Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

I get sawdust at the local small business. it is literally dust. they also have pine shavings.

I have come to realize that the finer the saw dust, the less sanding you will need to do after it dries. Looking back, that should have been obvious. But I only had saw dust from my chop saw collection bag. That is not dust quality at all.

 

[gtaus]

Love my Instant Pot! Just saying.

Oh, I understand. The people I know that have an Instant Pot say you basically won't use your crock pot if you buy an Instant Pot. Most of don't have room for both appliances in the cupboards, so the old crock pot gets moved out.

 

[gtaus]

Well, after putting painter's tape around the white trim, I got the red walls painted on my chicken coop this morning. Unfortunately, I also got some red paint on my newly painted white trim and I will have to touch that up later. Also, managed to get some paint on my shorts, so I had to take off the paint with a wet paper towel and then toss the shorts into the wash. Looks like all the paint came out. I have the shorts outside on a wooden rack drying in the sun.

Speaking of which, it's terrible hot here again with high humidity for the past couple of days. I get a little work done early in the morning and then some after supper before it gets dark outside. I don't too well out in the heat.

I have started working on another pallet project. This time it will be a firewood stand to hold split wood by the fireplace ring. I have been watching some YouTube videos on different concepts and think I will try something. I found a nice half pallet that should work great for the base. Now I need to cut some 2X4's for the vertical poles to keep the wood stacked up. Don't know if I want the 2X4's to go straight up, or at an angle. Will post some pictures when I finish building it.

Maybe something like this but only half as wide and half as tall....

Or this concept, but using my half pallet as the base instead of concrete blocks...

I kind of prefer the V shaped design with the removable 2X4's. Either way, my idea is to hold a small amount of split wood for the campfire. A bunch of wood is not needed.

For now, I moved my 6-ton electric log splitter over to my pile of wood to split. But it's out in full sun so I'm waiting for later in the day when I should get some shade there. The electric log splitter does a pretty good job with my wood, and I should be able to fill up my pallet wood firewood stand without any problems. Much easier to use the electric log splitter than splitting the wood with an axe.

 

[avjudge]

Also, managed to get some paint on my shorts so I had to take off the paint with a wet paper towel and then toss the shorts into the wash.

I swear, if I just take the lid off a paint can the paint jumps out onto my clothes. I won’t go near the stuff unless I’m wearing some of my painting clothes, already liberally anointed.

Of course, the fact that I have a habit of wiping my hands on my thighs doesn’t help in keeping my clothes clean.

 

[Smokerbill]

@gtaus
This may be of interest to you...

 

[gtaus]

I swear, if I just take the lid off a paint can the paint jumps out onto my clothes. I won’t go near the stuff unless I’m wearing some of my painting clothes, already liberally anointed.

I don't paint very often. Don't really like painting. And I don't have any old painting clothes to wear. I am thinking I should buy some kind of inexpensive painting coveralls or something like that. The kind of protective gear that you don't care if it gets paint on it.

Of course, the fact that I have a habit of wiping my hands on my thighs doesn’t help in keeping my clothes clean.

Thanks for that. At least I did not make things worse for myself by wiping my hands on my clothes.

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus
This may be of interest to you...

Thanks. I watched that video a few months ago. I'm not that interested in that method, but maybe someone else will be.

 

[gtaus]

Portable Pallet Campfire Wood Holder Project

I had to go out of town today for some work and did not get back until around supper time. However, I had just enough time to build the pallet wood firewood holder that I have been talking about. So, here are some pictures of the project...

First of all, I took out my 3 year old electric Southland 6 ton log splitter yesterday and starting splitting one of my piles of rounds from tree felling this spring....

I just started splitting the wood in that picture, but managed to split almost half the pile before I called it a night yesterday. It gave me a good idea how much split wood I would be stacking up on the pallet wood firewood holder. Only halfway through splitting the rounds, and I realized that I would need a taller stand than originally planned. But that was a good thing to learn before I put together my firewood stand.

Speaking of stands, notice in the picture above that I built a stand for the log splitter out of pallets. I made that stand a few years before I even got into pallet wood projects. I cut a full pallet in half and made some legs to attach the lower half pallet to the top half pallet. It was only a partial success in that it held the log splitter, but when I used the splitter, it would move around a little and fell between the pallet planks. Also, that log splitter is over 100 pounds, and I did not like the give in the pallet planks with the machine on top. The entire stand needed to be stronger. My solution was to add salvaged 2X6's to the entire top of the stand, without any gaps, and to reinforce the legs tying the pallet bottom to the top. That made everything rock solid and I have not modified the log splitter stand in 3 years.

I wanted to build a stand for the log splitter because it was too hard on my back having the splitter on the ground. That was a lot of bending over to pick up the wood, bending over to run the log splitter, and then bending over again to pick up the wood from the ground. The stand I built made everything a lot easier on me.

Moving on to the firewood stand, I did not want to use a full pallet for this project. I had a number of half pallets and found this one in my pile that was in pretty good shape. It will be used as the base of the firewood stand.

I loaded it up on my pallet wood working bench I put on top of my utility trailer and tow behind my lawn mower. In this next picture, you can see that I added an additional 2X4 towards the outside of the pallet. That 3 inch gap is there so I can slide down my vertical support boards.

I added another 2X4 to the other side and slipped in my 2X2 boards for the vertical support. I found those 2X2's in my pallet wood pile. Originally, I thought I would cut the 2X2's in half, about 2 feet long, but after splitting just half of one pile of rounds I realized that I would need a taller stand. So, I left them at ~4 feet long.

I think you get the idea of how it's going to work. This stand is the ultimate portable firewood stand because those 2X2 vertical supports are just slipped into the pallet wood base, They are not screwed in at all.

OK, have to back up a bit and give you a shot of my mobile work bench setup. All I did was toss a full pallet on top of the trailer with some 2X4's attached to the bottom of the pallet to prevent the pallet from slipping all over as I tow the work bench around the yard.

Again, this setup makes working on things at waist level height and reduces my need to bend over and work on things on the ground. When you get to a certain age, those little differences add up and at the end of the day you feel better. Protect your back!

Also, that is my "new" used Murray riding mower that I picked up at our local Fleet store for only $400.00. A customer had them put in a new engine and then never came back to pay for it. I got the mower with a new engine for half the price the store had into the cost of the engine alone. It's been a good deal for me, and this is now my main rider for towing my utility trailers.

Anyways, I hauled everything to the backyard and set the firewood stand up next to my cedar swing by the fireplace, Here is a picture of the firewood stand loaded up with about half my pile of rounds I split yesterday. I still have lots of wood to split, but as you can see, I still have a little more half the capacity to fill up. That's why I did not cut the 2X2's in half length. I'll need all that room for the rest of the wood pile to split.

Other than my wood stacking skills, I really like the way it looks. I told you that the 2X2's are not screwed into the pallet wood base. I don't think it will be needed because the weight of the wood pushing out on the 2X2's are holding everything tight in place.

Like most of my projects, I spent more time watching YouTube videos and thinking about the design than actually building it. Building this pallet firewood stand actually took less than an hour, including the time rummaging through my pallet wood pile looking for the "perfect" wood to use for this project.

Hope this simple project might be of use to someone else. Let me know what you think. Later...

 

[fuzzi]

Once I got my Instant Pot, my crock pots began gathering dust. If I had to pick ONE countertop kitchen appliance, that would be it. I liked my 6 quart so much that I bought the 8 quart one for cooking bone broth (main use) and any other larger dishes. I also bought the air fryer lid (for the 6 quart model) and use that a lot too.

We'd probably never reach break even either. If we go solar -- or wind -- it would be to get off the grid.

No, the siding was not primed. Raw wood. I could hear it soak up the first coat of paint. We looked at primed siding, but it wasn't worth the price difference, as I recall.

I have two crock pots, both have removable inserts. I make bone broth in them, it's incredibly easy.

 

[Sally PB]

I have two crock pots, both have removable inserts. I make bone broth in them, it's incredibly easy.

Oh, yeah. The advantage is time with the pressure cooker.

DH can't stand the smell of bone broth cooking. I only make it when he's gone for the day. He would stage a rebellion if I did it in a crock pot.