Make your own fiddlestix/wooden bendy bridges

[Queen Of The High Teas]

I was in Aldi the other week and found a roll of willow garden edging reduced to £3.49. After removing it from the wire it was secured to I ended up with a huge pile of equal sized willow branches. So I turned them into copies of those bendy bridges the pet shop charges a lot for!

You will need: a roll of willow garden edging, garden wire, strong tape or alternative, pliers, drill

Total cost: willow sticks £3.49
garden wire £1.73
Tape already had

Step 1: drill a hole in either end of the stick, about a fingers width from the end. I used a pillar drill, but if your steady with a normal drill (I'm not!) that would work to. Drill as many sticks as you want for a bridge, I used 20 and got quite big bridges.

Step 2: get a roll of garden wire, unroll enough so that its double the length of your sticks laid flat with an extra foot or so added on. Bend the wire into a U shape, which should be the same width apart as the holes in the sticks.

Step 3: thread the sticks onto the wire like a ladder. Put 1 stick on first to make it easier to get the others on. Start threading the sticks on, it's quite difficult to to get more than three to slide down together, so I did three or four at a time. Continue until you are happy with the length of your bridge.

Step 4: on the last stick, twist the wire around a few times, then snip the excess off. Make sure to cover the twisted part securely for safety. I pinched them as flat as poss with pliers then wrapped them in very strong adhesive tape.

Step 5: put in cage!

I really like these, their cheap, easy to make (I made 3 in half an hour), and you can make them whatever size you want, so as well as a bridge, you make a hanging jungle bridge to hang up from one side of the cage to another. Or put them upright to fence off part of the cage. I paid £3.49 for them, but you can get the same/similar ones in Wilko's and poundland at this time of year, and compared to those you buy with about 6 sticks on, they work out incredibly cheap. I made three 20 stick bridges and still have about 30+ sticks left over.

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y393/DarkWillow1630/1c53e51980e0105678a0d56c48259df4_zpseed7abe0.jpg

[DrKMcK]

Well I'll be!!! Now that's a great idea! I paid a lot for just three bendy bridges and I could have made them myself. I love the idea that I can make them as long as I want. For me, the drilling is no problem, as I own a regular size drill and a Dremel. I have loads of different bit sizes, so that's no problem. This is truly excellent! I love it! :-D

[Esmy]

I think it's a neat project too! I wonder if a pack of dowels would work well here, with the same concept. Great job!

[Queen Of The High Teas]

Well I'll be!!! Now that's a great idea! I paid a lot for just three bendy bridges and I could have made them myself. I love the idea that I can make them as long as I want. For me, the drilling is no problem, as I own a regular size drill and a Dremel. I have loads of different bit sizes, so that's no problem. This is truly excellent! I love it! :-D

Thank you:D

That's why I came up with the idea, I wanted some bendy bridges for my hams, but their so pricey! Also, the sticks for garden edging is a lot less crooked than those used for the actual bendy bridges so they fit flusher together and little hammy feet have far less chance of slipping between them. And if you want smaller bridges you can just saw the sticks in half! When I saw it in the store I just thought 'hey I could use that for the hamsters somehow!', I find when I'm out and about I keep an eye out for stuff that could be used or turned into hamster toys, nine times out of ten I find something, and it saves a bunch on buying from pet stores. Its not so bad if you only have 1 ham or something, but I've got four and other pets, and pets at home ain't exactly easy on the pocket:p.

We've got regular drills too, just I'm not great with them, especially with the smaller drill bits, I usually snap them half way through. I find the pillar drill much easier to use, but if your good with a regular drill it would do the job fine:).

[Queen Of The High Teas]

I think it's a neat project too! I wonder if a pack of dowels would work well here, with the same concept. Great job!

If your meaning the dowels you get in packs that feel like like little cogs, I'd guess you'd need some really big ones, which could bung the price up. But if you mean the dowel rods you get in builders merchants, I reckon they would work really well. You'd have to cut them all to size, but they would be really nice and round, and you could even paint them in cool colours with plastikote!:cool:

[kyrilliondaemon]

We've done something similar to reuse the wood from one of these (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CvPGAUzSL._SY300_.jpg) when the wire started coming out, but I'd be cautious putting adhesive tape in a ham cage - hamsters being hamsters it may be a matter of time before one tries to eat it. We just folded the ends of our wire right into the gap between the last two logs so that a ham can't get near the end.

[Esmy]

If your meaning the dowels you get in packs that feel like like little cogs, I'd guess you'd need some really big ones, which could bung the price up. But if you mean the dowel rods you get in builders merchants, I reckon they would work really well. You'd have to cut them all to size, but they would be really nice and round, and you could even paint them in cool colours with plastikote!:cool:

You read my mind! I hadn't thought about where to get them, but I was thinking they could be painted. :)

[sully]

They have these in poundland for £1, I had some a couple years ago> Willow Roll Edging 1m - Plant Protection & Support - Gardening - Home & Garden (http://www.poundland.co.uk/home-and-garden/gardening/plant-protection-support/willow-roll-edging-1m)

[Willow Wisp]

That's a brilliant idea :) I have a loads of willow sticks which I bought to use for basket weaving, I feel a hammie bridge coming on now :)

[Queen Of The High Teas]

We've done something similar to reuse the wood from one of these (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CvPGAUzSL._SY300_.jpg) when the wire started coming out, but I'd be cautious putting adhesive tape in a ham cage - hamsters being hamsters it may be a matter of time before one tries to eat it. We just folded the ends of our wire right into the gap between the last two logs so that a ham can't get near the end.

Out of interest, how did you get it to stay wedged in without the ends poking out? That's what I tried doing, but it wouldn't stay 'hidden'. I figured tape was much safer than sticky out wire, though if I can come up with something better I'll alter them. One alternative I had thought of was poking the end of the wire int a wooden bead but I've not yet thought of how to make a bead hole tiny enough to hold it in.

[Queen Of The High Teas]

They have these in poundland for £1, I had some a couple years ago> Willow Roll Edging 1m - Plant Protection & Support - Gardening - Home & Garden (http://www.poundland.co.uk/home-and-garden/gardening/plant-protection-support/willow-roll-edging-1m)

I also bought some from poundland a couple of years back, but I ended up using them as chew sticks as they were much thinner/finer so would have been virtually impossible to drill without snapping like a carrot. These I've had from Aldi are much thicker, some are really chunky, but even the thinner ones are still workable. The poundland ones might have improved by how though, and Aldi seems to have them on one of their offers at the moment:

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/monday-21st-april/product-detail/ps/p/lawn-edginggarden-mesh/

Oh and Poundland has a website?!:cool: wonder if you can actually order from it!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Out of interest, how did you get it to stay wedged in without the ends poking out?

It was difficult but we just kept going until we got it right. We made three and by the last we were getting pretty good at getting it right without half as much work.

[humfry]

I did this a few weeks ago with a roll from the £1 shop. So economical & you can make whatever length you want. But I am still figuring the best long term solution to keep the ends of the wire safe.

[DrKMcK]

Would soldering the ends together be okay? It would take away any sharp edges.

[Queen Of The High Teas]

It was difficult but we just kept going until we got it right. We made three and by the last we were getting pretty good at getting it right without half as much work.

Just a thought, but would threading the ends of the wire back into the last wood stick work? Make a tiny hole, bend it back on itself and push it in far enough that it can't spring back out?

Would soldering the ends together be okay? It would take away any sharp edges.

You know, soldering is not a bad idea! If I can borrow my brother's solder gun I might try that tomorrow and see how it goes:D.

[Teddy001]

Brilliant!!!! I have all the materials to make a few:) YAY! It will put the pack of willow sticks to good use, as my hams do not chew them.

[DrKMcK]

Looky what I found!!! What do you all think of the price?

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Garden-Products-Rolled-14-Feet/dp/B00GGWRBQW/ref=pd_sim_sbs_lg_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=18P9C2DH4CNTEBZT3SBW

[Queen Of The High Teas]

That's a good price for so many sticks DrKM, just make sure their the more chunky ones, some are really fine, like the narrow end of a garden cane, and then not only are they really hard to drill though, you'd need a lot more of them to make a bridge:p.

[lucy1666]

lovely idea will have to try making instead of buying if i can x