Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Bucket Stand Project - Possible Future Pallet Wood Build

I have been talking to a few people on the gardening thread about building something like this...

The idea would be to build the framing out of pallet or salvaged wood, of course, in my case. The buckets would be all self-wicking type. I am trying to figure out how to make one bucket on the top tier as a control bucket for a water reservoir, with all the other buckets daisy chained together, and having one water level control device to prevent overflowing of the water. I have not figured out how to do all that, yet. But I like the idea of filling one bucket up with water with a garden hose and that feeds water to all the other buckets as they need more water.

Here is a link to the video talking about using a control bucket to feed water to other buckets. I would like to take that idea and expand it to the shelf system with more buckets daisy chained together.

Actually, in my case, I would like to use daisy-chained DIY Earthboxes made from 27-gallon totes instead of the 5-gallon self-wicking buckets. Same concept, just different containers.

Anyways, I am stuck on figuring out to have one control box set the water level of all the other containers in the shelf. If anyone has built such a system, let me know how you did it. I am still kicking around ideas and trying to make everything as simple as possible. Thanks.

 

[gtaus]

I've been answering questions and responding to comments on an article I wrote back in 2019 on My $10 Inexpensive DIY Fodder Tower with Dollar Tree Dish Bins. If you are interested in growing fodder for your chickens, you might want to check out that article. In any case, I built that fodder tower with reclaimed wood long before I got into pallet projects. So, I guess using reclaimed wood is just in my nature.

Some pics for you...

The original tower was cut into 2 sections when I moved it from the garage to inside the house to grow the fodder in the winter. I have one section which is about 5 feet tall and the shorter section is about 3 feet tall.

I have been growing barley fodder for my chickens for the past 4 winters. It's the only greens they get from about November to April because we have so much snow on the ground. The chickens eat everything on the barley fodder from the tip of the grass to the root mat below.

This fodder tower is a very simple reclaimed wood build and has worked well for me for many years. If I built a new one today, I would probably just build 2 sections, 4 feet high each, using the 2X4 stretchers from pallet breakdowns.

Other than that, not much going on here as we have snow on the ground and it's pretty cold outside. Hoping that some of you southern BYC members can inspire us with some pallet builds over the winter months. I will not be making much of anything till next spring. Later...

 

[gtaus]

Our local Menards got some more of those Kreg Crosscut Stations and has them on clearance for only $8.99....

It's a great little jig for pallet wood sized lumber. You could not make a jig this good for that money. Of course, clearance items don't normally last very long. Amazon is currently all sold out, but when Amazon sold them, the crosscut stations were about $50.00.

 

[gtaus]

Another tool that you might be interested in is Menards Masterforce 7 inch Woodworking Bench Vise which is currently at half price of $24.99 after a $25.00 rebate.

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I bought one for my modular work bench but will have to wait till next spring to install it. I have to clean out my garage for our cars for the winter. When it warms up next spring, I will get the workbenches back in the garage and get that vise mounted.

Since I work alone, having vises and clamps around the shop is a must for me. It provides that third hand to hold something while I work on the wood.

I know that Masterforce is not considered high-quality products, but this vice comes with a Lifetime Warranty on the box. So, keep your recipts.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Another tool that you might be interested in is Menards Masterforce 7 inch Woodworking Bench Vise which is currently at half price of $24.99 after a $25.00 rebate.

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View attachment 3695152

I bought one for my modular work bench but will have to wait till next spring to install it. I have to clean out my garage for our cars for the winter. When it warms up next spring, I will get the workbenches back in the garage and get that vise mounted.

Since I work alone, having vises and clamps around the shop is a must for me. It provides that third hand to hold something while I work on the wood.

I know that Masterforce is not considered high-quality products, but this vice comes with a Lifetime Warranty on the box. So, keep your recipts.

Aw, there are no Menards near me!

 

[chickengr]

I wish we had such low prices here

 

[gtaus]

Aw, there are no Menards near me!

Menards does a lot of things well. Like offering many special sales prices and rebates that significantly lower the price of an item they have in their stores. But their shipping costs are comparatively higher than most other big box stores. I only order something online at Menards if they have free ship-to-store, otherwise you can easily spend more on shipping costs than then item itself would cost you.

I wish we had such low prices here

Pretty much lots of low prices on Chinese products. Good for your pocketbook, but not much stuff made in the USA anymore - at least compared to when I was a kid.

 

[gtaus]

Moved all the planters on our deck closer to the house wall, which allows me to shovel off the snow on the deck. Noticed a couple of plastic planters have cracks in them. So, Dear Wife is going to have to replace them next year. I bought her some nice (expensive) planters that have water reservoirs in the bottom for sub-irrigation, but she insists on top watering anyways. Not going to spend lots of money on those sub-irrigated planters if she has no intention of using them that way.

Thinking about making some small planters for the deck out of pallet wood. I made Dear Wife some nice pallet wood planters for out in the yard, but those would be way too big for the deck. Guess I have all winter to check out some small pallet wood planter ideas. It might be nice to replace all the plastic planters with pallet wood planters. The wooden planters would probably last longer, too, given our freezing winter temps.

Open to all suggestions on smaller pallet wood planters for the deck. Thanks.

 

[chickengr]

Menards does a lot of things well. Like offering many special sales prices and rebates that significantly lower the price of an item they have in their stores. But their shipping costs are comparatively higher than most other big box stores. I only order something online at Menards if they have free ship-to-store, otherwise you can easily spend more on shipping costs than then item itself would cost you.



Pretty much lots of low prices on Chinese products. Good for your pocketbook, but not much stuff made in the USA anymore - at least compared to when I was a kid.

chinese products here as well but not cheap.

 

[gtaus]

I really advise everyone working with pallets and pallet wood to have a decent pair of leather gloves to protect your hands from nasty splinters. One of my all purpose gloves is the split leather palm gloves with cotton tops. They are a good general purpose glove. A 5-pack of those gloves is normally priced at $9.99 at Harbor Freight, but this month, for the Inside Track Club (ITC) members, a 5-pack is on sale for $6.99.

I wear out my gloves pretty fast because I use them all the time. The nice thing about buying gloves in a larger 5-pack is that sometimes you might be able to take 2 pairs of gloves with worn out fingers on opposite gloves and make one good pair.

I have all kinds of gloves for different types of work. Some all-leather gloves more expensive than others, some really cheap cotton gloves. But I find these type of split leather gloves are my first choice for working with pallets and pallet wood.

Although I won't be doing much in terms of pallet projects over the winter, I am stocking up on gloves for next year. Hope to be back into making stuff again this coming spring.