Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[chickengr]

my sawzall got stolen

 

[gtaus]

my sawzall got stolen

I thought you replaced your stolen tools. I hope you did not get robbed again.

The Sawzall is a great DIY saw for so many projects. Here in the states, you can buy an electric reciprocating saw from Harbor Freight, for example, for not much money...

That would be plenty good enough for pallet breakdowns. If a person has more money, the battery-operated reciprocating saws are even more handy for field work where you don't have electric power available.

I don't know how much all these DIY tools cost in other countries. But here in the states we have lots of choices from budget brands, to DIY/home user options, to professional trades with prices to match.

I hope you can soon replace all those stolen tools. Best wishes.

 

[chickengr]

I thought you replaced your stolen tools. I hope you did not get robbed again.

The Sawzall is a great DIY saw for so many projects. Here in the states, you can buy an electric reciprocating saw from Harbor Freight, for example, for not much money...

View attachment 3932281

That would be plenty good enough for pallet breakdowns. If a person has more money, the battery-operated reciprocating saws are even more handy for field work where you don't have electric power available.

I don't know how much all these DIY tools cost in other countries. But here in the states we have lots of choices from budget brands, to DIY/home user options, to professional trades with prices to match.

I hope you can soon replace all those stolen tools. Best wishes.

I didn't replace it. tools are more expensive here but not impossible to buy.

 

[gtaus]

Pallet Wood Planters Update

A short while back, I mentioned that Dear Wife asked me to build another planter for her "wild" flower garden. She had a few plants that were being stunted by other plants that had overgrown the area. I have previously posted the building of that new planter and then later how I was filling it up with pallet wood bits and pieces of wood as filler.

Yesterday, I sifted some chicken run compost to top off the planter. Dear Wife transplanted the plants she wanted to move. So, I decided to take a picture of that new planter when it was all done...

Now those plants will get some sunshine and have room to grow.

Here are a few more pictures of previous pallet wood planters that I built for Dear Wife that are now full of flowers...

Those planters are 2 and 3 years old, and each one is aging differently. I kind of like that aspect. It works for us and I do like the woody look of the pallet wood planters.

We still have three old half whiskey barrels out in the yard. But they have been all been rebuilt with parts from other barrels that were falling apart. Anyways, Dear Wife was looking at those old whisky barrels that are on their last days, falling apart, and told me that she wants to replace them as well. So, it looks like I will be making more pallet wood planters next spring.

We got almost 30 years out of our last wood whiskey barrels, but the current price of the type we bought is now over $60.00 each...

Yeah, Dear Wife did not want to spend that much money on new barrel planters. She asked me to replace the whiskey barrel planters with more pallet wood planters, maybe next spring. That's a good wife!

 

[gtaus]

I have a number of 4X4 foot 2 foot tall chicken wire protective cages that made years ago to put around my short, raised beds out in my lakeside garden. They were good enough to keep the rabbits out, but they had no top wire on them. I am modifying them with a top frame so I can put some chicken wire on top to keep the deer out. When finished, they will work to protect some of my plants that don't grow very tall. I'm thinking plants like Swiss Chard, Kale, lettuce, onions, etc...

I had hoped to have one or two of those cages modified and finished this morning, but like everything I seem to do, the job is taking a bit longer that I had expected. When I get them finished, I'll post a few pictures of the new cages.

I also got out my old table saw from the other garage and started ripping 2X4's into 2X2's which I plan on making into 4X4 foot frames with chicken wire. Those frames will get attached to my upright trellis posts I have already installed on a few of my raised beds. That should protect the taller tomato and pepper plants.

I have not finalized my thoughts on how to attach the protective chicken wire frames to my upright trellis posts, but for now, I am thinking just using either zip ties and/or bungee cords. It has to be something easy to remove the panel when I need to get into the raised bed for plant maintenance or harvesting the fruit.

The zip ties might make great hinges, and the bungee cords could be used on the other side to close and hold the frame to the trellis. Because my raised beds are all 4X4 foot, I think I would only need to have 2 sides that need to be opened. I could reach all the plants from either side that way.

I think that is the problem @Smokerbill mentioned was the problem with his cages to keep the deer out. They were just too hard to work with when it came to maintenance and harvesting because it was one solid framework. I can see where it would be a real pain in the butt to have to remove the entire protective cage each and every time you needed to work the raised bed. With that in mind, my final design has to have panels that are easy to open/close or remove/reinstall.

I was out again this morning putting empty frames up to the trellis posts trying to think of possible solutions. Sooner or later, something might pop into my mind. At least, I hope it will. It might be the case I will just have to build something and live with it awhile before I come up with a better solution.

The good thing about using pallet and salvaged wood is that I can afford to make something good enough for now, and work on future improvements later. It would not be the first, or last, pallet wood project that I have made that gets taken apart and used for something else later on.

 

[gtaus]

Saw safety advice when using pallet wood

As much as I like using pallet wood for my projects, I am very concerned about the safety of cutting pallet wood boards on my table saw. I am paranoid about hitting a hidden nail in the used wood and causing a kickback that could hurt me, or at best, the nail would damage my expensive table saw blade.

With that in mind, I have been scanning every board I want to cut on my table saw with the metal scanner I bought from Harbor Freight...

There are a number of these metal scanners by many companies, but I strongly suggest investing in one of them if you plan on using any pallet wood with your expensive equipment. I got my Harbor Freight scanner when it went on sale for about $20-$25. For the peace of mind I get after I scan a board, it is well worth it for me.

FWIW, I mainly use a circular saw with a demolition blade in it. If I hit a hidden nail with the demo blade, it is supposed to be able to cut through it with damaging the blade. Those blades are not very expensive...

Again, I bought my demolition blade on sale at Harbor Freight and saved even more money.

Of course, you can also get demolition blades for your reciprocating saw...

Unfortunately, I have never seen a demolition type blade for a table saw, which I would buy for use with my pallet wood. In any case, I think it's always a good idea to scan any board for hidden nails before you use a power tool to cut that wood.

 

[chickengr]

I have a lot of pallets to dismantle so I have to buy a sawzall. hope to find a good and cheap one.

 

[fuzzi]

I have a lot of pallets to dismantle so I have to buy a sawzall. hope to find a good and cheap one.

Try eBay.

 

[gtaus]

Try eBay.

Yeah, I don't know if eBay has service in Greece where @chickengr lives. If so, it might be an option.

BTW, I used to buy stuff off eBay years ago, but it seems to me that the stuff I was interested in is no longer sold on eBay at the lowest price. I think the last thing I bought off eBay was over 5 years ago. Just wondering if other people are still using eBay? If so, what kind of stuff do you buy?

 

[gtaus]

Pallet Wood Raised Bed v2.0 Warped Boards Repair

A few months ago, I mentioned that some of my new pallet wood raised beds started to have some warped side boards. I thought it was because I built the raised beds in my garage, in dead of winter, and I suspect the wood was much dryer than normal. I may have put the side boards on too tight, and then when the raised bed was put outside and got wet, the boards expanded and warped under pressure.

To start the narrative, here is a picture of one of my pallet wood raised bed v2.0 which I am talking about...

I am really happy with this design because the 2X4 framing boards are on the outside of the bed. All the sidewall boards are inside that frame, being held in place not only by the brad nails I used, but by the weight of all that soil pressing outward. In theory, I should never see any sidewall blowouts which are a major concern if you tack the sidewall boards on the outside of the 2X4 framing. If a board on the outside of the frame should warp and loosen any of the brad nails, then the weight of the soil would most surely push the sidewall board off the frame entirely.

Case in point, back in June, I noticed that some of new raised beds had a few sidewall boards warping inwards...

If the board was on the outside, it would have been a blowout!

You can see that the warped board pulled out the brad nails, but the weight of the soil pushing against it was still holding the boards in place and the raised bed was not falling apart. No blowouts, thanks to the design of having the 2X4 framing on the outside.

The other day I pulled out all the tomato plants in one of those raised beds and fixed the warped boards. Today, I dug out some of the soil down alongside the board, pounded the boards inwards, removed the warped boards, and put in new some new wood...

I left a little gap between the boards this time, allowing for expansion, hoping that the boards will not warp again. Here is a look from the outside after the warped board repair...

Good as new! Well, new as in used old pallet wood anyways.

I learned a few things from this warped board on the pallet wood raised bed problem.

1) First of all, the warped boards held fast against the 2X4 outside framing because of the weight of the raised bed soil pushing out on it. My raised bed did not fail due to the warped boards even though they had pulled out the brad nails. I did not have to attempt any repairs until the end of the season. In truth, I could have left the warped boards in place because they were still holding. But I like to have my stuff done right and those warped boards bothered me enough to replace them.

2) Digging down alongside the boards inside the bed to remove some soil was pretty easy. I hammered the boards inwards to pound out the brad nails and remove the warped boards. The new boards were easy to slip down into the slot. I was not able to nail the bottom of the new boards, but I think the brad nails on the top will hold fast when the soil is replaced.

3) Next time I build a pallet wood raised bed, I will allow small gaps between the wood for expansion, which I think will reduce warping under pressure. Small gaps between the boards are not going to result in soil spilling out.

4) I watched a YouTube video of someone else making pallet wood raised beds, and he used 2X4 framing on the outside, the pallet wood sidewall boards on the inside, then he screwed down another 2X4 on the inside to sandwich the pallet wood sidewall boards to prevent warping. According to him, some pallet wood is just going to warp no matter how you build bed. It could have been that the wood I put in that raised bed was just destined to warp no matter what. I don't think I will be adding another 2X4 framing board on the inside. The beds are already heavy enough for me and I have not had a big problem with lots of warped boards.

I think it's important to reexamine a build design to see how it handles unexpected failures. Certainly, I had not considered that the wood would warp and pull out the brad nails. The wood did warp, but the design held with the 2X4 framing on the outside. That gives me more confidence in that v2.0 build design. Also, it was easy to repair. In fact, I could have just left the warped boards as they were because, other than looks, the raised bed was intact.