Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

I did not get a single board off there without a crack, split, or, in one case, total disintegration.

That can be frustrating. One thing I have done is to put some wood glue in the crack or split line and clamp the board together. Wood glue is stronger than the wood itself, so I was able to "fix" a number of good boards with an unfortunate crack.

But you have probably seen pictures I posted of my stockpile of pallets out in my backyard. Nowadays, if I split or crack a board, I just set it aside and get another board from another pallet. It's nice to be able to pick and choose what is worthwhile to spend more time on.

The boards that are truly unusable for any project go into my waste can for burning out stumps. So, they at least serve useful purpose in the end. I always seem to have at least one stump waiting to be burned out.

 

[Sally PB]

The boards that are truly unusable for any project go into my waste can for burning out stumps. So, they at least serve useful purpose in the end. I always seem to have at least one stump waiting to be burned out.

We have a wood stove, and it does the bulk of heating our house in the winter. I made some really awesome kindling!

 

[gtaus]

We have a wood stove, and it does the bulk of heating our house in the winter. I made some really awesome kindling!

Well, there you go. If I had a wood stove, that would be my first priority, too. There is one local guy that picks up pallets just to burn them. I wish he would leave the good pallets for those of us that use the wood to make projects, but I think he takes everything he can get. Too bad, I am willing to leave him the bad pallets for burning and heating his house!

 

[gtaus]

Another rainy day, on and off, expected all day. Good for the gardens, bad for some of the projects I have to finish off - like painting the chicken coop - but maybe I can some stuff done between the rains.

Yesterday I was watching some YouTube videos on making outfeed, or productivity tables, for the log splitter. That is an extension table mostly at the backside and end of the log splitter to catch the portion of the log that you need to set aside and split after you finish with the chunk of wood you have in your hand. Most of them show projects made out of metal and welding. Welding is not my forte. I thought maybe I could make a productivity table out of pallet wood.

For reference, I posted this picture a few days ago of my current setup with the log splitter on top of my pallet wood stand...

As you can see in that picture, my split logs end up falling on the ground and I have to bend over and pick up pieces that need to be split another time. For a larger round, I usually split the round in half, and then each half gets split into 3 pieces. The idea of a productivity table is to hold the half of the round that you are not working on, so you don't have to go around the machine and pick it up off the ground. If you can follow all of that, you will realize that you will save lots of time by not slowing down to go and pick up half rounds on the ground to bring them back on to the log splitter.

Long story short, since I modified my log splitter for one-handed operation, I now can hold the back side half round and place it on the pallet stand (on the back side of the splitter) after I make the initial split. So, no more having the log dropping down to the ground after splitting. Nothing like experience to make a person smarter, I also figured out that if I put my Gorilla cart at the end of the log splitter, my split pieces can be tossed directly into the Gorilla cart instead of letting them drop on the ground and then picking them up later to move them.

Here is a picture of my Gorilla cart staged at the end of the log splitter. The log splitter is under that black cover because it is raining out today...

That saved a lot of work. Why did I not think of that before? Well, it's because I have never really split very much wood at any one time, so it was never an issue. But since I started splitting 2 large piles of rounds this past week, I started to think about how to make my efforts more efficient.

In the end, with the one-handed modification to the log splitter and using the Gorilla cart to directly toss in the splits, I really don't need an extra productivity table, metal or pallet wood. I estimate I have another 15 minutes of splitting wood before I am done with the second pile of rounds, and I know it would take a lot longer than that to build a productivity table out of pallet wood. Essentially, I talked myself out of a pallet project.

This morning I finished cleaning up that second pile of rounds, loading them up in my tow behind cart for the riding mower, and driving them over to the log splitter. Since it will be raining on and off today, that might really be good for the grass that was dying under the pile of rounds I just removed. Hope that grass comes back good.

Backing up a few steps, here is a picture of my current setup for log splitting, with the lawn mower cart staged alongside the log splitter. All I have to do is pick up a round from the cart, split it on the log spltter, and toss the splits directly into the Gorilla cart. Almost no bending over required at all and very little wasted effort in motion as I stand in one spot for most of the work. Very efficient!

BTW, in that picture you can see the V-shaped pallet firewood holder I made for the campfire ring, that cedar swing was recently repaired using pallet wood, and I just made that salvaged wood bench a few weeks ago for sitting around the campfire. Someday I would like to put some nice bricks around the fire ring, but right now everything is staged there temporarily because I cut down a 60-foot-tall pine tree and I am burning out the stump this summer.

 

[gtaus]

It's raining outside today, so I thought I might as well post an update on the progress of Dear Wife's bitter melons growing in the backyard.

Back in June, Dear Wife got some bitter melon plants from a friend of her's. She asked me if I could make some kind of a trellis for the bitter melon plants to climb up on. I scavenged through my pile of pallet wood and built this trellis for her...

I just used some 2X4's from a couple of long pallets, made a frame about 6 feet tall, and stapled on some 2X4 welded wire I had left over from making my chicken run. Total cost to me, less than a dollar for the screws and staples.

Fast forward to a couple days ago, here is a picture of the same bitter melon raised bed...

For those of you who don't know much about bitter melon, here are some pictures of what they look like. They will get much bigger before we pick them, of course, but Dear Wife is all excited that we might get some to grow here in northern Minnesota...

The pallet wood trellis is rock solid, and I love how the bitter melon has filled out the wire. Bitter melon is a tropical plant, so if we get any melons at all, it will be a great success for us. We live in zone 3b, not tropical at all.

I think I will build another pallet wood trellis next year for cucumbers, which should grow even better.

I am also thinking about building some kind of trellis system for cherry tomatoes, I started some cherry tomato plants inside the house this year and transplanted them outside the 1st of June. I thought the cherry tomatoes I bought were bush type, but the plant grew to about 6 foot tall and then flopped over from all the weight, only supported by my 3-foot-tall tomato cages. I was told later that most cherry tomatoes are indeterminant plants and that I should have a much taller cage or trellis system. My bad. So, I am looking for ideas on making a trellis or cage system out of pallet wood for those tomatoes next year.

 

[gtaus]

Had to drive the old Explorer into town today to run some errands. Checked out one of my favorite pallet pick up sites and they had 6 pallets outside today. I loaded up one pallet that was in really good shape, and while looking through the other pallets, I found one pallet that had 1-inch-thick plywood on the top! Wow! I tossed that in the back of the Explorer as well. I now have a 41X43 inch section of 1 inch plywood to use for something. No idea what it will be used for, but I have never picked up 1 inch plywood before on a pallet. That stuff looks super strong.

The other pallets were in tough shape, so I passed on them. But I felt my trip was worth it just on finding that 1-inch-thick plywood topped pallet.

Also, yesterday I scored a pallet with 6-foot-long planks. Mostly 1X6 planks. I broke down that pallet today and saved most of the boards. A few boards, unfortunately, cracked and split when I was taking the planks off the 2X4 stretchers. So, I ended up taking out my reciprocating saw with my 12-inch-long demolition blade to cut the nails on the remaining boards. I don't often need 6-foot-long planks, but I wanted to save the full length of the boards for future projects. The boards were in in good shape other than the ones I split. I'm sure sooner or later I will find a good use for those longer boards.

One thing I have learned to like about using my Air Locker AP700 nail puncher is that it also makes fast work out of punching out the top half of the nails left in the planks when you use a reciprocating saw to cut off the nails. All I need to do is turn the board over on the underside, punch the bottom half of the cut off nail, and usually the nail head gets punched out about 1/4 inch which is enough so I can easily remove the nail head with a hammer back on the topside of the board. It's just so much faster and easier then when I used a manual hand punch with a hammer.

Again, the Air Locker AP700 is not a must have tool, but it does make pallet breakdowns faster and easier if you need to punch out the nails. Because I bought one, I find it has opened up more options for me and I use it more than I thought I would.

 

[gtaus]

Flip Up Pivoting Plywood Cart project...

Speaking of plywood, I have been cleaning up my garage and I have a number of half sheets, and smaller, of plywood that I got from pallet break downs and from purchasing cull lumber from Home Depot. I had to move them around the garage, piece by piece, while cleaning and that was a real pain in the butt for me. So, I have been looking at sheet wood storage bin options. Tonight, I came across this idea on YouTube to make a flip up pivoting plywood cart that not only stores sheet plywood, but also flips up and can be used as a cutting table for sheet goods. He even used reclaimed 2X4 for his build.

I like that flip up idea because it's a 2-for-1 build for both storage and cutting. That build, or something like that, is now on my to-do list. Maybe not high on the list, but it's there as I have to do something to move my sheet goods around better than carrying everything one piece at a time.

 

[Sally PB]

For a larger round, I usually split the round in half, and then each half gets split into 3 pieces.

This is how hubby splits logs that need to be in quarters:
First split, go about 3/4-7/8 through. Log will still hold together. Turn it end-for-end and rotate 90 degrees. Now split all the way through. If it's a big log, he'll split it in half and do this to each half.

If it's a wood that splits easily, like oak, it might just crack apart when you do the first split. If so, just rotate 90 degrees and re-split anyway. It might not "behave" as well, though.

For those of you who don't know much about bitter melon, here are some pictures of what they look like.

I read about one kind that had seeds like cherries. Big and juicy, and moderately sweet. Are yours going to do that?

I now have a 41X43 inch section of 1 inch plywood to use for something

SCORE!! Fantastic!

Also, yesterday I scored a pallet with 6-foot-long planks. Mostly 1X6 planks.

Nice!!!

 

[gtaus]

This is how hubby splits logs that need to be in quarters:
First split, go about 3/4-7/8 through. Log will still hold together. Turn it end-for-end and rotate 90 degrees. Now split all the way through. If it's a big log, he'll split it in half and do this to each half.

If it's a wood that splits easily, like oak, it might just crack apart when you do the first split. If so, just rotate 90 degrees and re-split anyway. It might not "behave" as well, though.

Now that I modified my electric log splitter for one-handed operation, that is the way I split my large rounds, too. Before, I had fewer options when I had both hands on the power button and the ram lever. But now I have one hand free to manipulate the round and I can do more things with it.

I think my 6-ton electric log splitter is rated for rounds up to 10-12 inches, but, of course, I'll throw a 20-inch round on the rail and split off chunks. Now that I have one free hand, it makes things a lot easier on those big rounds.

BTW, I finished all my log splitting for the year, put the splitter away in the shed, and cleaned up both sites where the rounds were piled. It was a good feeling looking at those piles out in the yard no longer there. Lots of other work to do, but it was nice to see that stuff gone.

I read about one kind [of bitter melon] that had seeds like cherries. Big and juicy, and moderately sweet. Are yours going to do that?

I really don't know. This is the first year we have attempted to grow bitter melons. As I stated, bitter melons are a tropical fruit and I live in Zone 3b. We have a number of small bitter melons out on the vines, but I am hoping that we still have enough warm weather to finish them off. Our nights are getting down to the low 50F's, and I don't imagine a tropical plant cares for the cool weather.

Since I built the pallet wood trellis for the raised bed and the bitter melon plant did so well climbing up the wire, we are encouraged to try again next year regardless of what we harvest this year. I talked to Dear Wife and suggested we save some bitter melon seeds and start them 8 weeks earlier next year on my pallet wood seed starter shelf I built this year. I had great success with starting tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, so I am thinking that if we start the bitter melons 8 weeks earlier in the house and transplant them when it gets warm outside, that will essentially give the plant 2 more months of good growth during the summer.

I really like it when I can score some pallets that have special things about it. Love those long pallets for the longer boards. Love the plywood topped pallets for the sheet goods. Sometimes I score a pallet made with expensive deck screws that can be reused. I have also scored a few pallets with long lag screws and lag bolts. The lag screws I salvaged cost about 80 cents each, so that adds up fast. The lag bolts are even more expensive. I have most of the salvaged hardware in some Harbor Freight storage cases, divided up in individual bins. Makes it really easy to see if I want to use that hardware on any particular project.

Now I also need to build a storage rack for the sheet wood. I have too much to move around one piece at a time. The pallet wood storage rack I made last year for my wood worked out really well. Wheels on the bottom allow me to quickly move it to anywhere in the garage. I need something like that for sheet wood.

FYI, I have 2 of those Harbor Freight cases full of pallet wood nails I salvaged from pallet break downs. When I use the Air Locker AP700 to punch out the nails, I find I am able to salvage even more nails, faster, because the Air Locker has a long nose to straighten out those bent nails before you punch them out. I estimate that I am saving about 2X as many nails directly from the process, whereas before the nails were coming out bent and needed more work before they could be reused.

 

[Sally PB]

I think my 6-ton electric log splitter is rated for rounds up to 10-12 inches, but, of course, I'll throw a 20-inch round on the rail and split off chunks. Now that I have one free hand, it makes things a lot easier on those big rounds

You probably know this tip, but maybe it will help someone else:

When you have a really big piece of trunk wood to split, don't go for splitting it in half. Take a chunk off the side, where the distance you're splitting is thinner. Once you have taken the "round" out of the log, you've also take a lot of its strength, and it'll split easier.