Recycled Wētā Motel

We came up with a simple method to make wētā motels out of 100% recycled materials from construction waste.

Materials - Rescued from building sites

1. Wood
2. Plastic film
3. Nails
4. Staples

Tools

1. Drill and drill bits
2. Chisels of various sizes
3. Hammer
4. Stapler
5. Sander - also recommend using a dremel

Use a pen to outline the galleries - a five-star Wēta motel will have galleries of different sizes. Doc recommends 80 mm by 20mm at the smallest, and 80 mm by 50 mm for larger galleries. Make sure you include entranceways.

OPTIONAL:

On one of our designs, we used a saw to cut the front face off, and used that as a door, instead of corrugated plastic. This makes the Wētā Motel more durable.

Use a large drill bit to drill out most of the wood in the galleries. It is recommended that the galleries be at least 25 mm deep. To make sure you don't drill through the wood, use a piece of tape measured at the right depth as a guide. The closer the holes are together, the less chiselling you will need to do. optionally, you can drill smaller pilot holes to get the larger holes even closer together.

Using the outline as a guide, chisel out the remaining wood in the galleries. Ensure you don't chisel through the wood, and put a hole in the bottom. Make sure you are using good safety practices while using the chisels. We recommend using non-toxic exterior wood glue for the wood chips, cracks, or splinters. Apply to the required areas and leave to dry.

Next, using the outline, chisel out the entrances to the galleries. Be sure that the entrances are around 16mm by 16mm, too big and you will let mice in, too small and the Wētā won't get in.

Cut some of the clear plastic to size, and staple it to the wood, make sure it is tight and none is hanging out the edges. This is very important otherwise the Wētā will get caught in the door mechanism. Also, be sure to leave the entranceways clear.

In our first model, we used the wooden face we cut off as a door. To do this we hammered a nail through both as a hinge and bent over the nail so it wouldn't bend.

We will update this soon with the photos of Wētā and the other door method.