home made play stands

[Roonil Wazlib]

Hey guys, so, this last week, you might have heard about the big 'hurricane 2' out in australia. I was on the outskirts of the worse areas, and our large old gum crashed through to the neighbors yard (thankfully the damage was very minimal) anywho, this means that Julian gets all the play stands and wooden purches that hell need for a long while XD how/do I need to treat/debark the wood in order to make it parrot safe? XD I tried googling it, but the only legit sorce I came across didnt having anything about treating or debarking? Thanks guys

[Wolf]

Well the first step is to identify what types of wood that you have, this link viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 has a list beginning on the second page, that lists toxic and non toxic items ranging from foods, to household chemicals, to woods and trees and much more.
Once you figure out if any of the wood is a bird safe variety, you have to look at the wood and see how it has been treated or not. If the wood is pressure treated then the chemicals are to deep in the wood to be certain of getting it all out. So forget any pressure treated wood. All wood treatments work because they soak down into the wood, through the pores that make up the grain of the wood. So the only effective way to remove the treatment for the purposes of use with your birds is to remove enough wood to get below any chemical that were used. For instance paint, you can remove the paint by sanding, but you can't stop just because you no longer see the color of the paint, because there is an uncolored portion of the paint that soaks deeper into the wood. To remove this I would use an electric hand held planer to remove an additional 1/8th inch of the wood on all sides before I considered it to be safe. De barking is best done with a chain saw, or if removing it manually I would use a draw knife or a froe and mallet.

[Roonil Wazlib]

So its a eucalyptus scribbly gum. Its saying that eucalyptus and gums are all non-toxic, and the site I went to said that all parts of this tree were non-toxic. I highly doubt its been treated, it doesnt look treated, the tree was about thrirty years old, at a guess, its had not chemicals for at least the last six years for sure, and the branches that I want are up high.

so, all ill need to do is sand back the notches, make sure their isnt any creepy crallies, and all should be ok to assemble together? I also read that the sap is fine, so i wont need to worry about that either.

Thank you, looking forward to my project

[mikella]

Would you mind posting pics? I'd be interested to see! My husband is making some things this weekend after he trims the trees (we're using birch). Looking for ideas.

[Roonil Wazlib]

Sure, It won't be for at least the weekend. I need to drag my other half to get some screws, because I'm hopeless But I've done most of the preparation already so it should be ready soon

I'm hoping to make a larger play stand from the ground, and a smaller one that can sit on the table, and two training stands as well. I'd love to see yours when they are done

[mikella]

Great! Would love to see whenever they are done! We've made one T-stand that sits on a table and a T-perch thing (hand-held, portable). Will need new ones eventually because he chews them. I want to do what you said now - table ones, large one from ground, and branches for in cage to replace rope perches (using the branches as opposed to dowel like the other things we did). We'll see what we can come up with! (I say we, but I just tell hubby and he whips something up haha he does all the work.) Can't wait to see your pics

[Roonil Wazlib]

Also - i forgot to mention it yesterday, but I'm hoping to cut a grove into the long side of the wood, add some sort of poop catcher to it, and fit it over my laptop screen so Julian can be comfortable up there, and i don't need to worry about poop running down the back of my lap top, as my computer is something i use a lot of the time, so if it works - and you use your computer alot, it might be a good idea. haha

aw, man, your lucky, my guy has basically refused - not that its a bad thing, as i want to do it - but i gotta line up things correctly and screw them in myself >.< you got it easy

[mikella]

Great idea! I could have definitely used that in the past! Haha This guy isn't at that point yet.

Yes, I know I'm very fortunate...... Good for you though for going for it!!

[Roonil Wazlib]

the begining of a play tree I cant wait till it finnished, but need more parts. Waiting for the screw inserts in the mail

rps20150517_134103.jpg (29.6 KiB) Viewed 9030 times

luxery!

[Tori Taylor]

Everything my birds have is "homemade" we cannot buy these things here so their aviary, all four perches/play stands and anything else needed is made here from natural wood and bamboo from the island