Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

I'm Filipino as well! You're wife should make you some mung bean soup with fish sauce.

Dear Wife is the love of my life, but part of that is that she knows not to feed me dishes with patis (fish sauce) in it. It's really not agreeable to my taste buds. She loves it, of course. So, if she makes something with patis in it, she will put a warning label on the leftover container, so I know that is her food - not mine!

I am also not a fan of oyster sauce and a few other "native" dishes from the Philippines that are unfamiliar to my palate.

The good news, of course, is that I love most of her cooking and she is a great cook. I'm not sure about mung bean soup, but she can make great soups out of just about anything.

Since I started making pallet wood raised beds in the backyard, she has asked me to grow some of more native food, like upo (bottle gourd) and ampalaya (bitter melon).

Bitter melon...

Bottle gourd...

I have posted some pictures of the pallet wood trelllis I made for the bitter melon to grow on. That has worked out really well...

This year we grew the bottle gourd in a raised bed without a trellis and it spread out about 30-40 feet in all directions. Next year I will build another pallet wood trellis for the bottle gourd like the one I made for the bitter melon in the pictures above and hope that it does not take over the entire garden area.

 

[gtaus]

Watch for coupons. I got some nice leather work gloves at Ace Hardware, and paid about $10 after a coupon was subtracted.

I don't mess with tossing pallets around unless I am wearing a good pair of leather gloves. Those pallets can be full of nasty splinters. A couple of weeks ago I bought a nice pair of leather gloves from Harbor Freight using a coupon. I got the leather gloves on sale for about $5.50, which was a good deal. They are really nice and soft...

I also picked up some work gloves with leather palms from Menards that are less expensive. They are not as nice and soft as the HF gloves, but they provide the protection I need when working with the pallets.

I don't know how long your leather gloves last, but I wear my gloves out in a year or two.

Cheaper cotton gloves are no good for pallet work as a wood splinter will go right through the material and into your skin. But I do have a number of cotton gloves for work, mainly like raking or other easy work. I wear the cheaper gloves when I can which I believe helps my good leather gloves last longer for the jobs I really need that extra protection.

I also have different gloves for gardening, mechanics work, and for the chainsaw. Each glove has its place and I wear a different glove for a particular use. I don't think I am the only guy with a large collection of work gloves. If Dear Wife can wear a different pair of shoes every day of the month, I think I'm entitled to wear the appropriate glove for the job at hand, literally.

Love to Dear Wife and all her shoes. I know those shoes are important to her.

 

[gtaus]

I'm one of those weird people who LOVE organizing. Maybe I should hire myself out...

Well, I hope you share some of your organizing ideas with us, pallet related or not. I know lots of my earliest pallet projects were things like tool holders for rakes, hoes, shovels, etc... It was a method to better organize my tools instead of having them laying all over the garage or shed. My latest pallet wood tool battery utility shelf is just another small project in an attempt to make my life easier and more organized for my tools.

 

[gtaus]

Beware, this thread is addictive...

Like any thread, it's only as good as the members want to contribute their ideas. I share what I can when I have time, but I'm always looking forward to other members' posts to get new ideas. Hope to see more posts from you as well. Thanks.

 

[Sally PB]

their brushless tools

What does "brushless" mean? I see it on the DeWalt tools.

 

[gtaus]

What does "brushless" mean? I see it on the DeWalt tools.

For many years, electric motors used brushes which made physical contact in the motor when turning. Brushes wear out and need to be replaced, in many cases in just 50-60 hours of use. Brushless motors don't have any physical contact in the motor, so they should last a lot longer in the tool.

I don't want to get down in the technical weeds, so let's just say that brushless motors
- are more powerful
- are more energy efficient
- are easier to maintain
- are smaller and lighter
- will last longer
- and typically cost more than a regular brushed motor.

A contractor will definitely be able to justify buying the higher priced brushless tools because they will get more use out of the tool and will recoup the premium cost, and then some, over time, For a home DIYer, maybe not so much and you might opt to save money and buy a standard set of regular "brushed" tools.

I have both regular brushed and brushless tools in my Ryobi tools. For my modest needs, there is not much advantage to the brushless tools and I don't automatically buy them just because they are better. If I can save $50 bucks on a tool, I;m OK with the brushed tool.

For example, a brushed saw might take 6 seconds to cut a length of board, but the brushless version of that saw might cut that same length in 4.5 seconds. Well, OK, I'm not too excited about spending an extra $50 on that saw just to save 1.5 seconds on the few boards I cut every month.

Also, even though brushed motors will wear out before a brushless motor, as a homeowner DIYer I have older Ryobi brushed tools that are 15+ years old and they still work as good as new. That's because they are not used all the time like someone making their living with those tools.

If I am buying a new Ryobi tool, I look at the cost difference between the brushed and the brushless versions. If the price difference is small, I'll pay a little more for the brushless tool. It could be that some brands are just going to stop making the brushed tools and only offer the newer, better, brushless tools. Ryobi still markets to us penny pinching homeowners, but the contractor brands, like DeWalt, might only offer brushless tools at this point.

Hope that helps. That's my thoughts on the subject.

 

[chickengr]

I'm one of those weird people who LOVE organizing. Maybe I should hire myself out...

if you were here I would hire you, lol.

 

[Sally PB]

@gtaus, thanks for the explanation!

 

[ChicksnMore]

Dear Wife is the love of my life, but part of that is that she knows not to feed me dishes with patis (fish sauce) in it. It's really not agreeable to my taste buds. She loves it, of course. So, if she makes something with patis in it, she will put a warning label on the leftover container, so I know that is her food - not mine!

I am also not a fan of oyster sauce and a few other "native" dishes from the Philippines that are unfamiliar to my palate.

The good news, of course, is that I love most of her cooking and she is a great cook. I'm not sure about mung bean soup, but she can make great soups out of just about anything.

Since I started making pallet wood raised beds in the backyard, she has asked me to grow some of more native food, like upo (bottle gourd) and ampalaya (bitter melon).

Bitter melon...

View attachment 3623288


Bottle gourd...

View attachment 3623294


I have posted some pictures of the pallet wood trelllis I made for the bitter melon to grow on. That has worked out really well...

View attachment 3623300

View attachment 3623302

This year we grew the bottle gourd in a raised bed without a trellis and it spread out about 30-40 feet in all directions. Next year I will build another pallet wood trellis for the bottle gourd like the one I made for the bitter melon in the pictures above and hope that it does not take over the entire garden area.

I'm Korean and my European hubby struggles with some of the Asian flavors too. We work it out about like you guys do. Kudos to you for having an adventurous tongue willing to try new flavors!

 

[gtaus]

I'm Korean and my European hubby struggles with some of the Asian flavors too. We work it out about like you guys do. Kudos to you for having an adventurous tongue willing to try new flavors!

I love most of the Asian food Dear Wife makes at home. But certain dishes are too "native" for me. Likewise, she prefers not to eat some of our American food. We work it out without any problems.

We will be married for 35 years in a few months. Time flies...

Anyways, since I started building new pallet wood raised beds out in the backyard, Dear Wife has asked me to grow more of her native tropical veggies. I said I would try, and even built her a nice pallet wood trellis for the bitter melon. They grew much better than we had hoped, so next year we might start some plants inside the house and give them a head start. Where I live in northern Minnesota, it's Zone 3b, a long way from a tropical climate. So, we have had good luck with her tropical veggies but not as good as they would grow in the tropics, of course.