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!

Update – April 2024

Its been about 6 years since I printed this it overall it’s held up well. There is some warping… on the back were it mounts it’s warping away from the pole (not show) and as you can see here it the front cover is warped also. Not bad considering it’s printed in PLA. It has been housing new babies every year since being hung.

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Final Update – June 2024

I think I jinxed myself with that last update…  the birdhouse finally gave out on one of the hottest weeks of the year.  The birdhouse ripped off the post and came crashing down. (In retro spec.. I should have spaced out the mounting screws.)  The good news is there were no babies in the house at the time.

Mom and Dad were still very active with the house so I picked it up and taped it to the top of a ladder so it was as close to where it was originally hung.  I don’t know if there were eggs in the house at the time of the fall but they did end up having another brood of chicks with it on the ladder.  Once the birds where done for the year I planned on hanging it back up so I used bondage tape (it only sticks to itself) to tape it to the ladder but as you can see it still started to deform the roof.  In the end I decided to just retire this birdhouse and I will probably print a new one next year but print it in PETG so this will not happen again.

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