Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Love it!

Not only will that pallet wood notch out work great as a miter saw hold down stick, saving you $20.00 or more, but it is 100% wood, meaning that if you accidentally drop the spinning blade on it, the blade will cut through the wood - no damage to you or the blade.

Sometimes, with those plastic push and hold down sticks, the plastic will shatter into flying bits and could cause some kickback. Well, YouTube is full of those videos when you run a plastic push stick into the blade.

 

[febane]

I am OK with people raising their chickens any way they want. Some breeds might be better than others at foraging and that is a bonus for some people.

Most of my laying hens are production breeds. They don't go broody, and they lay lots of eggs. I think if they only were foraging for food, they would not lay nearly as many eggs.

Years ago, I started off with meat chickens, Cornish Cross. I butchered them at about 8 weeks old. They ate lots of commercial food in those 8 weeks. But they were ready for harvest on time.

I remember talking to an adult leader of our local 4H program. He said one family brought in a bunch of 8-week-old Cornish Cross chickens that had been left to forage for their food and only got a little cracked corn every once in a while. Their chickens did not win any ribbons because they were half the size of the other commercial feed chickens. The 4H leader told me that the parents were all upset that their kids' chickens did not get any ribbons. They had saved a lot of money by forcing the meat chickens to forage for food. For some reason, they thought that was the goal - saving money. But they had failed to understand that the competition for that Cornish Cross breed was to have them market ready in 8 weeks, and their chickens left to forage for food where nowhere near market ready.

I have a mix of chicken breeds. Some dual-purpose breeds are better for eggs and meat than others, but it's really hard to beat the Cornish Cross chickens for meat and the production breeds for egg laying. They just do their one intended function better, IMHO, and that is why I have them. But I enjoy having a mix of birds in my small backyard flock. As I have often stated, I make (save) more money on composting with chickens and all breeds seem to do a good job at that.

One of my favorite pallet projects was a compact workbench I built for a small garage space. I started with two heat-treated pallets in good condition, took them apart, and used the slats for the top and sides. For the frame, I used the thicker stringers and reinforced them with a few extra 2x4s. I added a small shelf underneath for tool storage and mounted a power strip on the side for charging drills and other gear. It was basic but sturdy, cost me nothing but time, and gave me a functional space to work on smaller DIY repairs and hobbies.

 

[gtaus]

One of my favorite pallet projects was a compact workbench I built for a small garage space...

Sounds great! I currently have three pallet wood modular workbenches in my garage that I use every day. I also converted some pallets to be workbenches on top of my utility trailer(s) I tow behind my riding mowers. Did not cost me much more than some screws and nails to put things together. Like you, they were projects that have paid me back many times in how much I use them.

 

[gtaus]

New Hügelkultur Raised Bed with Only 4 Inches of Soil?

I built a new pallet wood raised bed v2.0 last fall and hauled it to the backyard...

Instead of filling the bed with my typical logs, I filled this one with pallet wood cut offs and scrap wood. I had to clean out my garage and I thought using the pallet wood bits and pieces in a hügelkultur raised bed was a better use of all that junk wood than burning it in my fire ring.

My raised beds are 16 inches high. I normally only fill the bed halfway up with wood logs, leaving another 8 inches for soil and compost. But I had lots of junk pallet wood cut offs and keep filling up the bed. I added some salvaged 2X4's for a trellis system.

Since that picture, I replaced that mended 2X4 of the front left with a better board. But it gives you a good view of how I probably overfilled that bed with scrap wood, leaving only 4-6 inches for topsoil. I finished off that bed with about 4 inches of chicken run compost - no soil - and called it done for the year.

But now I am faced with what to plant in only 4 inches of compost. Will anything grow in straight compost and only 4 inches deep? Maybe 6 inches at most in some spots?

According to some information I found online, I should be able to grow squash or beans in as little as 4 inches of soil/compost. So, I think I will have to get some fencing for the trellis and maybe get some pole beans to grow in that bed, and maybe some squash to fill up the rest of the bed. Tomatoes was another option listed, but I already have all my tomatoes planted in other beds.

In any case, the soil level usually drops about 2 inches the first year and 1-2 inches every year after that as the wood breaks down. I'll top off the bed with fresh topsol/compost every year and my raised bed should get better with age.

I have found some old 2X4 inch utility fencing that would work good for a trellis, but not enough. I might have to break down and buy a new roll of fencing. In any case, I will update my progress after I finish that bed. I'm not sure how well anything would grow in only 4 inches of straight compost this year, but I'm going to give it a try.

 

[gtaus]

First Use Review of HF 2-in-1 Air Brad Nailer/Stapler

Last fall I bought a 2-in-1 Air Nailer/Stapler from Harbor Freight. Unfortunately, I had to wait a long time for them to get some staples in stock and never used the Nailer until just a few days ago.

I thought I would use the stapler on making some of my pallet wood stackable compost bin tiers instead of using my typical drywall screws. The air stapler was so much faster than using the drywall screws! Bang, bang, bang and the frame was done! The staples appear to have more than enough holding power for my stackable compost tier frames.

Here is a diagram of the basic concept, but I had to adapt it just a bit for using pallet wood of different thickness...

Instead of using outside measurements with wood all of the same thickness, I make my frames to be 36X36 inches on the inside. As long as the inside measurements are consistent, it does not matter what the thickness of the boards are that I used. They all stack together despite some frames might be larger than others due to the thickness of the boards used in that tier.

Here is a completed stackable bin I made last year using drywall screws...

I just made another 4 tiers this week, using the air stapler, and it was a lot faster shooting the staples. Nothing wrong with using screws, but the air stapler is just much faster.

Well, I still ended up using drywall screws to secure the legs, but I am working on a solution so I can use staples on the legs as well. I have purchased materials to make a taper jig so I can make tapered legs for the stackable bins. Also, I am thinking over ideas to make a jig to hold the legs and boards so I can staple the legs into the boards instead of using screws.

The problem I am having with the air stapler with the legs is that the staple pushes in the leg when I shoot the staple. I tried using some clamps, but they did not work as well as I hoped. So, I have to rethink that part because the legs need to be secured for the stackable system. If I can figure how to staple the legs on to the frame, that will be nice.

The Air Nailer/Stapler worked great with the staples I used. No jams or misfires. Very nice. It can also shoot 18-gauge brad nails, but I already have a Ryobi 18v brad nailer which I use for brad nails. At this price, you won't find any depth adjustment for the nailer - you just have to adjust the air pressure at the compressor tank. I had my compressor set at 90 PSI and that was perfect for the 1-1/4 inch staples I was using.

One of the main reasons I bought this air stapler was I wanted to make some crates like these...

That's still on my wish list, but the stackable compost bins are needed right now for some projects I am working on out in the yard. By the time I get around to making those storage bins, I hope to have figured out a few more ways to make better use of the air stapler. It sure would be nice to set up a little assembly line and put them together fast with the air stapler.

As I said, I already had a Ryobi 18v brad nailer and I use that all the time. If you don't mind being tethered to an air hose, this 2-in-1 Air Stapler/Nailer from Harbor Freight is a great tool. But I don't know what they will replace it with, so if you can get one at clearance, that is a great deal. Well... based on my first use of the tool which was great.

 

[Molpet]

Nothing wrong with using screws, but the air stapler is just much faster.

I have had problems with staples not holding as well as screws.

 

[gtaus]

I have had problems with staples not holding as well as screws.

Screws have great holding power. That's why I have used them for years. Plus, they are easy to install and take out if you need. The staples I used with the air stapler appear to be more than strong enough to hold the compost frame together. But if they work loose, it's not a big deal. I'll either pound it back together or drill a screw in it to hold it better.

I have gotten into a habit of using my 18-gauge brad nailer to quickly put together a project holding the boards in place and then following up with inserting screws to hold it together for the long term. I think the air stapler will do both jobs at one time, for those projects that probably don't need the extra holding strength of screws. The air stapler would certainly be a lot faster.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how strong the holding power of the staples were compared to the 18-gauge brad nails. I think staples alone will be more than enough for lots of small projects I have in mind. I stapled some wood together and tried to pull them apart. It took a lot more force to get the wood apart then what I expect the compost tier frame will be subjected to holding in compost.

But thank you for the feedback. As I said, I just started using the air stapler so time will tell if the staples hold up, or loosen up, in my projects.

 

[Smokerbill]

For me, the big downside about using narrow crown staples for attaching boards is that if I decide to to disassemble the project and reuse the boards, those flimsy staples are nearly impossible to remove. The legs can be clipped off or bent over, but there will always be small shards of metal in the wood.

 

[gtaus]

For me, the big downside about using narrow crown staples for attaching boards is that if I decide to to disassemble the project and reuse the boards, those flimsy staples are nearly impossible to remove. The legs can be clipped off or bent over, but there will always be small shards of metal in the wood.

That is exactly why I have mainly used screws in my pallet projects for many years. Screws are easy to back out with minimal damage to the wood and you can reuse the screws in another project. Screws are still my main means of joining boards.

However, I am currently working on some smaller projects that I suspected those staples might work better, or at least faster. Well, faster to put together, but as you mentioned, not faster to take apart if you need to.

As to removing the staples themselves, I do not have much of a problem. I use my Air Locker AP-700 to punch out one of the legs of the staple and then use a pliers to pull the staple out...

Here is a picture of my special pliers I use to pull nails/staples...

What makes that pliers so special is the large, rounded addition to the jaws of the pliers. You use that as leverage to pull the nail out, like a claw hammer, only with the pliers you can pull out those headless nails or staples with ease.

I have reviewed both those products elsewhere in this thread. I would recommend both of them if you are breaking down lots of pallets. They are tools that you can live without, of course, but if you do a lot of pallet work, those two tools will make the job much easier and faster to break down pallet wood with nails and staples that need to be removed.

I purchased those tools a few years ago, on sale, and saved some money. If you put them in your Amazon Wishlist, sometimes you get lucky and when they go on sale you might get a notice. That's what I did with Air Locker and saved about $15.00 on the purchase. I bought the Cresent Red Pliers locally, but got it for half price. That was an unexpected good deal. It rang up at half price at the checkout. Unadvertised sale which I hardly ever benefit from!

To your valid concern about removing the staples, all I can say is that I rarely ever end up bending over the staple leg and leaving bits of staple in the wood. If I only had a normal hammer and pliers, I think it would be much more difficult to remove the staples. But the AP-700 tool I have will punch out the staple to the point where the Cresent pliers easily removes it.

Having said that, screws are still my best option for projects that need greater holding strength or that I suspect I will need to take apart in the near future. And, I have lots of projects that I end up taking apart because the idea or design did not work out for me. But that's what I love about using free pallet wood.

 

[gtaus]

Using Jigs for Faster, Accurate, and Repeatable Builds

I have mentioned that the stackable compost bin system I built a year or so ago has proven to be more valuable to me than I had anticipated. I decided to build another pallet wood compost tower of stackable tiers.

Here is the basic idea of the stackable tiers...

My changes for my pallet wood stackable compost bins are that the inside measurements are 36X36 inches, and the legs have a gap of 1-1/2 inches on top and stick out 2-1/2 inches below the frame. I also taper my legs so they stack easier.

As I previously mentioned, I wanted to use my new air stapler instead of using my normal drywall screws. Using the air stapler is much faster than drilling holes for the screws and then drilling each and every screw into the wood. And yes, since I was attaching the pallet wood using end grain or the end of the boards, I had to predrill my holes for the screws or risk splitting the wood. Using staples bypasses all that concern. Just point and shoot. Very fast. No wood splitting.

As we all know, pallet wood planks can have all kinds of widths and thicknesses. Because of that, I had to redesign the build which originally used standard 1X6 pine boards. The original plans all used outside measurements because the 1X6 wood was all standard thickness. But I had to reverse the design to accommodate using pallet wood planks of different thicknesses. I had to build my stackable compost tiers using inside measurements; therefore, the various thicknesses of the boards did not matter.

My goal on this new build was to come up with a system that used my air stapler only and that I could more easily, and accurately, put the frames together. Long story short, I had to change the way I built the stackable tiers. It took me a few days to think of a couple of jigs I could make to assist in my build.

Here is a picture of my two main jigs that I came up with...

The jig on the left is used to attach the legs to my boards. More on that a bit later.

The jig on the right is just a board cut to 36 inches. My stackable tiers measure 36X36 inches on the inside, so I just use that 36-inch jig board space out the frame exactly, no need to measure anything and slow me down.

The old way I put together the frames and the legs, using screws, did not work when I used the air stapler. I came up with a solution with that jig on the left. I simply put my tapered legs on the jig and then place the board on top. There is a block of wood that creates a 1-1/2 inch gap in the top of the frame for the stacking legs.

So, I just put the tapered leg into the jig...

And then place the pallet plank on top of the leg...

That allows me to shoot the staples down into the wood and legs nice and solid. Before, using my old system, I had to use clamps on the legs but the power of shooting the stapes into the leg would sometimes push the leg away from the corner - misaligning the legs - which are needed to be correct for stacking the tiers. Shooting the staples down into the legs this way fixed that problem. Plus, I no longer have to setup clamps for that step which saves me a lot of time.

I figured out how to make the tapered legs, cutting them on my miter saw using a stop block and a ~7 degree angled cut on 2 faces of the leg. That slight angle on the legs allows me to more easily stack the tiers. Yes, it will work even if you don't taper those legs, but more often than not you will have to tap the legs in when stacking the tiers. With the tapered legs, you don't have that problem at all.

Here is a picture of my new stackable pallet wood compost bin tower made with my new jigs. There is a learning curve on any project, but I would estimate that using these jigs makes my build time about 5X faster, more accurate, and easier to repeat.

Of course, it only took me about a week thinking of how to make these jigs and put them to use. It took me about an hour today to build the jigs, with a few adjustments and tweaks before everything worked. And by the time I learned how to get my workflow working great, this project was over.

Considering the time and effort I put into making these jigs and learning how to make the stackable tiers in a different way, I might just build a few more stackable tiers for extras. I think I got the system down now and I have lots of pallet wood to use up.

I'm just an old guy trying to learn some new tricks. Building and using jigs was just another skill I wanted to improve. Jigs sure make the build more accurate, faster, and repeatable when you get them right.