Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[Sally PB]

I learned something today, mechanical vs. magnetic switches.

Me too!

 

[gtaus]

Goldilocks Planter Project - Third One Was Just Right!

I am happy to report that my third attempt at making a box planter for Dear Wife was just right! Here is what the 3 planters look like sitting out in the driveway...

My first attempt, after talking to Dear Wife and getting her specs for the job, was the small 8X8 inch planter box on the left side of the picture. Unfortunately, once built, it was far too small for what she wanted. It was not even close to what she had in mind.

The second attempt, after going outside with her, measuring everything for fit, was the largest 20X24 inch planter box on the right side. But, once again, when built, that planter box was just a bit too large. But I was getting closer.

My third attempt, that 18X22 inch planter in the middle of the picture was just right! Thank goodness!

Now I will be making one more box planter at that 18X22 inch size, one for the left side of her wildflower garden and the other on the right side. She decided that the largest 20X24 inch planter box would work in the backside of the garden, so I don't need to make a third 18X22 inch planter. She also said that she is going to use the smaller 8X8 inch planter in a different place. So, in the end, everything is working out well.

I really don't know what she has in mind. These are like some flat boxes rather than a pot with some height. But that is what she wanted.

Here are some construction details on the planter boxes.

I used 1X6 pallet wood planks for the sides. So, the depth of the boxes are about 5-1/2 inches deep.

I used up various width pallet wood planks for the bottom, as it did not matter. The final bottom board was cut to fit the final gap of the bottom.

I left small gaps in the bottom boards for drainage, so we should not have to drill additional holes.

For a long time, I wanted to work on a pallet project that was 100% reused pallet wood and hardware. This was that project. All the wood was from pallet planks. I also reused the nails I pulled out of the pallet wood. I had a lot of pallet nails that were mostly straight, and I used them first. I did have to straighten out a few additional nails on the bench vise anvil with a hammer before I could use them. Because I was reusing pallet nails, and I was hammering them into the edge of 3/4 inch planks, I predrilled holes for the nails with a small bit. That helped the nails stay true and straight when I hammered the wood together. I only had a few blowouts that needed to be redone. No big deal. In the end, every one of those planters is 100% reused pallet wood and pallet nails.

OK, that 100% reused pallet wood and nails project is over. Let me say that it did take longer reusing those pallet nails. I think the predrilling the holes was needed because the nails had to stay inside the thickness of the 3/4-inch planks. That took a little extra time, but I think it saved me time on the backend because the nails stayed true and straight. I only had a few nails that went sideways on me and had to be redone. I had a few nails that bent when I was driving them into the wood. I suspect those nails themselves had been weaken when they were pulled out of the pallet wood when I took the pallet apart. Only 4 or 5 pallet nails failed in that respect, so I thought that was pretty good. But it did take extra time to pull them out, find some new nails, and redo them.

In the end, I used all free pallet wood and free nails to make these planters. That was nice.

Having said that, when I go back to making some more pallet wood raised beds this spring, I will be using screws and my drill/impact driver. It's just faster for me. Plus, I think the screws will prove to have more holding power on the larger raised beds.

I am curious to see what Dear Wife does with those planter boxes. She is all happy with the project so far, so I hope whatever idea she has in her head turns out well! I'll post some pictures at a later date - assuming she gets them setup and filled with plants.

 

[gtaus]

Initial Thoughts on Ryobi One-Handed Recip Saw

I purchased a couple of Ryobi tool kits at Home this week. They were all Brushless compact tool upgrades from what I already had. I had a one-time credit for $150.00 for a purchase in store that had to be used at that time. So, I did my best to make the most of my store credit and found a couple of tool kits that were on clearance for half price.

The newest tool for me was the one-handed brushless compact reciprocating saw by Ryobi...

There is no longer a link to clearance kit I bought, but this was the same saw, model PSBRS02, which came with the blade, battery and charger. It has good reviews.

What I wanted to say is that I have used two-handed reciprocating saws for over 20 years. That was my go-to saw for many, many tasks around the yard, including tree pruning, digging out roots, demolition projects, and cutting metal or wood. I have a variety of blades for different tasks. I would put the reciprocating saw on the top of my list as the most used tools in my garage.

This new saw is Brushless, an upgrade from my older brushed reciprocating saws. Being a compact tool, it is smaller than the older reciprocating saws I purchased before. Despite that, it is both faster and stronger than my brushed reciprocating saws.

I put a 9-inch pruning blade on it and went out to my chicken run to cut down a bunch of scrap trees that started growing in the run. Some of them had gone up into the bird netting, so I want to stop that. Because I wanted to stick my blade down into the dirt and cut the scrap trees at their roots, I could not use a chainsaw, or a pruning chainsaw. With a reciprocating saw, you can stick that blade down into the dirt and cut out a junk tree by the roots and not harm the saw at all. With a chainsaw, you would immediately dull the chain and wreck the chainsaw when that dirt got spun into the housing.

When digging into dirt, the reciprocating saw is the way to go. You will eventually dull the blade, but you won't harm the saw itself. Blades are disposable.

I liked the ability of holding on to the tree with one hand while the other hand held the new compact saw to cut the tree down. That made this task both easier and faster with the one-handed reciprocating saw.

Yes, I did basically the same thing with my two-handed reciprocating saws, but they were much heavier and much harder to handle if you only used one hand on the saw. The balance was off and you had to take extra effort to hold the saw once you cut through the wood.

Sometimes I put a demolition blade, or a metal blade on a reciprocating saw to cut off the nails when I disassemble a pallet. You can use this one-handed saw for that method as well.

Overall, I think it is a nice upgrade to my older reciprocating saws. It is good that the new compact tools are getting both smaller and more powerful at the same time. At my age, I can feel the difference in the lower weight of the tool and can appreciate it just a bit more than I probably would if I was 20 years younger.

 

[gtaus]

Fast and Easy Workbench from two Euro-Pallets

For whatever reason, I have been seeing a lot of those Euro-pallets lately. I prefer the standard pallets with the notched 2X4's, but only because I make raised beds with them. But you get what you get, and maybe I need to start thinking about things to make with those Euro-pallets.

I came across a YouTube video today where a guy makes a fast, simple, easy to build pallet workbench out of two Euro-pallets and some extra reclaimed 2X4's as legs. He leaves the pallet top with the gaps between boards for cutting and drilling projects. That makes good sense to me. Most of my workbenches have solid tops, but I can see the advantage to having all those gaps in the top for sawing wood or drilling holes in boards. And by using the pallets just the way they are, you save lots of time on the build.

Here is the <6 minute YouTube video of what you can do with two Euro-pallets and maybe 30 minutes of your time to make it.

 

[gtaus]

Load Full of 2X4 Pallets!

I had to go into town today, so I decided to hitch up my old utility trailer and drive by some of the places where I might get some pallets. I have lots of regular size and type of pallets, so I was really looking for anything special that I might be able to take home.

Two of my main places that usually have pallets for pickup were dry today. Nothing at all available. Could be that someone else beat me to any pallets that were available. That's OK. I hope they put them to good use.

I had one place left to check on my way home. The was our local Bobcat dealership. Sometimes they have interesting pallets because of the equipment they get shipped to their store. Today did not disappoint. I found a stack of oversized 6X7 foot pallets made out of 2X4's...

That very top pallet was 7X7 feet. It had regular planks on the top and bottom, but the 2x4's were a full 7 feet long with no notches in them. All the pallets below the top one were 6X6 feet and made up of all 2X4's. You can see by the light color of the boards that those 2X4's were practically new. Very nice. No notches in any of those 2X4's, either.

My old utility trailer is 4X8 feet, so none of those pallets would fit on it. Well, that, and I probably could not have loaded up those heavy pallets by myself anyways.

Fortunately for me, I had loaded up my bucket full of pallet disassembly tools, a circular saw, an impact driver, my safety glasses and work headphones. I loaded up a radio program to listen to on my headphones and just started breaking down the pallets on site (the store was closed). Fast forward a couple of hours, I had that complete stack broken down to individual boards and loaded up in my trailer. It filled up my entire trailer.

If it does not rain tomorrow, I will start taking the nails out of all those boards. But the hard part of the job is done.

I did a quick estimate of how many 2X4's I salvaged on that load and how much it would cost to buy that lumber at Menards. It was ~$200.00, give or take, depending on if you calculate the cost by running board foot (cheaper) or if you bought 2x4's that exact length (more expensive). Not a bad haul for a couple hours of work on a Saturday afternoon!

It's a really good thing that I loaded up my pallet breakdown tools in the car today. If not, I would have had to leave all those pallets on site because I could not load them up into my trailer. Sometimes I just get lucky. Most of the time I don't load up my tools because I don't need them for regular sized pallets which fit fine in my trailer. Today, everything fell into place and worked out great for me.

 

[gtaus]

Harbor Freight is having a 30% off discount on products this weekend...

I always have a list of consumables and other tools that never go on regular sale and wait for these weekend sales. A few days ago, I posted my adjustable height workbench that I built for my new table saw. I made adjustable height legs by cutting slots into the 2X4's and using a bolt to secure them in place.

I got pretty close on cutting out those slots, but they needed some final touch up work for better operation. Much to my shame, I did not have a set of wood rasps. All I could find in my tools was a metal file set. Those did not work very well.

So, I picked up a $4.99 Pittsburgh rasp set of 3 today for only $3.50 after the 30% discount. That Pittsburgh rasp set also has a lifetime warranty, although I don't know what could break on them. They have high online ratings.

I'm using my table saw almost every day right now, but when I have some down time, I'll have to finish off the slots on the adjustable legs on that new workbench with those rasps.

If you missed this 30% off sale weekend at Harbor Freight, it usually comes around a couple times a year. I had some other items on my list that I picked up today as well, saved some money by waiting for this sale. Nothing really important, but things that I will use over time.

BTW, Menards did have a wood rasp kit at all. I checked Amazon and this was the best I could find...

I think I'll be plenty happy with my set of wood rasps from Harbor Freight for $3.50. Since I never needed wood rasps for the first 60+ years of my life, I doubt I'll wear my new set out anytime soon!

 

[gtaus]

Safety Glasses Prevented A Very Bad Day!

I have been busy de-nailing all those 2X4's I salvaged from a stack of special pallets made from all 2X4's. Just finished the last of the trailer full this evening. I think I'm going to separate the 2X4's out by length, do a board count, and see how much that would have cost to buy them new from the big box store. I think I saved a lot of money.

One of the things I do almost all the time, is wear safety glasses when I am working with my power tools. My goal is to never get lazy and work without a good pair of safety glasses. You never know when something can come flying back at you. Make it a habit if you don't do it already!

To make sure I always have my safety glasses available, I got those eyeglass cords like grandma used to wear. I just hang my safety glasses around my neck when I'm not using them. Now I don't have to run all over the shop wondering where I put my safety glasses down. Very nice. I picked up a few pair of floatable sunglass cords at the Dollar Tree in some manly black and blue colors...

Recently, I started wearing my safety glasses even when using manual tools. Think about it. I am often hammering in nails and you never know when one might break and fly off. Or, as in the case that just happened to me, I was pulling out a stubborn nail from a 2X4 with my big crowbar, when all of a sudden it released and came flying back at me. It hit me square in my safety glasses and bounced off!

Boy, was I thankful that I was wearing my safety glasses at that moment! I have been pulling nails from wood for about 50 years, and never had a nail hit me in the face, but that was a first. I don't know if I would have lost an eye, but just the fact that was possible scared the heck out of me.

My word of advice, find a good pair of comfortable safety glasses that you will actually use when working with all your tools, powered or manual. My safety glasses are the goggle type with side protection as well. Something like these...

Stay safe out there!

 

[Sally PB]

Very glad you are ok! I've had a couple of "Thank goodness I wear glasses!" moments. I didn't have safety glasses on (for pulling weeds?) but my prescription glasses probably saved my eye.

 

[gtaus]

Very glad you are ok! I've had a couple of "Thank goodness I wear glasses!" moments. I didn't have safety glasses on (for pulling weeds?) but my prescription glasses probably saved my eye.

I think it's important to tell others when our safety gear prevented a potential nasty accident. Yes, I have watched a number of accident videos on YouTube after the fact, and that can put the scare in you, but I think it's even more important to stress how safety gear can prevent those accidents. I am glad that your prescription glasses might have saved your eye.

Speaking of prescription glasses, I know how uncomfortable it can be to wear safety glasses over prescription glasses. But it can be done. Prescription glasses are not normally made to double as safety glasses.

Except for our military issued BCG eyewear, which do double as safety glasses. For those who don't know, "BCG" is short for Birth Control Glasses because no young woman wants to go out with a guy wearing those glasses!

More seriously, it may take some time, but you can find safety glasses or goggles that are comfortable and fit over your prescription glasses. IMHO, it's well worth protecting your eyes, and your expensive prescription glasses when you are working.

I would just add to buy an eyeglass cord for your safety glasses, so they are always hanging around your neck when you need them. That has saved me so much time from running around the shop looking for my safety glasses after I set them down somewhere.

I have always been safety conscious, but even more so in my later years. Also, I think it's important to demonstrate proper safety habits to the younger kids who are just starting out with tools and power equipment. Be that good example of what it means to protect yourself with proper safety gear even if your elders failed at that job. When I grew up, it was very rare to see anyone wearing protective gear at work. I'm just not that guy who assumes I'll be lucky so why bother with safety gear. I probably saved an eye, or at least a nasty cut from a rusty pallet nail, when my safety glasses took the full force of the nail that flew back up into my face!

 

[gtaus]

How Much Is That Pallet Wood Worth?

I mentioned that I found a stack of special pallets made out of 2x4's.

I finished de-nailing them all last night. Today, it was raining so I just brought everything into the garage to dry out. At the same time, I sorted them out by length and took some measurements. I wanted to see how many boards I salvaged in that one special pickup of those 2X4 pallets and how much new boards would have cost me at our local Menards.

Here is a picture of the 2X4's I salvaged from that stack of pallets...

I estimated that I probably had ~$200.00 worth of lumber, if new, in that load. Of course, used pallet wood lumber is not new lumber, but at least it gives you an idea of the cost, or savings, of your labor in salvaging all that wood. Anyways, here is a breakdown of the 2X4's that I salvaged...

Here's a cost breakdown using Menards' pricing:

Cost Breakdown

Length (inches)	Length (feet)	Quantity	Cost per Board (Menards Pricing)	Total Cost (Menards Pricing)
48"	4 ft	1	$2.40	$2.40
56"	4.67 ft	12	$2.80	$33.60
62"	5.17 ft	2	$3.00	$6.00
64"	5.33 ft	15	$3.09	$46.39
72"	6 ft	12	$3.48	$41.76
78"	6.5 ft	12	$4.03	$48.36
80"	6.67 ft	5	$4.13	$20.67

Total Quantity: 59 boards​

Total Estimated Cost at Menards: $199.18

That does not include the number of 1X4 and 1X6 planks that I was also able to salvage on that run. Probably worth another $40.00 in addition to the 2X4's. Not a bad haul and well worth hitching up my utility trailer that day. Probably took me 4 to 5 hours disassembling and de-nailing all that wood. But it's all good for me. I just put on my work headphones and listen to some music, a radio program, or an audiobook while I work on the pallet wood. It's actually relaxing time for me, working on a hobby that I enjoy, and saving money in the process.