Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Oh, one more thing about honey... it is one of the most often "faked" foods out there. I bought some "raw unfiltered honey" at Costco. It's in the basement. It has not crystalized at all, but my real honey from a real beekeeper did.

Yep, Dear Wife and I went to an Amish open market last fall and bought some "real" bee honey, which is thick like peanut butter. It also has a taste less sweet than what I was used to buying the "fake" honey from the big box stores. I looked at the ingredients on the honey label from the store, and the first thing listed was corn syrup. I guess that it why it never crystalizes, is so sweet, and pours like syrup.

Natural/real honey has a different taste to it. I am told that the taste will vary from the location of the bee hives and what nectar and pollen the bees are eating to produce their honey. Until we bought some natural bee honey at that Amish market, I did not know that.

Dear Wife prefers the Amish natural bee honey. I am weaning myself off the store-bought fake honey, but I still prefer the extra sweetness of the corn syrup honey which I grew up with, I guess.

 

[Sally PB]

Natural/real honey has a different taste to it. I am told that the taste will vary from the location of the bee hives and what nectar and pollen the bees are eating to produce their honey. Until we bought some natural bee honey at that Amish market, I did not know that.

Yes, very true!

I love the taste of honey. I'd love to go to a tasting bar to try different kinds. There's an olive oil and basalmic vinegar place not too far from me, and you can sample the different flavors. I could drink basalmic vinegar, I love the flavor so much.

Hubby tried mead. He was not a fan. It was ok, he said, but he didn't realize it was more like wine. So we won't be making mead when our bees start producing.

 

[gtaus]

Speaking of cold shops, one of my first small pallet projects for this year needs to be a couple heated cabinets for my paints, stains, glues, and automotive sprays, etc.
But they can also be used for cordless battery's also.

Right now I'm just using a mini fridge

Thanks for the video links. I never considered having a heated cabinet for my batteries, paint, glues, etc... Fantastic!

Even better for me, I have an old freezer that died out in the garage. I bought a new part to get it fixed, but Dear Wife wanted to buy a new frost free freezer. So I never fixed the old freezer - yet. Anyway, that old freezer would be perfect for use as a heated cabinet. Just add a lightbulb for heat and some kind of thermometer control on the electrical line. Done!

 

[gtaus]

So we won't be making mead when our bees start producing.

Are you making pallet wood bee hives? Don't know if that makes sense, but I see on TV lots of bee hives made from wood boxes. Just wondering if one could use pallet wood for that type of project.

 

[Sally PB]

Are you making pallet wood bee hives? Don't know if that makes sense, but I see on TV lots of bee hives made from wood boxes. Just wondering if one could use pallet wood for that type of project.

Bee hives are usually made of wood. Here's a picture of what would be called a "deep box." Notice all the dado (?) joints in the corners. I think the wood is usually 3/4" thick. When full of frames of honey, this could weigh 90 pounds, so the joints have to be very strong. I think the wood itself is pine, but the quality has to be high. No splits, no large knots, very uniform thickness, and no warping. (Well, that leaves out pallet wood, I guess.)

(Picture from Dadant's website; they sell "bee gear," including unassembled hives.)

 

[wrathsfarm]

Thanks for the video links. I never considered having a heated cabinet for my batteries, paint, glues, etc... Fantastic!

Even better for me, I have an old freezer that died out in the garage. I bought a new part to get it fixed, but Dear Wife wanted to buy a new frost free freezer. So I never fixed the old freezer - yet. Anyway, that old freezer would be perfect for use as a heated cabinet. Just add a lightbulb for heat and some kind of thermometer control on the electrical line. Done!

 

[gtaus]

Bee hives are usually made of wood. Here's a picture of what would be called a "deep box." Notice all the dado (?) joints in the corners. I think the wood is usually 3/4" thick. When full of frames of honey, this could weigh 90 pounds, so the joints have to be very strong. I think the wood itself is pine, but the quality has to be high. No splits, no large knots, very uniform thickness, and no warping. (Well, that leaves out pallet wood, I guess.)

(Picture from Dadant's website; they sell "bee gear," including unassembled hives.)
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As much as I like working with pallet wood, I don't pretend to think it's good for every project. I don't think I have ever gotten 3/4 wood planks on a pallet. Last week I picked up a pallet with 3/4 inch plywood on top. Well, it was in 2 pieces, but still, the plywood was in very good condition. I'm sure I'll find a good use for that used plywood.

One of my future pallet projects is to build some shallow boxes that can serve as drawers underneath my pallet wood modular workbenches. The idea would be that the box would slide in and out of the workbench, and the boxes could be stacked on top of each other when not on the workbench shelf. I don't think I will attempt to do any fancy dado joints, but for a shallow drawer, it would not need a lot of strength.

Oh yeah, I got a pneumatic stapler/brad nailer last year at Harbor Freight that I have not used yet. I bought some long staples just for the idea of putting together some pallet wood boxes/drawers.

I got it for FREE on a weekend special when I had other purchases over ~$29.00. That was a pretty sweet deal. I already have a Ryobi 18v battery powered 18-gauge brad nailer but I did not have a heavy stapler. I figure that stapler will be good for making boxes and crates.

I just have too many future pallet projects on my wish list. But sooner or later I think I will get to most of them. Seems like when a project finally works its way towards the top of my list, life happens and other projects need to be done first.

 

[gtaus]

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Thanks. I have a Thermocube like the one in your post. I'll have to check the on/off points on my model but it would probably be fine for a heated cabinet. Basically, I just want it to stay above freezing.

I did like the idea of wiring in a baseboard thermostat where you can dial in the exact temperature you want to maintain in the heated cabinet. The Thermocube would certainly be easier.

 

[chickengr]

Yes, very true!

I love the taste of honey. I'd love to go to a tasting bar to try different kinds. There's an olive oil and basalmic vinegar place not too far from me, and you can sample the different flavors. I could drink basalmic vinegar, I love the flavor so much.

Hubby tried mead. He was not a fan. It was ok, he said, but he didn't realize it was more like wine. So we won't be making mead when our bees start producing.

I was about 16 yo when I tried mead. it contained very little alcohol but tasted similar to balsamic vinegar. I didn't like it either.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Now that I got my attached garage somewhat heated, I have been working out there every afternoon for the past week. I turn on my little 60,000 BTU hot-dog propane heater for about 10-15 minutes and it gets up to about 55F. Warm enough, and comfortable enough, for me to work out there with a sweatshirt. Very nice.

Before I had my slab heat fixed in the garage, the temps would get down below freezing. I have lots of 18v Ryobi batteries that I could not leave out in the freezing garage. Li-Ion batteries do not like to be frozen. So, I took them all inside the house. However, my shelf in the house is not as big as my garage battery shelf. One of the first pallet projects I made this past week was to build one extra tier on my battery shelf inside the house. Not a big deal, but good use of some pallet wood for a utility shelf addon.

I mentioned that I have been breaking down pallets over the past week. I took apart 6 pallets and salvaged most of that wood. Last week, I took the old Ford Explore into town on my weekly run and picked up another 6 pallets from the back of an auto store. They actually had 3 stacks of 8 pallets each. I took the best 6 pallets I could find out of those piles and loaded them into the Explorer. I would have taken more, but I can only fit 6 pallets in the back of the Explorer. Those pallets are still sitting in the back of the Explorer.

Just wanted to mention that I built up a good stash of pallets in my backyard, and I am now to the point where I only bother to pick up the best pallets I can find. When I was first starting out, I picked up every pallet I could find and was glad for it. I'm still glad for free pallets, but now I only pick out the best ones to take home.

Turns out the best pallets are also the easiest to breakdown and salvage the most wood. It's the old broken and repaired pallets that have nails all over the place and that makes it hard to breakdown the pallets later.

I have started building a few pallet projects that have been on my list for a while now.

The first is the stackable compost bin design. I have built 2 tiers of the stackable bins so far. I ran into some pallet wood challenges that I am working out. Specifically, how pallet wood planks are not all the same thickness and how that affects a design that is going to be stackable. I worked out one issue, making each stackable tier the same size. Now I'm working on the legs which allow the stacking concept. I hope to have a more detailed description on my pallet wood modifications to the design with pictures maybe later this week.

Here is a Google picture of the stackable bin concept I am modifying to use my pallet wood...

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I had to use a hammer to persuade the feet from the top tier to fit into the bottom tier. They were off just ever so little. The hammer worked, but I am going to try some modifications so that the feet from the top tier slide into the bottom tier easier. I love thinking about modifications that are required to make a build out of free pallet wood.

The second project I am working on is building a new pallet wood raised bed v2.0.

Picture of last year's build...

View attachment 3741443

I got all the 2X4 framing put together for the new raised bed this afternoon, and I have all the planks cut for the sidewalls. I had to stop there without putting everything together because I don't want to assemble everything in the garage and then NOT be able to move it myself. It's just too heavy and bulky for me to handle by myself. Last year, I built the frames inside the garage and put everything together on sawhorses out where I will be setting the bed down.

Well, besides the raised bed being heavy and bulky, I live in northern Minnesota and our winter still can stretch out another 8 weeks, or more. If the weather gets bad, I still need to get my car into the garage. So, all my projects right now are being built with the idea that I could clean up everything and get the car back into the garage in about half an hour.

Finally, I have been using my new VEVOR bench vise a lot since I got it mounted to my pallet wood work bench. It's great to clamp down a 2X4 stretcher and pull out the nais. Today, I used the anvil portion of the bench vise to hammer straight some of those pallet nails. Worked pretty good.

View attachment 3741445

One thing I tried new today was to hold the head of the bent nail in a vise grips...

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Then I put the bent nail into the vise jaws and tighten it down. Straightens out the bent nails even better, I think. I was working with some small 1-1/2 inch nails, and I found I could hold on to the nail better with the vise grips than with my fingers and get more of the nail shank inside the bench vise jaws.

I don't know if I will ever use those old pallet nails, but I cannot get myself to throw them out even if I have to straighten them out first! I just prefer to use screws for almost everything I build these days.

Id almost forgotten the stackable compost bins you'd mentioned before! I'm excited to see how those come out for you.