Wind Spiral

A neat little thingy which is easy and cheap to make and yet looks very nice and keeps annoying birds away.

1. 3 meters of batten

2. 1 metal rod (thin)

3. file and/or sandpaper

4. glue

5. paint

6. piece of paper

Take a large piece of paper and fold it in half lenghtwise and then fold it in half

widthwise.

Once the folding is done, you only need to make one line as shown in the pic above, cut along that line (don’t worry if it’s not too straight, this pattern is more of a guideline than a rule) and unfold the paper. You will then get something that resembles a barrel. That’s what you will use for measuring and cutting the wood.

Now you need to measure the middle of your “pattern” and see how long it is. Of course, you can do the measuring beforehand and go without a pattern whatsoever, but I found it esier this way. Now, be sure to put the number of measured lenght on each piece of wood, otherwise you will have a hard time figuring out which piece goes after which piece. I used a 3 meter, 13x13mm batten, but you can use what you want, the ONLY important thing is that the finished spiral is not too heavy, otherwise the wind won’t move it.

Now you need to arrange the cut wood onto the “pattern”. As you can see it doesn’t really fit as I planned but that’s because I had less battens than I tought. Anyway, the main thing is that you get the “barrel” shape whan you arrenge the cut wood together. I used duct tape on both sides to hold the pieces together

Now you need to file the whole thing to get those smoother angles.

Now you need to separate each piece and mark it which color you are going to paint it. I chose mine to be B&W but you can paint it any color you like, or even do a fancy drawing on the whole thing.

You can drill a hole in the middle of each piece before painting or after. I did it before so the paint can cover the holes. Needless to say that the hole needs to be the exact size in diameter as the rod you are goint to stick through the holes. It needs to be a snug fit.

Now, the painting: basically you can use any color, I used what I had at home. Spray paint and enamel paint. The important thing is to let it dry completely before putting all the pieces on a rod.

After the paint is dry, lay down each piece and arrange them on a flat surface to check if everything fits and that the pieces are equally painted. Then start arranging them on a rod. I drilled a hole in a piece of wood so that the metal rod stands upright which makes it a lot easier to put the pieces together.

Now you need to glue the two shortest pieces onto the last piece on each side. I used epoxy two component glue since it needs to bind the wood and the metal together, and it did a nice job.

Now you just need to turn each piece clockwise (or counter clokwise, it doesn’t really matter) so that you get the spiral shape. Hang it outside and enjoy! I used heavy duty fishing line, and found that even the slightest breeze turns the spiral.