, I would want to put a bird house on the top or bottom to make it into a two in one.