Bird Buddy mounting system and perch

thingiverse

The new BirdBuddy bird feeder is a lot of fun, but I needed a slightly different approach to mount it where I wanted it in my back yard. Not to mention excluding squirrels and such... ;-) So far those pesky rodents can't scale the smooth PVC pipe, but if they do manage to conquer that barrier, my next trick (which has worked very well elsewhere on my other conventional feeders) is to suspend a metal Slinky from the bird feeder base so it covers most but not all of the pipe below. This set of 3 components consists of a deck cap base, the screw-on feeder base, and to round it all out, a perch. A 3/4" PVC pipe cut to around 4' long connects the top and bottom fixtures with reasonable stability. Everything is a nice push fit, but your results will vary (after all, you'll need to remove and refill now and then). You could drill the base for a pin through the pipe as an added security feature, but for now my friction fit seems OK. You might wonder why I designed my own feeder pole mount fixture. The new design adds some wall thickness to the socket and depth to the pipe interface. Otherwise it is pretty much the same. The perch is from "Bird Buddy Perch by msrowe88" but a slight remix which makes the print go well without supports by creating a flat land area on one edge. The original file needed a repair by my slicer, but it printed just fine. I suggest using 60% infill or higher due to the small dimensions. Also, printing with the layers perpendicular to the mounting direction helps to prevent stuck pieces in the holes should it break. UPDATE: pesky squirrels have managed to refine their climbing skills and at least two incursions occurred recently. I've added a Slinky and a picture to show how it is installed. A piece of 1/4" dowel rod through a hole in the pipe provides the suspension point. It wasn't long after I witnessed one trying it out. One very defeated squirrel!