Bird Feeder Stand: Conduit and 3D Printing

I wanted to build a stand to hold birdfeeders in my backyard. It needed to be squirrel proof. As I write this I count 8 squirrels in my backyard. I had idea to work with some conduit and my 3d printer. I found a piece of duct at my hardware store on clearance. An idea was born.

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you make one!

I used:

1. (4) 10" sticks of 3/4 conduit. (Make sure you get sticks that are straight).
2. conduit bender
3. (4) or (5) 5" hose clamps
4. (4) 4" utility screw hooks
5. (2) 4' sticks of #4 rebar
6. hammer
7. (2) 1-1/4" by 9" 20gauge galvenized strap tie (deck department, optional depending on if you want to be squirrel proof)
8. (1) section of 8" duct, cut to length you desire (optional depending on if you want to be squirrel proof)
9. tape measure
10. marker
11. machine screws
12. work gloves

Plus a variety of custom 3d printed pieces.

I printed a variety of pieces in order to build this stand. I used PLA+ or PLA professional.

One: The simplest piece is a 'sleeve' that fits onto the rebar. This provided a solid friction fit between the rebar pieces and the conduit. You'll need FOUR of these. Do a sample fitment with your conduit to make sure there is a snug fit.

Two: Hook pieces. These are the plugs that go into the end of each arm and hold the hook. You'll need FOUR of these.

Three: Bracket Pieces. These are the four-lobed bracket pieces that hold the conduit in place. I used TWO of the SLOTs and TWO of the SHORTY. The SLOT pieces have a slot to hold a strap tie. I also printed the (red) spacer piece to help with alignment.

Four: Baffle. This is optional. Print this piece twice. It's designed to mate with itself. Use a bolt and nut to hold together. It will create a barrier at the top of the duct tube.

Use the conduit bender to bend the conduit. I went with a 35* bend at 6.5 feet (78 inches). This gave me an arm of 3.5 feet (42 inches). I think this puts the feeders a comfortable distance from each other.

There are plenty of great videos on youtube about using a conduit bender.

Fit plug into the end of each arm. Screw the hooks into each of the four plugs. I slightly bent the opening of each hook to reduce the size of the opening. In retrospect I dont think it was necessary.

This part was tricky. Assemble the four sticks of the stand into the brackets. Use the hose clamps to hold in place. I used two hose clamps at the top and one hose camp each on the other three brackets. For a total of four brackets. You could probably do fine w three brackets.

You'll see I used a version of the bracket that held the metal strap through its middle. That proved to be very difficult to work with. The version I added here has the SLOT open to the top. I think this will make it easier to add the duct tube.

If you choose to NOT use a piece of duct to discourage squirrels you can use the regular shorty bracket.

I also provided a 'spacer' piece. It's optional. I found it helpful to arrange the conduit pieces and place the rebar.

Let me start by saying I cant believe this actually worked. But it did.

I hammered two sticks of 4' rebar into the ground. Make sure you don't pierce anything important. I re-used that (red) spacer piece to help measure how I wanted to place the sticks. I spaced the rebar so they fit into opposing sides of the stand and not adjacent sticks. Very roughly 30" into the ground w 18" sticking out. Use your best judgment.

Once in the ground I hammered two sleeves onto each stick.

Slide two opposing legs onto the rebar sticks. I loosened the bottom bracket for this step. Then snugged it down again once stand was in place.

Slide the stand back off the rebar base. Feed it into the duct tube and place it on the rebar again.

Take the metal strap and feed it through the slot in spacer bracket. Fold the metal strap so as to create two tabs, one on each end. Screw a sheet metal screw through the duct work into the tabs on the strap.

I printed the (green) baffle a few days later. I had noticed squirrels trying to climb up inside the duct tube. All this piece does is close off the top opening. You can probably come up with other approaches to do the same thing.

I was going to spray the outside with silicone or something else slippery but squirrels seem to have given up trying.

After watching birds at my feeders I noticed them landing on then slipping down the branching arms. I ran a simple piece of green plastic coated wire cable. There is a notch in the bird feeder hook pieces to accommodate the wire.

I noticed sparrows crowding one of my feeders. So I added a stick for additional space to perch. I just attached the stick w a couple bits of wire. They seem to like it.