BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

HOW TO MAKE A BIRD’S CAGE. This week, by special request, I am giving simple instructions for making a bird’s cage. The cage is eighteen inches long, twelve inches wide, and thirteen inches high, and provides plenty of room for a pair of canaries, or other small cage birds. You will see by the diagrams that the cage has a wire front, back and sides. The roof is also wired, and a removable tray for sand is provided.

The front of the cage is built up as shown in diagram A, the two uprights being half-inch square wood, and the horizontal parts three-eighths of an inch thick and of different widths, as indicated. These parts are to be nailed together with fine wire nails when the wires are in position. Use straight lengths of wire known as “bird cage,” which can be purchased at most ironmongers’ shops. For the front of the cage you will require thirty pieces, eleven and a quarter inches long. Four of these pieces, cut in halves, can be used for the short lengths above the opening B. Holes half an inch apart must be made though - the centre bar for the long wires to pass through. The holes in the top and bottom bars, to take

the ends of the wires, need only be three-eighths of an inch', deep. The back of the cage is the same size, and is built up in the same way as the front, except that there is no opening in the middle, and no space for the tray. Each of the two sides, which are exactly alike, has a small opening just above the bottom rail, over which the seed and water boxes are placed. The framework for the sides is of the same width and thickness as the front, and the wires pass through holes in the centre rails in the same manner. The dimensions for the side pieces are given in diagram D. . For the bottom of the cage, cut a piece of plywood eighteen and a half inches by twelve and a half inches, and screw this in place when the front,: back, and sides have been nailed together. For the roof frame, use wood half an inch wide and three-eighths of an inch thick, and make it so that it just fits between the sides of the cage, as shown in " the first diagram. Fix a cross-bar between the front and back and fill in with wire. Use about six brass screws for fixing the roof in place. - - Make a tray, E, with odd pieces of quarter-inch wood, and a piece of plywood for the bottom, and screw two small wooden knobs into the front. Make the dpor from two short pieces of wood and short lengths of wire, and the hinges of fine wire staples. You can make the little food boxes F, out of pieces of fretwood. Each box should have two bent pieces of wire fixed at the' front, as shown, to hold it in place, on the side of the cage. To complete the cage, make three pirches—a long one to rest on the middle rails, and a short one in front of each feeding box. Make the perches from half-inch by three-eighths-inch wood, and well round the toiJ corners, as shown in diagram G. When you have finished the cage, I hope you will remember that wild birds of any sort must not be kept in it.

The Hut Carpenter.