Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[jlk1]

Congrats to you. It's certainly great to hear so many people have managed to hold it together for so long.

Going on 34 also. I'm too old to train another wife and can't be "re-taught" much myself.

 

[gtaus]

Pallet Wood 4X4 Foot, 16 Inch High, Raised Garden Bed - New Design

Time to upload some pictures of my newly designed pallet wood raised garden bed. I was plenty happy with my old raised bed design, but I specifically wanted to redo this design to use the pallet wood notched 2X4 stretchers without cutting them. With that in mind, I took apart some pallets that had 4 foot long 2X4's, all of the same thickness, or very close to it. The beauty of this step is that you don't need to have the 2X4's nail free in this build. That means, you can use a reciprocating saw to cut off the pallet planks if you want and just leave the nail bottoms in the 2X4's. Or you can use a circular saw to cut off the edges of the planks and just use the shorter 16 inch long slats for the sidewalls. Both those methods make pallet breakdown fast.

First pic, you can see how I framed up the raised bed with the notched pallet wood 2X4's.

Notice how I orientated the 2X4's so the notches on both the top and bottom have the notches in the middle. That becomes important later when I nail on the sidewall slats.

For those of you that know something about putting butt joints together, they are not considered a very strong connection. Here is what I mean...

As you look at the above picture, you can see the screws go into the end grain of the other 2X4. Although this is a strong connection today, it will not stand up over time and those screws can (and most likely will) pull out of the end grain wood.

Knowing that this butt end connection is the weak point in this design, I made some corner posts out of 2X4's, attached to each other, and then attached them to the outside frame - screwing from the inside.

That should make the basic frame a lot stronger and not fall apart over the years to come.

Now I added all the 16 inch pallet planks I have cut from my pallet wood breakdowns. This process took very little time as the planks were already cut to 16 inches long. I simply started at one corner and started laying down wood planks working my way to the end of that side. I used my 18 gauge brad nailer to fasten the planks to the 2X4's. An 18 gauge brad nail is not that strong, but in this design, all it needs to do is to attched the plank so it does not fall down. When I fill up the garden bed with soil, the weight of the soil will be pushing outwards, so the weight of the soil will assist in holding the planks in place. Also, using the brad nailer takes no time at all to bump and shoot. Of course, a person could either nail or screw those planks in place if you don't have a nail gun.

Now, here is a point that I want to stress... It's important to have the basic framing on the outside of the raised bed and the planks on the inside. When you add the soil, it will push the planks into the 2X4 outside frame and everything should hold together. Some people will reverse this process, making the 2X4 frame as the inside, and then tacking on the planks to the outside. Of course, that will work and will look just fine - for a short while - but in a few years the weight of the soil will push out on the planks on the outside of the frame and you will have multiple blowouts to repair. Remember, the wood is going to rot over time and the nails, screws, etc will no longer hold the planks if on the outside. No doubt, my pallet wood raised bed will also rot out over time, but it should last many years longer with the design of the planks on the inside of the frame.

As you can see, I attempted to alternate between light and dark colored planks, because that is the look I wanted. Notice that one corner on each side has a gap board missing.

When I laid out the planks, I made sure that the gap was an even distance from the 2X4 corner pieces. That meant I did not have to make any special taper cuts. So, I just had to rip final boards for 2 inches, 2-1/2 inches, 1-1/4 inches, etc... All straight rips that were very easy to measure and cut on the table saw.

Besides the aesthetics of having the notches in the 2X4's facing each other, it makes it very easy to nail the planks on the sidewalls just about an inch from the top/bottom where you know there is no notch to worry about. I did not want to shoot a nail into the notch void and then have to remove the nail.

Final boards added to each corner...

OK, the build was done at this point and all in all, I would say that it was faster and easier than my previous designs.

Here is a picture of the new pallet wood garden bed design compared to the pallet wood garden bed design I built last year.

Time to setup the garden bed, and I got most of it done today. I use the hügelkultur method in my raised beds. I recently cut up some pines trees that died and fell over this past winter. I used the tree trunk logs to line the bottom of the raised bed. The idea is that the wood will act like a giant sponge and soak up water, releasing it later to the plants when they need it. As the logs decay over the years, their effect as a giant sponge improves. Eventually, the wood breaks down and feeds the soil, which in turn feeds the plants growing above.

After the heavy logs, I tossed in some smaller branches and dumped in a load of aged wood chips I needed to clear out. Here is where I ended today....

What's left is the top ~8 inches which I will fill with a high-quality topsoil and chicken run compost mixed 1:1. I used to be able to get vermiculite for my raised bed mixes, but I can't get large 3 cubic foot bags of comercial vermiculite anymore. Small bags of garden vermiculite would be far too expensive - on my budget. So, I talked to the main guy at our local nursery, and he told me just to mix the chicken run compost and topsoil 1:1.

I had a little more time before it got dark, so I filled up my new 8 cubic foot "Gorilla-like" cart with some chicken run compost - you can see the chicken coop and run in the background of the first picture. Anyways, take a look at this black gold compost from my chicken run...

I have to say that I get really excited about my chicken run compost because it's just so much better than what I used to buy at the big box stores. Mostly, it's a combination of leaves, grass clippings, maybe some wood chips or paper shreds from the coop litter, and of course, chicken poo mixed in. If you like the smell of rich, dark, earth, you would really like this compost.

I will be sifting this compost with my cement mixer compost sifter and then mixing it with the topsoil. Then, I'll top off the new garden bed(s) with about 8 inches of the compost/topsoil mix. I plan on building at least one more pallet wood garden bed this spring but would really like to make four new beds in total.

If you made it this far, I would love to hear some feedback on this new pallet wood raised bed design. I put a number of hours of thinking into this project before I put it together but would love to hear any comments others may have. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Later....

 

[gtaus]

Going on 34 also. I'm too old to train another wife and can't be "re-taught" much myself.

Congrats! That's fantastic.

I am too old to be retrained by another wife.... Although, I imagine my wife still considers me a work-in-progress!

 

[Sally PB]

If you made it this far,

@gtaus, that looks fantastic! Whenever you build something, I read the entire post. You explain things VERY well.

 

[NanaK]

@gtaus Looks really nice! What will you plant in these this year?

Going out early this am, need to pick more green peas. Trying to get what I can before the heat sets in for summer. They do not like our heat and humidity.
Hope you folks have a wonderful Monday!

 

[ChicksnMore]

Pallet Wood 4X4 Foot, 16 Inch High, Raised Garden Bed - New Design

Time to upload some pictures of my newly designed pallet wood raised garden bed. I was plenty happy with my old raised bed design, but I specifically wanted to redo this design to use the pallet wood notched 2X4 stretchers without cutting them. With that in mind, I took apart some pallets that had 4 foot long 2X4's, all of the same thickness, or very close to it. The beauty of this step is that you don't need to have the 2X4's nail free in this build. That means, you can use a reciprocating saw to cut off the pallet planks if you want and just leave the nail bottoms in the 2X4's. Or you can use a circular saw to cut off the edges of the planks and just use the shorter 16 inch long slats for the sidewalls. Both those methods make pallet breakdown fast.

First pic, you can see how I framed up the raised bed with the notched pallet wood 2X4's.

View attachment 3505874

Notice how I orientated the 2X4's so the notches on both the top and bottom have the notches in the middle. That becomes important later when I nail on the sidewall slats.

For those of you that know something about putting butt joints together, they are not considered a very strong connection. Here is what I mean...

View attachment 3505878

As you look at the above picture, you can see the screws go into the end grain of the other 2X4. Although this is a strong connection today, it will not stand up over time and those screws can (and most likely will) pull out of the end grain wood.

Knowing that this butt end connection is the weak point in this design, I made some corner posts out of 2X4's, attached to each other, and then attached them to the outside frame - screwing from the inside.

View attachment 3505884

View attachment 3505891

That should make the basic frame a lot stronger and not fall apart over the years to come.

Now I added all the 16 inch pallet planks I have cut from my pallet wood breakdowns. This process took very little time as the planks were already cut to 16 inches long. I simply started at one corner and started laying down wood planks working my way to the end of that side. I used my 18 gauge brad nailer to fasten the planks to the 2X4's. An 18 gauge brad nail is not that strong, but in this design, all it needs to do is to attched the plank so it does not fall down. When I fill up the garden bed with soil, the weight of the soil will be pushing outwards, so the weight of the soil will assist in holding the planks in place. Also, using the brad nailer takes no time at all to bump and shoot. Of course, a person could either nail or screw those planks in place if you don't have a nail gun.

Now, here is a point that I want to stress... It's important to have the basic framing on the outside of the raised bed and the planks on the inside. When you add the soil, it will push the planks into the 2X4 outside frame and everything should hold together. Some people will reverse this process, making the 2X4 frame as the inside, and then tacking on the planks to the outside. Of course, that will work and will look just fine - for a short while - but in a few years the weight of the soil will push out on the planks on the outside of the frame and you will have multiple blowouts to repair. Remember, the wood is going to rot over time and the nails, screws, etc will no longer hold the planks if on the outside. No doubt, my pallet wood raised bed will also rot out over time, but it should last many years longer with the design of the planks on the inside of the frame.

As you can see, I attempted to alternate between light and dark colored planks, because that is the look I wanted. Notice that one corner on each side has a gap board missing.

View attachment 3505898

When I laid out the planks, I made sure that the gap was an even distance from the 2X4 corner pieces. That meant I did not have to make any special taper cuts. So, I just had to rip final boards for 2 inches, 2-1/2 inches, 1-1/4 inches, etc... All straight rips that were very easy to measure and cut on the table saw.

Besides the aesthetics of having the notches in the 2X4's facing each other, it makes it very easy to nail the planks on the sidewalls just about an inch from the top/bottom where you know there is no notch to worry about. I did not want to shoot a nail into the notch void and then have to remove the nail.

Final boards added to each corner...

View attachment 3505914

OK, the build was done at this point and all in all, I would say that it was faster and easier than my previous designs.

Here is a picture of the new pallet wood garden bed design compared to the pallet wood garden bed design I built last year.

View attachment 3505922

Time to setup the garden bed, and I got most of it done today. I use the hügelkultur method in my raised beds. I recently cut up some pines trees that died and fell over this past winter. I used the tree trunk logs to line the bottom of the raised bed. The idea is that the wood will act like a giant sponge and soak up water, releasing it later to the plants when they need it. As the logs decay over the years, their effect as a giant sponge improves. Eventually, the wood breaks down and feeds the soil, which in turn feeds the plants growing above.

View attachment 3505923

After the heavy logs, I tossed in some smaller branches and dumped in a load of aged wood chips I needed to clear out. Here is where I ended today....

View attachment 3505924

What's left is the top ~8 inches which I will fill with a high-quality topsoil and chicken run compost mixed 1:1. I used to be able to get vermiculite for my raised bed mixes, but I can't get large 3 cubic foot bags of comercial vermiculite anymore. Small bags of garden vermiculite would be far too expensive - on my budget. So, I talked to the main guy at our local nursery, and he told me just to mix the chicken run compost and topsoil 1:1.

I had a little more time before it got dark, so I filled up my new 8 cubic foot "Gorilla-like" cart with some chicken run compost - you can see the chicken coop and run in the background of the first picture. Anyways, take a look at this black gold compost from my chicken run...

View attachment 3505927

I have to say that I get really excited about my chicken run compost because it's just so much better than what I used to buy at the big box stores. Mostly, it's a combination of leaves, grass clippings, maybe some wood chips or paper shreds from the coop litter, and of course, chicken poo mixed in. If you like the smell of rich, dark, earth, you would really like this compost.

I will be sifting this compost with my cement mixer compost sifter and then mixing it with the topsoil. Then, I'll top off the new garden bed(s) with about 8 inches of the compost/topsoil mix. I plan on building at least one more pallet wood garden bed this spring but would really like to make four new beds in total.

If you made it this far, I would love to hear some feedback on this new pallet wood raised bed design. I put a number of hours of thinking into this project before I put it together but would love to hear any comments others may have. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Later....

Those look wonderful! I loved reading your build process with the whys explained. Learning a lot I'll put to good use!

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus, that looks fantastic! Whenever you build something, I read the entire post. You explain things VERY well.

Thanks. I hope it helps others if they decide to build this design or one similar to it.

@gtaus Looks really nice! What will you plant in these this year?

I have started Cherry Tomatoes and some Asian Eggplants that I might put in these raised beds. But I also have some pepper plants ready to go.

Those look wonderful! I loved reading your build process with the whys explained. Learning a lot I'll put to good use!

Thanks. I like the looks of the dark/light wood alternating. Maybe others would prefer to stain or paint the wood. That would add some extra protection and maybe the raised bed would last a bit longer. I'm just going with the wood directly off the pallet and will replace any rotted boards - or just rebuild - years down the road.

I was thinking last night after I posted the raised bed new design, that I forgot to mention that the pallet wood was all free, and that I had maybe less than $1.00 in the price of the screws and brad nails.

I'm glad people picked up on the details of having the frame on the outside of the raised bed. I have seen a number of YouTube videos where they put the 2X4 frame on the inside to hide it, and then use the pallet planks tacked to the outside. Well, there was one follow up video a year or two latter and the women admitted that she had not considered how all that raised bed soil weight would be pushing outwards on the planks and she was having all kinds of blowouts in her raised beds.

I'm not a professional builder, but I do know that certain designs should last a lot longer than others. Free pallet wood will probably not last as long as brand new Cedar boards, but I just factor in the cost of the build and, for me, I'd rather rebuild a new free pallet wood raised bed years down the road then spending $$$ on a cedar wood raised bed today.

And, if you have the budget for a cedar raised bed, I think some of my design considerations are valid on any type of wood build. Even though my pallet wood build is free to me, I want it to last as long as possible.

 

[gtaus]

I got my new Air Locker AP700 nail puncher this afternoon.

I was all excited to try it out. Put on a 1/4-inch quick hose attachment on the bottom of the tool and added a few drops of compressor oil into the tool.

Took out my old air compressor and plugged it in. I had not used it since last summer.

When air filled the tank and the compressor stopped, I noticed that it only read 70 psi and this Air Locker AP700 tool needs 80-100 psi. Not a problem, just dial in some extra pressure on the regulator....

Unfortunately, the regulator dial was stuck and would not move. So, I took out a pair of pliers and got a good grip on the dial. It moved a little bit, but not very much. Gave it one more try and the dial broke off, a spring went flying through the air, and all the air rushed out.

Yeah, I broke it good. Thought it was a complete loss, but I see on YouTube that I might be able to get a replacement regulator kit. I'll probably go into town tomorrow and see how much a replacement regulator kit costs compared to buying a new compressor. I know this was not a very expensive compressor when I bought it, and it's probably over 20 years old. I might be better off buying a new compressor and not fixing up this old one.

Backup plan is that I have a really big Sears Craftsman air compressor down in my other garage. I really don't want to bring that air compressor up to my main garage because it takes up so much floor space that I cannot afford to lose. But it's an option to consider even just to get me through till I either fix the small compressor I broke, or I replace it with a new small pancake compressor if one goes on sale.

It's always something....

 

[gtaus]

Update on setting up my new pallet wood raised bed...

Last time I had finished the pallet wood 4X4 foot,16 inch high, raised bed with my new design. Using the hügelkultur method, I lined the bottom of the raised bed with logs...

Then I added a load of aged wood chips to fill in the gaps between the logs, and to fill the raised bed up to a level where I had about 6-8 inches remaining...

Today, I was working on making the final chicken run compost and topsoil 1:1 mix to fill that top 6-8 inches in the raised bed.

Last year I shifted my chicken run compost, dumped it into a garden cart, then mixed in the topsoil. This year I got a little smarter so I thought I would share my improved setup. So, first a picture of the setup...

On the left side of the picture, you can see the load of topsoil I bought at the nursery yesterday. It is high quality Red River Topsoil and that load cost me $60.00. On the right, you can see a load of my chicken run compost in the big Gorilla cart, then the wire cart is for rejects from sifting, then underneath the cement mixer compost sifter is my 6 cubic foot Gorilla cart that catches the sifted compost.

As you will notice, everything is setup up next to the chicken run in my backyard.

Anyways, the brilliant idea I got this year was to sift the compost and the topsoil at the same time, eliminating all the work of having to measure and mix the compost and topsoil 1:1 later in a cart. So, I would take 2 shovel scoops of topsoil, toss it into the compost sifter, and then take 2 scoops of chicken run compost and toss that into the sifter, repeat until the Gorilla cart under the sifting barrel was full. Everything came out sifted and premixed into that Gorilla cart under the sifting barrel. Beautiful! Saved a lot of work over last year where each step was done by itself.

Old dogs can learn new tricks! For those of you who think that solution was a no brainer, just let me celebrate my modest moment in improving my process efficiency.

Here is a picture of the new pallet wood raised bed completely set up and ready to plant. Our planting date is not until 29 May, but I'm ready to go this year!

If all goes well, I plan on building another one of these new designed pallet wood raised beds before the end of the month. If things go really well, I will build a total of 4 new raised beds. Can a person have too many raised beds to grow food? I think not.

 

[gtaus]

First Impressions Upon Using The Air Locker AP700 Nail Puncher

Wow! I was expecting the Air Locker AP700 nail puncher to be faster and easier to use than a normal hammer and crowbar, but I was more than pleasantly surprised to find out just how good this tool really is.

I had a stack of disassembled pallet wood with nails in them that I had been saving up since last week to try out on this Air Locker AP700 that I ordered. I have a pretty good idea of how long it takes me to de-nail pallet wood after almost one year of using hammer, crowbars, and pliers. Honestly, I never really considered it much of a chore as I just put on my Bluetooth headphones and listened to a radio program or audiobook while taking all the nails out of the wood. It takes time to get the nails out, but I didn't mind it so much.

Enter the Air Locker AP700. I hauled down my big air compressor from the other garage (remember I just broke my smaller air compress the other day ) and dialed in 90 psi for the working pressure. I started punching out nail from pallet planks and I could hardly believe how fast the process was going. I'm estimating that using the Air Locker AP700 is about 4X-5X faster than what I could do with a hammer and crowbar. I would say a good 90%, or more, of the nails completely shot out of the wood into the can I had set up to catch the nails. The nails that did not completely come out were usually easy to pull out by hand alone. Some nails still needed a hammer, but it did not take much effort or time to de-nail all those planks. Boy, was it so much easier and faster using the Air Locker AP700 than doing everything by hand!

I also discovered a few other advantages that I had not considered before. If you look at the nose of the Air Locker, the idea is that you can insert the bottom of the nail into that nose and bend straight the nails that are bent on the wood. Then you shoot them out. I knew that, of course, but what I had not considered is that so many of those nails shoot out perfectly straight now and that means I will be saving/salvaging many more used pallet nails then before. Much, much faster than pulling out a bent nail and then having to hammer it straight on a piece of metal.

Sometimes I use a reciprocating saw to cut off the pallet planks from the 2X4 stretchers. That leaves the nail heads embedded in the planks. If I had to de-nail those planks, I would have to use a punch and a hammer and work them out. I can tell you that process is pretty slow going. With the Air Locker, all I have to do is put the nose of the gun over the flush cut butt of the nail, hit the trigger, and the nail head on the other side is punched out about 1/4 inch making it really easy to put out with a hammer or pliers. So much easier and faster than using a manual punch and hammer.

Some of my pallets were put together with staples. Staples have always been a challenge to pound out with a hammer because the staple wire is not very thick and easily bends when struck with a hammer head. However, with the Air Locker AP700, you just put one of the staple ends into the nose of the gun, press the trigger, and it shoots out the staple enough that you can easily use a pliers to remove it. Half the time it would shoot out the whole staple and I would not even have to use the pliers. Very nice.

I ordered my Air Locker AP700 in a kit with an extra punch driver. Eventually, you will wear out or break the driver. How long it will last, I don't know. But the Air Locker has a replaceable driver so you can fix the tool yourself.

Other brands of these type of nail punchers did not offer replaceable drivers. If the driver breaks, you have to replace the entire tool.

The Air Locker replacement driver goes for about $14.00 and then you have a new tool to use instead of replacing the entire gun. Also, some people will buy extra drivers and file a bit off the end so the punch stops flush with the wood. Normally, it leaves a divet about 1/4 inch deep in the pallet wood. Fine for me, but some people need to have that driver stop flush with their finish wood so they file down the tip. Buying the driver included in the kit cost me only an extra $4.00, so I thought it was worth the extra money.

Even better, I got an open box/damaged box discount of about $5.00 on the kit I bought. When I got the box, the cardboard had been ripped a little bit but I don't care as long as the unit was not damaged. I'll save the $5.00 thank you very much.

Well, for 60 years, I have successfully de-nailed wood with a simple hammer and crowbar and I'm quite good at it. So, why was I even considering getting this tool?

Take a look at my current pallet supply in the backyard....

And more on this side...

I stopped counting pallets long ago, but I estimate I have ~150 pallets back there. Most of those pallets were from going into town with an empty back end in my old Ford Explorer and loading up 5 or 6 pallets on the way home. It all adds up over time. Anyway, looking at all those pallets, I decided it was time to invest in additional tools that allow me to take advantage of all that wood.

If you only have a small number of pallets or reclaimed wood, then I don't suppose you really need a tool like the Air Locker AP700. But I have become invested in making more pallet projects in the future and so I expect to get a lot of use out of this gun. For me, it's a keeper and a valuable addition to my toolbox.