Whatabirder Bird House & Restaurant

This is my design for a birdhouse based on the design of a Whataburger restaurant, circa 1950. If not from Texas, you may not know what Whataburger is, but the next time you'e in Texas, make sure to stop by one.

PLA will NOT survive Texas heat. I have successfully used PTEG, BUT ONLY IF I SPRAY PAINT THE ENTIRE MODEL WITH CLEAR PRIMER. (I got mine from Lowes: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rust-Oleum-Universal-High-gloss-Clear-Spray-Paint-Actual-Net-Contents-11-oz/1000760992)

NOTICE My largest printer is down, so I have not tested the "Parking Lot" part.

If you do not have an automatic filament change system, this will eat into your leisure time, because your going to have to change colors A LOT.

For the roof and awning, which I built as a single print, you will start with white filament and every 8mm (40 layers at 0.2mm layer thickness). I do this by adding the ";PAUSE_PRINT_ORANGE" and "PAUSE" in the .gcode file as shown below:

ORIGINAL GCODE

;LAYER_CHANGE
;Z:8
;HEIGHT:0.2
;BEFORE_LAYER_CHANGE
;8
G92 E0

EXCLUDE_OBJECT_END NAME=Awning.stl_id_1_copy_0
;AFTER_LAYER_CHANGE
;8
;_SET_FAN_SPEED_CHANGING_LAYER
; printing object Roof.stl id:0 copy 0

———————————————————————————————————————

MODIFIED GCODE

;LAYER_CHANGE
;Z:8
;HEIGHT:0.2
;BEFORE_LAYER_CHANGE
;8
G92 E0

EXCLUDE_OBJECT_END NAME=Awning.stl_id_1_copy_0
;AFTER_LAYER_CHANGE

;8
;_SET_FAN_SPEED_CHANGING_LAYER

;PAUSE_PRINT_ORANGE
PAUSE

; printing object Roof.stl id:0 copy 0

Other printers or slicers may have very specific syntax for this command, so make sure you've checked to see what you need to add to your .gcode file to do this and remember, if you add rafts, you'll change the Z height of the filament change.

In the case of the roof and awning, you'll start with white and alternate between orange and white until the job is finished, making sure that the recessed face at the top end (on which the lettering sits) is white and then that the lettering is orange. The only supports you'll need are the supports on the bottom facing slots of the awning (printing orientation). (see images for orientation)

The parking lot requires a filament change, as well. Start with black and switch to white, at the point the parking lot stripes start to appear, so the stripes and sidewalk will be white.

Roof and awning posts may be printed on their sides, but will need supports. I have successfully printed them, standing on the ends with the holes with no supports.

DO NOT glue the house, the awning posts or roof posts to the parking lot. Also, do not glue the roof to the house. The house is attached to the parking lot by four 1/4-20 round head machine screws and the roof is held onto the house by another 1/4-20 round head machine screw at the rear end of the house, near its top (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-1-4-in-20-x-1-2-in-Phillips-Slotted-Combination-Drive-Machine-Screws-50-Count/3043378). This was done to facilitate off-season cleaning of the bird house.

The bird house assembly is mounted by using a Schedule 40, 1" diameter (I.D. thread size) flange (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Mueller-Proline-1-in-dia-Black-Iron-Floor-Flange-Fitting/50276203). Once you have mounted the flange, you can use a combination of Schedule 1" diameter pipe, elbows, and/or nipples to mount the birdhouse exactly as you wish, possibly with a second flange at the opposite end to attach the mount to a fencepost or other object.

To attach the flange to the parking lot, I used M6 screws (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-6mm-1-x-16mm-Allen-Drive-Cap-Screws-2-Count/50016878).

All eight window openings are the same size, so you'll print 8 of them. I used transparent filament for this to give the birds some light indoors.

The perch is a 3/8" diameter wooden dowel, cut to the desired length and painted black: (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Madison-Mill-Round-Wood-Oak-Dowel-Actual-36-in-L-x-0-375-in-dia/3040779). I extended the dowel about 3.4" into the house so the birds have a place to stage their exit, when leaving.

Most of the parts can be printed on a printer with a 300mm x 300mm bed. The parking lot requires a larger bed, as it is 373mm x 230mm. (I may add a model for it, split int to parts, but I am concerned with having acceptable tolerances across the split in the assembled model.)