I made the first one of these at the start of the Covid shutdown and we had great fun waiting for the squirrels to come. They were surprisingly happy to take a seat on the bench and eat pretty much anything we put out. The picture on the left was Mother's Day and I had only witness crows taking the food so far so I put out some extra peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Within minutes the squirrel was there instead. I should also mention that at the time we thought our squirrel was a male but we soon realized it was female so we had a squirrel mother for Mother's Day tea.
It takes less than an hour to go from a fence board to a table and I actually tend to make them in batches. Two 5' 1x6 cedar fence boards will make three tables. The sizes of the tops are fixed and the widths of everything else can adjust as necessary depending on how wide your 1x6 is. I use 1 inch #6 screws to assemble everything though you can just use brads.
Parts
- 7 pieces – 1 7/8” x 8”
- 2 pieces – 1 ½” 12”
- 2 pieces – 5/8” x 5/8” x 5”
- 4 pieces – 1 ½” x 5” cut at 22.5 degrees
Assembly
- Attach part 3 one inch in from the ends to three part 1’s to create the top. Centre part 3 across the three pieces.
- Attach two part 4’s to each side leaving a 3/8 in gap in between.
- Attach 2 part 2’s to the inside of the legs 1 ½ inches up from the bottom.
- Attach 2 part 1’s to each side to make the seats.
I attached mine to the side of my fence but you could also put it on a post.
