Rotating squirrel feeder.
Like many who feed birds in their yards, pesky squirrels, often the clowns of the yard, eat more than their fair share. I’ve watched squirrels overcome the obstacles placed before them using sometimes incredible acrobatics like hanging upside down from their rear feet to reach the birdseed. While looking for ways to defeat these furry nemeses I came across several squirrel feeder designs, all made of wood. Having some left-over short bits of ¾ conduit, I decided to make my own using Maker Pipe. But first, I needed to find a bearing I could incorporate into the design (image 1 and 2). This is a 15/16th O.D. – 5/16th I.D. bearing for skateboards I found on Amazon (Wellgo 608-2RS Ball Bearings Skateboard Bearings Double Rubber Sealed Shielded Miniature Deep Groove Bearings 8mm x 22mm x7mm for Skateboards Inline Skate Scooter Roller Blade Skates etc -10pcs) - https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07R7PR72H?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Although I could probably get away using one bearing, I stacked 3 and used heat shrink to encase and join the bearings (image 3 before heating). Image 4 shows the bearing column prepped for placing in a 4-way connector and image 5 ready for the feeder’s arms.
I cut four - 12-inch lengths of ¾ conduit leftover from previous projects, this is why two are painted black and 2 are silver in image 6, a close up of the bearing column tightened into the 4-way connector).
To hold the squirrel food (commercial cylindrical squirrel food made from corn meal and purchased from a local feedstore – next time I’ll use dried corn cobs also from the feedstore) I cut 7/8th inch hard wood dowel into 1 ½ inch lengths (image 7) and clamped them into T-connectors (image 8). I added an additional heat-shrink shim to one side of each T-connector to produce a firm grip on the dowels.
Each dowel was drilled with a ¼-inch bit to accommodate a 4-inch x ¼-20 screw as seen in images 9 and 10 (this holds the squirrel food). Image 11 shows the assembled feeder ready for mounting. As I did not want to attach the feeder directly into a tree, I used a spare ornamental garden hook (image 12). As you can see in the video of the rotating feeder, this has the added advantage of providing an even more challenging food station for the squirrels. I used a 5/16 x 6-inch screw for the axle and, as you can see, the bearing works well and the feeder spins freely. I will update when I catch video of a squirrel using the feeder.
