Pallets

[Too Tall]

For you pen turners or crafters of small items take a look at pallets as a wood source. They are not all made from pine or oak. My dad use to make picture frames and other knickknacks from wood he salvaged off of pallets. He had a stack of all sorts of different hardwoods. Just be careful to remove all the nails/staples etc before turning or cutting.
What got to thinking about it was a coworker asked me to build him a Purple Martin house from some plans he has. Not sure if it is advisable to use that wood for this project, if any of you know please let me know, but its a small project I remembered where to get small project wood.

[dicklaxt3]

Purple martin houses made from wood should be made with cedar because of its very light weight. Gourds, either natural or man made are also a preference in this geographic area. The old school of compartment size was 6" x 6" but today it is recommended to be 6" x 10" or 12" for predator reach in control and entries should also be starling resistant shapes

Heres a link to everything you ever want to know about Purple Martins

http://www.purplemartin.org/

dick

[Too Tall]

Thanks for the info Dick. I haven't seen the plans yet but he showed me a picture of the internals. Looks like some sort of wall just inside the opening. The Martins walk around it and it keeps predators from reaching in.

[galvbay]

We are not too far off for the Martins. Our house is cleaned up and will go up at the end of the month.

[dicklaxt3]

Jim , there have been 39 reported sightings of returning birds from McAllen to Amarillo so the colony birds are already making their return known. The second year birds are still 4 to 6 weeks away.

dick

[dicklaxt3]

Sorry Too Tall,didn't mean to hi-jack your thread. You are right on the pallet wood. I have gotten Mahogany,Walnut,Persimmon and others that I don't know what they were but they were good and hard.

dick

[Too Tall]

Thats okay with me Dick. It was a two part post. A wood source and bird question. Probably should have made them seperate though. :biggrin:

[dicklaxt3]

In the PM world they call that a baffle wall. The female will build her nest behind the wall to keep it out of line of site of predators,a recent innovation say the last 2 to 3 years.

dick