# A fancy birdhouse (with a little help of a laser cutter)



## Switch & Lever (Apr 9, 2014)

Hello again all! I'm back with a little project I made recently, a birdhouse made from laser cut wood.

Hope you all like it!


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## Smith Brother (Dec 9, 2012)

Nice, but with that said few, very few folks on this site can obtain the equipment you used to make this piece.

Personally speaking I enjoy seeing what's being used in high end shops.

Just my opinion.

Dale in Indy


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## Switch & Lever (Apr 9, 2014)

You are right, of course. However, if you don't have a jointer and a planer there's always the option of buying ready made boards, even plywood, which will work just as well for you. If you don't have a laser cutter you could cut the finger joints on a table saw, or even by hand. If you don't have the tools there are always ways around it, I'm showing one method of doing these things, there are a million others.

Glad you liked it though


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## Smith Brother (Dec 9, 2012)

Yep, lots of ways to make things.

I made a very nice floor baby rocking cradle in 1961. I had only a HAND SAW, RASP, HAND CRANK DRILL, DOWELS, SAND PAPER, GLUE, STAIN, VARNISH.

It has held at least 5 new babies. 

Dale in Indy


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

smithbrother said:


> Nice, but with that said few, very few folks on this site can obtain the equipment you used to make this piece.
> 
> Personally speaking I enjoy seeing what's being used in high end shops.
> 
> ...


Dunno bout that, most major city's nowadays have a hackershop where you can go and play around with the fancy tools for a small fee


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Love the idea of building any bird houses. My you work fast.

How wide is the laser kerf?

Can it cut perfect 90s in corners or are they rounded?

How thick can it cut?

Al


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## Switch & Lever (Apr 9, 2014)

*Al B*, the wideness of the kerf depends a little on the material you're cutting. In wood such as this the kerf is around 0.2mm, cutting even thinner material (such as paper) you can get around 0.1mm, whereas in thicker plastics it can easily go up to 0.5mm. 

The thickness of cut is again depending on material, acrylic sheets can be cut up to around 12mm thick, although with severe tapering of the sides. Wood around 6-7mm, after that the charring becomes a huge problem.

As for the corners, inside corners have a very very slight rounding to them whereas outside corners are entirely sharp.


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## 4DThinker (Mar 13, 2013)

Nicely done! Although cut to "final" shape with a laser your video points out that there is plenty of more traditional woodworking still required to make a fat board into a bird house. I saw the planer, joiner, band saw, disk sander, and clamping stages. I'll guess some work preceeded the video to acquire the starting wood blank. Laser cut finger joints still suffer 90 degree-ism. Plenty of work to "fix" and fill when used at 120 degrees though. Any CNC has the same trouble, and doesn't do fingers in side grain without loosing a few. I'd have wrapped the grain around the house rather then front to back maybe. Your house may eventually shrink/split the sides, or swell and pop the sides off the front/back the way it is done. Still a beautiful house though. Thanks for posting.


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## Switch & Lever (Apr 9, 2014)

*4D*, the only work required before was to get it from the shelf of wood at my school. Though, yes, work was required to get it there, but thankfully not by me. You could do it if you have just regular 2x4s or 2x6s as well, and could hopefully (depending on how straight they are) skip a couple of passes through the jointer.

You are correct that it may split apart, it was one consideration I did not take. The grain running the length of the house is more an aesthetic one than a functional one, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

Very different than I'm used to seeing yet many familiar techniques. I appreciate that. It helps broaden my creativity. Thanks. Also enjoyed the simple look of the finished product.


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