I was disappointed in the quality of the commercially available feeders, mostly due to material choices ... Too much plastic, so I set out about making one. My goal was for it to be very durable, or very inexpensive, and easy. Note: I live in Texas so the summer heat tends to decompose plastics fairly quickly.
In my research I found a fundamental design which was based on buying or making a plug with a tube through it. You would fill a bottle, put in the plug, and hang it upside down somehow. With the temperature movements, this type would be prone to leaking (dripping as the fluid expands and contracts) and would eventually attract insects.
I found another design which relied on the bottle opening being immersed in the liquid thus forming the seal. This was the approach I preferred, as there would be no wasted liquid, and no insects attracted to the feeder.
Then I wrestled with materials to make the design a more durable type. However, this tended to make the feeder difficult to construct. Ultimately I decided on the inexpensive and easy approach. That being the case, free was the right price. I looked around the recycling bin and found all the appropriate materials.
The materials consisted of:
a small plastic Sprite bottle (12 oz) for the nectar bottle,
an empty plastic potato salad container for the top of the feeder bowl,
the top from a bottle of liquid clothes washing detergent for the feeder bowl, and
a disposable plastic cup from a local barbecue restaurant to make some fake flowers.
a small plastic Sprite bottle (12 oz) for the nectar bottle,
an empty plastic potato salad container for the top of the feeder bowl,
the top from a bottle of liquid clothes washing detergent for the feeder bowl, and
a disposable plastic cup from a local barbecue restaurant to make some fake flowers.
Tools required include a pair of shears or scissors, a small piece of sand paper, a hole punch or awl, and a drill with a 3/8" bit. I also used a deck screw, some five minute epoxy, and hot glue.
I started by cutting the detergent cap down to be about an inch high. This is the feeder bowl. I then cut the bottom out of the salad container to fit over the top of the feeder bowl. The result is below on the left.
Next I drilled a 3/8" hole right through the top of the Sprite bottle, cap and all. Be careful to drill slowly to avoid melting the cap or bottle and deforming it. That'll make the top tough to screw back on.
I also found that if the diameter of the hole is too small, the surface tension of the water prevents the water from flowing out of the bottle. The smallest you want to use is about 3/8". Put some water in the bottle and turn it upside down in a bowl to make sure it will flow. If it doesn't, now is the time to fix it. Make the hole in the bottle a bit bigger until it flows out OK for this test. The size of the hole in the lid is also important, but not quite as much.
I cut a hole in the lid for the bowl almost big enough for the Sprite bottle top to fit through. I also cut the tiny slot you can see on the right of the hole to make it easier to get onto the bottle.
This bowl lid is to stay on the bottle when you screw the feeder bowl off of the bottle.
Next I sanded a small spot in the center of the feeder bowl and I sanded the cap of the sprite bottle to roughen them up so the epoxy would stick. I also sanded the bottom of the bottle, and removed the ring of plastic from the bottle ( the one which holds the cap on before you break the seal.)
I used epoxy to glue the Sprite bottle cap in to the bottom of the feeder bowl, and the seal ring to the bottom of the bottle for the hanger. I put a generous dollop of hot glue on the hanger ring too for stability (I don't have a picture of that here.)
Next I cut out some small circles of yellow plastic from the disposable cup. These were around an inch in diameter.
I cut some notches around the yellow circles to start to make these look like flowers.
They didn't look quite right, so I warmed each up a bit with a disposable lighter, and pushed them into the palm of my hand to make them look like little cups. If you heat that plastic till it starts to reshape on it's own, you've done too much. Apply just a bit of heat, then try to shape them. I used the screw to hold the flowers while I heated and shaped them. This first one I got too hot, and it collapsed.
This one was pretty good.
I sanded small patches on the bottoms of the flowers, and on the lid to help the hot glue hold. Then I used hot glue to attach the flowers to the top of the lid.
I used a leather hole punch to cut the holes in the middle of the flowers.
Then I assembled the whole thing.
Then I hung it in the window, and waited for the first customer !!
Some final notes. I made three of these. As you can see, they will come to a "non-red" feeder. They tended to prefer the other two, which had the green Sprite bottles and red feeder bowls on the bottom. One was made from a plastic Folgers coffee can. I was able to put six flowers on the lid for that one.
Good Luck !!
Jim.
