Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[Sally PB]

NICE!

 

[Smokerbill]

Outdoors Pallet Wood Storage Option to Consider

A week or so ago, I picked up a load of special pallets made out of all 2X4's. Mostly 6- and 7-foot boards, but a few that were 8 foot long...

View attachment 4118598

I had to break them down on site because my 4X8 foot utility trailer was too small to load them up. Well, that, and they were too heavy for me to move by myself. I put the boards in my trailer and took them home to de-nail them. It took a couple of hours to get the trailer full of 2X4's de-nailed, but it was an easy job. I stacked the 2X4's on some sawhorses in the garage to see what I salavaged...

View attachment 4118605

I created a spreadsheet with the lengths of the boards and found out that I got almost $200 worth of 2X4's if I had to buy them new. I was pretty jazzed about that salvage pickup. I have lots of good lumber in that pile for future projects.

However, as you can see, it was taking up way too much room in my garage and I could not get anything done with all that wood in the way. It had to be moved to storage.

I spent the past number of days looking at lumber storage options on YouTube. I don't have room to make a horizontal rack system on my walls. So that was not an option. I looked at a number of vertical storage options, which looked promising, but I needed to get the lumber out of the garage and stored outside.

I was thinking of making a vertical storage shed out of pallets, but I would need to make it 8 feet tall plus a bit more to get my longest boards in it. I was leaning that way, but then I read online that wood stored vertically outside was more prone to warping and bending. So, I gave up on that idea as well.

This afternoon, I finally came up with a simple, effective, outdoor storage solution for all those 2X4's...

View attachment 4118608

I cleared out a small area under some trees and put down a couple of 4-foot pallets on the ground. That will keep the lumber off the ground. Then I put the lumber on the pallets, with the backends all at the same point. So, I can visually see how long the boards are in comparison to each other.

If you look at the backend of the wood, under the pine branches, there is a sawhorse back there. I have one more that I will put towards the front. I saved the two 8-foot long 2X4's to put on the sawhorses to hold a couple more pallets to act as a roof. I have some free Harbor Freight green tarps to cover the top and sides, so that should keep all the lumber below nice and dry.

No nails or screws needed. If I want to move everything, no problem. It would only take a few minutes to break it down and move it somewhere else. Well, the pallets and the sawhorses. Of course, moving the stack of lumber would take as long as it takes.

Is it a perfect storage option? I don't know about that, but it was easy to setup and should work fine until I use all that wood. As you can see, those 2X4's are in really good condition and I wanted to store them in a way that there are not exposed to the weather. I think I got lucky and discovered one way to do it.

Oh, and if you are wondering why I have some plastic garbage cans out there, it is because they are full of pallet wood planks that are de-nailed and ready to be used in a project. The tops on the garbage cans keep the wood dry. I had all those garbage cans full of wood in the garage last fall but had to move them outside for the winter. Believe it or not, it's more important to us to garage the cars in the winter!

I'm envious of you having that big pile of free lumber. Nice score!

I added three more wheelbarrow loads of chickeney woodchip bedding to the compost bin/pile yesterday. It's filled up to the top of the front pallet now.

There's still another few barrow loads I need to remove from the secure run, today maybe, but I'm not sure where to put it. It might just go down under the cedar trees where I had a compost pile a couple years ago that didn't work out... no bin, just a pile that the chickens always leveled. Right now the spot is where I dump coffee grounds and paper filters.

 

[gtaus]

I'm envious of you having that big pile of free lumber. Nice score!

I make it a point to stop and look at my pallet places when I go to town to see if they have anything interesting. I have lots of "normal" pallets stacked up in my backyard, so at this point, I mainly concentrate on finding special pallets like those pallets made from all 2X4's.

I know that used pallet wood is not the same as buying new lumber, but I like to get an idea of how much wood I salvaged for my labor. Yes, the wood was "free", but I spent maybe as much as 4 hours disassembling and de-nailing all that wood which I calculated to be worth about $200 if new.

I also look for pallets with special hardware. Like Torx head screws instead of pallet nails. I have salvaged many Torx head screws in the past. Those are expensive. But they are the easiest to take out with an impact driver and reuse in other projects. Last year I scored some pallets with large lag bolts and heavy-duty washers. IIRC, those lag bolts were worth about $0.80 each. Heck yeah, I'll pick up that pallet and save that hardware.

There's still another few barrow loads I need to remove from the secure run, today maybe, but I'm not sure where to put it.

That can be a challenge. I really like the looks of your pallet wood compost bin you posted. But it sounds like you can't, or don't want to, build another one right next to it.

I think a basic pallet wood compost bin works great for many of us. But one pallet project I built last year has been proven to have more value to me as I find different ways to use it. It is the stackable compost bin system project I posted a while back.

Here is a recent picture of the stackable bin that I moved to the chicken run and filled with leaves to use for the winter...

The great thing about having individual stackable tiers is that you can make it as short/tall as you want. When I moved it, I just took it apart one tier at a time and set it up in the new location. Much easier than having to disassemble and move full pallets.

I don't need more stackable tiers right now, but I put it back on my list of projects to do because I would like to store more leaves for use throughout the year. If I build it, I will use it.

Some ideas I have been kicking around for those stackable bins are holding wood chips and topsoil. Right now, when I get a load of free wood chips at the county landfill, I just dump them on the ground in a big pile. I think it would look neater, and take less space, if they were confined in that bin. Same with topsoil. Probably better to store it in the bins then spread out all over the ground.

 

[Smokerbill]

My pile of chicken run woodchips compost measured 105° this morning. It's getting warmer.

 

[gtaus]

My pile of chicken run woodchips compost measured 105° this morning. It's getting warmer.

IIRC, you mentioned something about using an oil fryer thermometer to check the temperature of the compost pile. Is it long enough to get into the heart of the compost pile where it should be the warmest?

I bought a compost thermometer about 6 years ago for less than $25.00. It's a pretty good one with over 3,300 reviews. The one I bought is 20 inches long, but you can get even longer ones if you want.

I can see that your pile at 105F is in the green zone for active composting. Very nice. My only point is that if your fryer thermometer is not long enough to reach the center of the compost pile, you might not be reading the core heat of the pile, so maybe add ~5F, or even more, to your reading.

 

[gtaus]

Mini Sifter for Potting Soil

I recently watched a YouTube video where the guy was saying that all these "special" soils, like seed starting mixes, are basically all potting soil mixes but just sifted out to a finer degree with maybe some additional fertilizer added. His recommendation, to save money, was to buy potting soil and sift it out to make your seed starting mix.

I went to the big box store and found there was indeed a big difference between the cost of seed starting mix and potting mix. So, I just bought a big bag of potting mix with the idea of sifting it out to make a finer seed starting mix.

My first attempt was to use a plastic colander I bought at the Thrift Store for 25 cents...

Although it did work somewhat, those holes in the bottom are maybe 1/8 inch, or less, and the sifted soil was like fine dust. Much finer that what I needed, or wanted. Also, it took a long time to sift even a small amount of potting soil because those holes were just too small.

I needed a better solution, so I went online and read that 1/4 inch hardware cloth would be better to sift out potting soil to make a seed starting mix. With that knowledge, I knew that I had another scrap lumber project on my list.

This afternoon, I pulled out some scrap pieces of pallet wood 2x4's, ripped them down to 3/4 inch thick, and made a small sifting frame about 12X9 inches. I stapled some 1/4 inch hardware cloth to the bottom and that project was done.

I brought the mini potting soil sifter into the house and sifted out some potting soil, with the seed starting quality mix in the plastic dish bin and the larger bits in the sifter get dumped into a bucket for use as regular potting soil for full grown plants. The 1/4-inch hardware cloth sifted the potting soil in no time, and the sifted soil mix is about perfect for seed starting.

Some people have suggested that I just sift out some of my chicken run compost using a 1/4-inch hardware cloth. I tried that one year, but I found out that my chicken run compost is full of life, which is great for outside gardens, but I ended up with all kinds of bugs in the house. Live and learn. I don't know if the bagged potting soil is completely sterile, but at least I don't have bugs in the house this year.

For anyone wondering why I am still talking about seed starting, I will tell you that I started about 50 net pots 5 weeks ago but only half of the seeds germinated. I am now restarting some new seeds to give them a 3– to 5-week head start before transplanting outside. I live in Zone 3B, and our plant date is around the end of May with warm weather plants going out about mid-June. I hope to get some more of my plants started now, even though I thought I would be much further ahead of the game than what I am.

Every year I think I will have enough of my seeds started in the house that I won't have to buy 6-packs at Menards, or the nursery. Every year, I only manage to start half of what I wanted and end up buying 6-packs anyway. I am not so good at growing plants. My limited gardening talent is in making pallet wood raised beds and chicken run compost. Or maybe a scrap wood mini sifter. I do that well. Whatever, the veggie 6-packs I bought are looking really good...

 

[fuzzi]

Mini Sifter for Potting Soil

I recently watched a YouTube video where the guy was saying that all these "special" soils, like seed starting mixes, are basically all potting soil mixes but just sifted out to a finer degree with maybe some additional fertilizer added. His recommendation, to save money, was to buy potting soil and sift it out to make your seed starting mix.

I went to the big box store and found there was indeed a big difference between the cost of seed starting mix and potting mix. So, I just bought a big bag of potting mix with the idea of sifting it out to make a finer seed starting mix.

My first attempt was to use a plastic colander I bought at the Thrift Store for 25 cents...

View attachment 4122012

Although it did work somewhat, those holes in the bottom are maybe 1/8 inch, or less, and the sifted soil was like fine dust. Much finer that what I needed, or wanted. Also, it took a long time to sift even a small amount of potting soil because those holes were just too small.

I needed a better solution, so I went online and read that 1/4 inch hardware cloth would be better to sift out potting soil to make a seed starting mix. With that knowledge, I knew that I had another scrap lumber project on my list.

This afternoon, I pulled out some scrap pieces of pallet wood 2x4's, ripped them down to 3/4 inch thick, and made a small sifting frame about 12X9 inches. I stapled some 1/4 inch hardware cloth to the bottom and that project was done.

View attachment 4122018

I brought the mini potting soil sifter into the house and sifted out some potting soil, with the seed starting quality mix in the plastic dish bin and the larger bits in the sifter get dumped into a bucket for use as regular potting soil for full grown plants. The 1/4-inch hardware cloth sifted the potting soil in no time, and the sifted soil mix is about perfect for seed starting.

View attachment 4122019

Some people have suggested that I just sift out some of my chicken run compost using a 1/4-inch hardware cloth. I tried that one year, but I found out that my chicken run compost is full of life, which is great for outside gardens, but I ended up with all kinds of bugs in the house. Live and learn. I don't know if the bagged potting soil is completely sterile, but at least I don't have bugs in the house this year.

For anyone wondering why I am still talking about seed starting, I will tell you that I started about 50 net pots 5 weeks ago but only half of the seeds germinated. I am now restarting some new seeds to give them a 3– to 5-week head start before transplanting outside. I live in Zone 3B, and our plant date is around the end of May with warm weather plants going out about mid-June. I hope to get some more of my plants started now, even though I thought I would be much further ahead of the game than what I am.

Every year I think I will have enough of my seeds started in the house that I won't have to buy 6-packs at Menards, or the nursery. Every year, I only manage to start half of what I wanted and end up buying 6-packs anyway. I am not so good at growing plants. My limited gardening talent is in making pallet wood raised beds and chicken run compost. Or maybe a scrap wood mini sifter. I do that well. Whatever, the veggie 6-packs I bought are looking really good...

I'm not good at starting seeds inside, either.

 

[Smokerbill]

This is the sifter I made from 1/4" hardware cloth and lumber scraps. The outer flanges around the bottom fit down over the top edge of the trashcan and secure its position. I fill it with whatever I'm sifting, shake the can back and forth in all directions and the sifted material drops into the can.

 

[gtaus]

I'm not good at starting seeds inside, either.

Thanks for the support. At least I can still buy most of what I did not grow. I will have saved some money by starting my own seeds, but my starts did not have the germination rate I expected this year. I think the seeds were too old. I'm tossing out my old seeds after my experience this year.

I am definitely better at building pallet wood raised beds and planters. And my 6-pack veggie packs still save us lots of money on fresh food.

I saw some friends at Menards this past weekend. They have an unheated greenhouse for their plant starts. But they told me that they really had a bad year this year and were in the store buying veggie 6-packs to cover their shortages. Seems like it was too cold too long in the springtime and the seeds just did not take off for them this year.

 

[Smokerbill]

I got a deal on cull lumber at Homedepot yesterday. I picked up six select fir 2"x10"x10' boards. They are all nice and straight and not twisted, but have some minor splits and cracks in them.

I'll rip them down into approximately 2x4 size and use them for the new chicken coop and run I'll be building soon. The six boards cost me $42. New price would've been around $140.