Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[StinkyAcres]

Pallet wood makes a great photography background.

https://flic.kr/p/2p8tGtb

 

[gtaus]

Just a little update on things going on here. I have been cleaning out an 8X10 garden storage shed filled with stuff nobody wants (old clothes, shoes, papers, games, books. etc...) and have just about cleared everything out. I'll be transferring my pallet wood and some tools into that shed to clean out my garage for the winter. I need to get that second car into the garage and under a roof before it starts snowing.

Believe it or not, half of my one stall is filled with pallet wood in all kinds of storage bins. No chance of getting a car in that side until I find a new home for all that nice wood.

The great thing about clearing out all that old junk is that I have more room to organize my pallet wood and tools for even better projects. It's no fun when your workspace is too crowded, and you don't feel you can start to build anything. Anyways, about a week from now I hope to have all my pallet wood stored in the shed and the second car in the garage for the winter.

 

[Sally PB]

Hubby and I need to get a dumpster back here and get rid of stuff. And junk. And stuff that has become junk. Next spring... I hope!

 

[gtaus]

Finished getting out all the old junk from inside the 8X10 metal garden shed that I started last week! Dear Wife helped me sort through a number of storage bins. We kept a few bins and moved them to the house (mostly Christmas decorations), we burned many bins full of old clothes and papers that were no longer wanted (mouse nests, etc..), we bagged up some bags of clean clothes and stuff for donation to the church charity Thrift Shop I go to all the time, and we had a number of bins full of stuff that was hauled out to the dumpster at the recycle center.

Today I got some electrical wires hooked up to the shed for lights and outlets. I ran an extension cord out there and hooked it up to the shed and everything worked. So, I got one of my old worksite radios for that shed, plugged it in for some tunes, and turned on the light to work a little past dark this evening.

I first moved a couple loads of pallet wood into the shelves inside the shed, but then decided I did not like the wood just lying on the shelves like that. So, I reorganized all those pieces vertically into some plastic garbage can/storage bins. Took up less room standing upright and looks much more organized. Also, much easier to look into the bins and pull out the piece(s) of wood that I want.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting my flat pallet wood plywood pieces out there, which should clean up lots of room in the garage. Not quite sure when I should move that stuff out there because it will take a lot of room and block the shelves - the shelves which are now empty again. So, I might have to move some stuff from the garage to fill up those shelves first.

Of course, all the time I am moving this stuff from the garage into the shed I am looking over stuff to reorganize it better. That takes time but I'm afraid that if I just dump storage bins into the shed without going through that stuff, it will never get looked at.

Dear Wife is very happy that I have been tossing out some stuff in my big cleanup. It runs against my nature to toss out something that I might find useful someday. No doubt I will end up throwing something out and then have to buy a new one in a couple weeks. That always happens to me.

I am known for saving something for a couple years (or longer) and finding a use for it. Dear Wife is known for tossing out everything that has no immediate use and then buying a new thing when she needs it. We both drive each other crazy in that respect.

But somehow, we just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last week, so we make it work despite our differences.

Anyways, the pallet wood is getting properly stored into the shed and the garage should be cleaned out before we get any snow. Things are going good right now.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Finished getting out all the old junk from inside the 8X10 metal garden shed that I started last week! Dear Wife helped me sort through a number of storage bins. We kept a few bins and moved them to the house (mostly Christmas decorations), we burned many bins full of old clothes and papers that were no longer wanted (mouse nests, etc..), we bagged up some bags of clean clothes and stuff for donation to the church charity Thrift Shop I go to all the time, and we had a number of bins full of stuff that was hauled out to the dumpster at the recycle center.

Today I got some electrical wires hooked up to the shed for lights and outlets. I ran an extension cord out there and hooked it up to the shed and everything worked. So, I got one of my old worksite radios for that shed, plugged it in for some tunes, and turned on the light to work a little past dark this evening.

I first moved a couple loads of pallet wood into the shelves inside the shed, but then decided I did not like the wood just lying on the shelves like that. So, I reorganized all those pieces vertically into some plastic garbage can/storage bins. Took up less room standing upright and looks much more organized. Also, much easier to look into the bins and pull out the piece(s) of wood that I want.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting my flat pallet wood plywood pieces out there, which should clean up lots of room in the garage. Not quite sure when I should move that stuff out there because it will take a lot of room and block the shelves - the shelves which are now empty again. So, I might have to move some stuff from the garage to fill up those shelves first.

Of course, all the time I am moving this stuff from the garage into the shed I am looking over stuff to reorganize it better. That takes time but I'm afraid that if I just dump storage bins into the shed without going through that stuff, it will never get looked at.

Dear Wife is very happy that I have been tossing out some stuff in my big cleanup. It runs against my nature to toss out something that I might find useful someday. No doubt I will end up throwing something out and then have to buy a new one in a couple weeks. That always happens to me.

I am known for saving something for a couple years (or longer) and finding a use for it. Dear Wife is known for tossing out everything that has no immediate use and then buying a new thing when she needs it. We both drive each other crazy in that respect.

But somehow, we just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last week, so we make it work despite our differences.

Anyways, the pallet wood is getting properly stored into the shed and the garage should be cleaned out before we get any snow. Things are going good right now.

Congratulations on 35 years together!

 

[gtaus]

Congratulations on 35 years together!

Thanks. Somehow, I manage to do something useful every once in a while, that keeps me around. This year it was building some new pallet wood raised beds and adding a trellis system for Dear Wife to grow her bitter melons.

Each year I am adding a few more raised garden beds. I'm up to pallet wood raised garden bed version 2.0, with a few improvements over my version 1.0 from previous years. But I might be stuck on version 2.0 for a while because I have not thought of a way to improve it for my use.

If I have time before winter hits, I would like to build another 2 raised beds and get them ready for next spring.

For anyone not familiar with my pallet wood raised garden bed version 2.0, here is a picture of it...

The advantages to this new design is that I was able to use the 2X4 stretchers without cutting them. They made the top and bottom frame. Notice how the notches in the boards are facing each other. Not only do I think that looks nice, but the real benefit is that the 16-inch high boards behind it are nailed to the top and bottom of the strectchers and provide support for the entire 16 inches.

I went with 16 inches high because I can then use the circular saw method to cut off the pallet plants between the 2X4 stretcher. That's the fastest for me to break down a pallet. That usually gives me a cut plank pieces of 17-18 inches, which I trim down to 16 inches with squared off ends.

If you look closely, you will see that I use some 16 inch high 2X4 pieces in each corner to add more strength to the framing. Then I nail in the pallet planks to the inside of the frame using my powered brad nailer. That goes really fast. I don't need really big nails or screws because the soil inside the raised bed is pushing the plank pieces against the 2X4 framing, holding the boards in place even better. No sidewall blowouts in this design with the 2X4 framing on the outside.

The pallet wood was all free. I estimated that I used less that $2 in screws and brad nails for the build of each 4X4 foot raised bed. Anyways, that's my version 2.0 of my pallet wood raised beds. If anyone has improvement suggestions, I am always listening and learning. Thanks.

 

[gtaus]

Well, I just did something that I swore I would never do. I just repurchased another Harbor Freight Bauer Clamping Workstation. You might remember earlier in the year I first purchased one of these and absolutely loved it - until it broke after only about 10 hours of actual work time. The metal on the clamping vise bent and would not clamp down tight anymore. My initial 5-star rating dropped to 1-star, I returned the unit, and was looking at getting the original Rockwell Jawhorse with a 5-year warranty. I am pretty sure they use a higher quality metal.

After months of checking sales on the Rockwell Jawhorse, the cheapest I could find it for on sale was $240.00. So, I have not purchased one yet. In the meantime, I was really missing all the great features of these type of workstations for my use. I was using it all the time for pallet breakdowns. Anyway, the HF Bauer workstation went on clearance, as you can see, and I had an additional coupon for another $5.00 off the purchase price.

I like to think maybe my last HF workstation was just a bad one, but I really know better. The metal on these HF workstations is not as strong as it should be. Given my experience with the first HF workstation, my new approach is to be less demanding of this unit and not test it to the limits. Maybe it will last longer with less heavy-duty work. That will give me time to continue to shop for the better Rockwell Jawhorse and maybe pick up one on a good sale. Then I would have 2 of these workstations, which would be twice as good as having just one!

Anyways, I took out the HF workstation this morning and was using it to clean up some pallet wood, removing nails and screws, etc... Felt so good to have a clamping workstation again, even though I don't have much confidence it will last as long as I would like.

Well, maybe if I don't push it too hard it will be OK. Just hoping it lasts long enough for me to find the Rockwell Jawhorse on a good sale.

In other news, I got my 8X10 foot garden shed all cleaned out and loaded it up with lots of pallet wood, freeing up the second garage stall for my car. Just in time, too, because it's snowing here today! Actually, all weekend in the forecast.

Anyways, I beat the snow this year and had things ready for winter on time!

 

[Smokerbill]

Well, I just did something that I swore I would never do. I just repurchased another Harbor Freight Bauer Clamping Workstation. You might remember earlier in the year I first purchased one of these and absolutely loved it - until it broke after only about 10 hours of actual work time. The metal on the clamping vise bent and would not clamp down tight anymore. My initial 5-star rating dropped to 1-star, I returned the unit, and was looking at getting the original Rockwell Jawhorse with a 5-year warranty. I am pretty sure they use a higher quality metal.

After months of checking sales on the Rockwell Jawhorse, the cheapest I could find it for on sale was $240.00. So, I have not purchased one yet. In the meantime, I was really missing all the great features of these type of workstations for my use. I was using it all the time for pallet breakdowns. Anyway, the HF Bauer workstation went on clearance, as you can see, and I had an additional coupon for another $5.00 off the purchase price.

View attachment 3669381

View attachment 3669380

I like to think maybe my last HF workstation was just a bad one, but I really know better. The metal on these HF workstations is not as strong as it should be. Given my experience with the first HF workstation, my new approach is to be less demanding of this unit and not test it to the limits. Maybe it will last longer with less heavy-duty work. That will give me time to continue to shop for the better Rockwell Jawhorse and maybe pick up one on a good sale. Then I would have 2 of these workstations, which would be twice as good as having just one!

Anyways, I took out the HF workstation this morning and was using it to clean up some pallet wood, removing nails and screws, etc... Felt so good to have a clamping workstation again, even though I don't have much confidence it will last as long as I would like.

Well, maybe if I don't push it too hard it will be OK. Just hoping it lasts long enough for me to find the Rockwell Jawhorse on a good sale.

In other news, I got my 8X10 foot garden shed all cleaned out and loaded it up with lots of pallet wood, freeing up the second garage stall for my car. Just in time, too, because it's snowing here today! Actually, all weekend in the forecast.

Anyways, I beat the snow this year and had things ready for winter on time!

I hope that new jawhorse lasts a long time for you. Do you think it was on clearance because too many people experienced the same problem you did with the first one you bought?

 

[gtaus]

I hope that new jawhorse lasts a long time for you. Do you think it was on clearance because too many people experienced the same problem you did with the first one you bought?

No, I actually think I was one of the few people who had a bad experience....

I suspect they are on clearance to get them out of inventory and start over with a different brand. HF does that. This workstation was made by another company before Bauer took over. Same exact item, just a different brand name.

I really love the features of this HF clamping workstation, I was just disappointed that the metal bent on the first one. Like I said, I will be treating this new workstation with kid gloves hoping it will last longer, or at least until I can find a higher quality Rockwell Jawhorse on sale.

Having said that, I have never seen the Rockwell Jawhorse in person, so I am only assuming that the 5-year warranty on it means they are using a higher quality metal. I watched a YouTube video and the parts of both workstation were compatible. But that does not mean that the quality of the metal was the same. Only that the knockoff was made to the same dimensions as the original.

However, HF will only warranty their Bauer clamping workstation for 90 days with no extended warranty offered on that unit. So, maybe they know it will not hold up over a longer period of time. The Rockwell Jawhorse stands by their workstation with a 5-year warranty. I think that says a lot.

 

[gtaus]

Kreg Crosscut Station normally $49 back on sale for only $10 for a limited time.

I was in Menards today and noticed that the $49.00 Kreg Crosscut Station jigs for portable circular saws was back on sale for only $10.00 - but I think the sale ends on 11/5/2023.

I bought one of these on sale a few months ago and absolutely love it. You need to have a 7-1/4 inch circular saw for this jig to work without modification. If you have a smaller saw, you would have to make some changes to either raise the base, or trim off maybe half an inch on the front and back wooden rails. The blade needs to go deep enough to cut through the entire board, and my 5-1/2 and 6-1/2 inch circular saws did not have a deep enough cut for the jig as it is.

I have a much bigger $300 sliding compound miter saw on a stand, but it takes up lots of space in the shop/garage and is not very portable. For straight cuts and angled cuts, this small jig does about 95% of the cutting I normally do on my larger sliding compound miter saw. But I can do all the cutting on a portable workstation or bench. Very nice option to have knowing that I don't have to take out the big saw for a few small cuts of a 2X4, for example.

This is a clearance item. I think once they are gone, they will not be back in stock. Amazon lists them now as unavailable, so it appears they sold out. But Menards still has some they are selling on clearance.

Although Amazon no longer lists the Kreg Crosscut Station for sale, here is a snapshot of the user ratings on the product...

I would certainly give is a solid 4 stars and maybe even a 5 star rating considering the portability of the jig.