June 4, 2019

3D Printed Bird House

STL’s for this lure are available for purchase from Cults3d.com

This is a 3D printed bird house that I designed to replace some aging wooded ones that I have that are falling apart after about 20 years of yearly use.

I designed this in Solidworks and it was designed to be printed in only two pieces without any supports. The front will attach with (6) 2-56″ x 3/8 Button head screws.

The last bird house I printed was a little small so the few birds that tried to take up residence in it ended up giving up on it. So on this one I utilized the entire 8 x 10 x 8 build surface to print it. The body took roughly 16 hours to print and another 3-4 for the front face.

Here is the finished printed house mocked up before painting.

I printed it fast so there’s a lot of ghosting on the roof but I think it adds to the shingle effect quite nicely.

I also had some weird issues going on with the bottom (side of the print) of the body but I attribute that to the no name Chinese filament I used.  It’s not a big deal and will add to the wood grain finish I am going to paint on it.

The finished bird house mounts with two wood screws.

Here is the finished painted House. I gave it an overall faux wood finish but painted the front a Ford Blue to add some color to it. The entire house was also sealed with 6-7 coats of spray on polyurethane it the hopes that it will protect if from the elements. The front face plate mounts with (6) 2-56″ Button Head Screws. (The holes in the body were tapped first.)

The faux wood grain paneling was all hand painted.

The roof was painted in what was suppose to be faux ceder shake shingles but it was my first attempt at that so it didn’t come out as well as I liked.

I also did a faux stone pattern around the entrance just to try something new.  The entrance hole might be a little to big and I’ll probably change this on the next one I print.

The perch was also painted to look like a wood beam.  Now I just have to wait and see if the bird will actually use this one.

April 2020 – We have residents!

All Information, Pictures, and Material is copyright © 2018 by Stephen Thone and may not be used for any personal or commercial purposes without the consent of the author. All rights reserved. The Author makes no guarantees or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of, or results to be obtained from accessing and using the Information herein.