Large Parrot Play Tree

[ACFERRET]

Hey guys, posting here for some inspiration if it might help you build a tree. I like to craft nice things, so I made mine very high quality and in all ponied up a lot of money to make it through a lot of work.

Below are some photos from the build. I used stainless steel pipe, flanges, and angle iron to mount to the base, which features an oak perimiter later stained a dark finish.

The bottom flange is a standard round flange with 4 bolts, but for the upper I found a "taco" brand flange with only 2 bolt holes commonly used on boilers to work best and it was available in stainless steel as well.

Some notes from this build:
-Stainless steel 1" threaded pipe is available from McMaster carr in 3 or 4 foot lengths, i used 4 ft. 3/4 pipe may work also, though i elected to use 1 inch.
-A&E java wood branches mounted to stainless steel angle iron via 5/16 bolts. I drilled an aditional hole for a locking screw to keep the perches from rotating under load
-Use taco brand flange for threaded pipe to fit into 3" angle iron standard roudn flange at base.
-Re-enforced center section of base with second layer of 3/4 ply to stabilise the vertical pipe for the tree
-re-enforced corners fo base with the scrap cutoffs for caster wheel mounting.
-use dado blade in perimeter to support the plywood base, and shown in the photo.
-mounted food and water bowls onto 5/16 eye bolts to hang toys underneath! but i never did, and he never goes there so this was a bad idea. I hung toys other places.

 

[Kiwibird]

Great job! With the materials used, this should stand up to years of enjoyment by your bird. As with so many things, a larger up front investment often ends up saving you in the long run when things don’t need to be replaced all the time.

I’ll be curious to find out how that java wood holds up to a macaw beak. I got some branches of that stuff for my amazon and it’s the only wood I’ve found he can’t chew right through (manzanita is no match).

 

[ACFERRET]

so far the java wood has not be chewed at all because he has ample toys and he seems more interested in those. I built it this way for exactly that reason acting under the expectation that eventually the branches would get chewed and i could simply replace them for a new one.

 

[Mjhandy]

I'm going to build something like this, but have almost no skills, so I'll figure it out. For your base, what did you stain it with?

I've been searching for VOC free paint, but it's hard to find here.

 

[ACFERRET]

I want to say it was a minwax brand stain.

To make this perch, I used a drill press to drill upto 1/2 inch holes in the stainless steel, and I used a table saw with a dado blade for the base, and a miter box to make it as i did here, I also used finish nail guns, so you will need a good amount of toolage to do it in this fashion, skills aside. For stains and paints, i see some are available as VOC free, however rest assured it isnt neccessary to hunt it down as VOC free.

The purpose of the VOC is to disolve the polymer in the paint and keep it in a liquid solution state. The VOC then completely evaporates form the solution leaving behind the nice, hard product we call dried paint. Once the paint is dried completely there is no more VOC in it. VOCs are not good to inhale especially for your bird, but the danger is only present up untill the paint is dried because it is the VOC that is evaporating form the paint while its drying and hardening.

 

[munami]

That's really beautifully done and amazing! I'd love to do something like this one day!