Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[fuzzi]

Got it. Thanks.



I can do that. Thanks. I'll be looking up some hole sizes for other birds as well.

I love how you guys are making suggestions to improve something that many would consider a simple bird house. Turns out, there is a lot more to building a good bird house than what I had previously thought. I appreciate the online learning. Thanks, again.



Right. I'm not going to put a perch on the house. Thanks.



I will be adding another chunk of pallet wood as a collar around the house opening. I have lots of scrap wood to use up.



That's a great idea, assuming it worked for you. I will be trying the wood collar from some scrap wood first. If that does not work for me, then I'll give your aluminum soda can idea a try. Thanks.

Speaking of aluminum cans, let me rant just a bit. For the past couple of weeks, I have been going out for a heart healthy 30-minute walk every other day (doctor's orders). Anyway, it saddens me to see aluminum cans littering the ditches along the road where I walk. Usually, aluminum beer cans. What's up with that? I am assuming they must be drinking and driving at the same time if they are throwing out beer cans from their window. It's not a major problem, but in a 30-minute walk I might come across 10 cans in the ditch.

I was stationed in Naples, Italy for 2 years way back in the 1990's, and people there would toss out full garbage bags out on the highway. That way, the government would eventually clean up the road and the person would not have to pay for garbage disposal at their house. The garbage was disgusting. The local government was practically broken and not very good at clean up. I am so thankful that we don't live in that environment anymore.

My roadside here where I live is nowhere near that bad. Just an occasional can or wrapper every once in a while. Still, I was thinking today that maybe I could rig up some kind of light weight wagon behind me one day and just pick up the bits of trash I find along my route. I know we do have sections of the highway that are cleaned by volunteers maybe once a year. I clean my roadway ditch myself on my property. It's never a big deal but occasionally someone will toss out an empty bag of fast-food wrappers and paper soda cups.

Anyways, out on a walk, I have picked up some easy to reach trash that was on the shoulder of the road and took it home for our trash can just to clean the road up a bit. But my coat pockets are not very big. Maybe I could rig up some kind of shoulder bag and use a handy reach grabber. That might work.

I would not mind picking up some trash along the way as long as I don't have to be bending over all the time or toting a heavy bag of trash. I am out for a heart healthy walk, not trying to give myself a heart attack lugging trash along my route.

Sorry for that detour on the subject totally not related to anything pallet wood related, but your good comment on using an aluminum can as a hole guard triggered my thoughts from my walk earlier today. Even if I only pick up a few cans here and there, at least it would make a small improvement and I guess I could feel better about doing it. OK, I'm done.

When I had a dog that could handle a mile walk I brought along a couple grocery bags. One was for trash, one for cans.

 

[fuzzi]

I gave up drinking soda pop a few years ago. So, we don't have many aluminum cans to sell at the recycle center. Like you said, it's not cost effective for me to drive out to the metal recycle center to sell the cans unless I happen to be going that way to/from town.

Way back in the 1990's, I was stationed in Santa Barbara, CA. They had recycle machines (about the size of a large pop vending machine) outside of the grocery store. IIRC, you could put aluminum cans in one machine, plastic in another, and glass in a third. The machine would read the bar code on the container then crush it, shred it, or break it into pieces as appropriate. Then it would give you a receipt for the items you returned. You took that receipt into the store and either used it to buy groceries or just get some cash back. That was a great system because you did not have to have a truckload of cans to make it worth your effort to drive out to a recycle center. Because we always had a small bag, or two, of cans and jars to return on a weekly grocery shopping run, we never had to store large garbage bags full of stuff at home. Unfortunately, we don't have anything like that where I live now.

I remember a machine like that, in upstate SC, around 1990. I think they called it a golden goat. You'd dump your aluminum cans in the hopper, it would weigh them, and them shoot them into a large metal cage. I can't recall if they were crushed, could be.

 

[gtaus]

I remember a [aluminum can recycling] machine like that, in upstate SC, around 1990. I think they called it a golden goat. You'd dump your aluminum cans in the hopper, it would weigh them, and them shoot them into a large metal cage. I can't recall if they were crushed, could be.

The machines we had in CA read the bar code on each can of soda. You got a flat rate for every can you returned. If the machine could not read the barcode, then you had the option to take it out or just let the machine crush it without receiving any credit. For small bags of cans, it worked very well. However, you had to put the cans in one at time, so it was not set up for dumping large garbage bags full of cans at once. Like I said, they made it easy just to return a small bag of cans, jars, or plastic jugs every week on our grocery shopping run.

 

[gtaus]

Zip-Tie Hinges For Repairs

I was digging through a couple of tools bags this morning looking for my dowel jig kit. One of the things I found in one tool bag was a plastic drill bit case that the hinge had broken...

As you can see in the following picture, I still have the full set of drill bits in that case. But if I left the storage case in the bag, it would not be long before those drill bits would be falling out of the storage case and getting lost in the tool bag...

I briefly considered junking the plastic case. It is not a very expensive set of drill bits, but still, it is nice to have all those bits in a storage case. Then I thought maybe I could make new hinges using some zip ties.

I got out my soldering iron, burned a few holes in both halves of the case, and put in a couple of zip ties to act like a hinge.

I played around a bit with how tight to close the zip tie loop, then cut them off when I had them right.

Now, when I close the case, it stays together, and the drill bits won't fall out all over in the tool bag...

Total cost for this repair - about 2 cents! Additionally, I suspect the zip tie hinges will prove to be better than the original plastic hinge on the case.

 

[gtaus]

I was looking around the internet for some DIY bird house dimensions in case I build some with my scrap pallet wood off-cuts. This AI info popped up on one of my inquiries and I thought I would post it here in case anyone else is thinking of making some pallet wood bird houses...

 

[avjudge]

The machines we had in CA read the bar code on each can of soda. You got a flat rate for every can you returned.

We had those in Massachusetts when I lived there. it worked the same way, dispensing a ticket you took to the cash register. The purpose was to return the bottle deposit that had been paid upon purchase of the beverage. The machines read the barcode to make sure it was a brand sold in the store (if I remember correctly; I think the store only had to take what it sold) and on which there was a deposit.

I loved the crunch of aluminum or broken glass deep in the machine after it had accepted one! Somehow I found it very satisfying.

 

[ChicksnMore]

My latest pallet project! I've been thinking about making an old-fashioned well to cover our wellhead for a long time and I finally gathered and broke down enough pallets and had good enough weather to build it. Took me two afternoons. It cost me nothing (except for the screws and glue)!

View attachment 3788652

I was working in my yard and walked past our septic access. Right now it's got a fire pit placed on top to hide it but I've never been satisfied with that. That well would be so adorable there! I'm wondering if something like that would be light enough for two people to shift easily for when we pump the septic tank. What do you guys think? It'd need to have roughly a 2' diameter. Any one have ideas for an attractive septic cover made from pallet wood?

 

[StinkyAcres]

I was working in my yard and walked past our septic access. Right now it's got a fire pit placed on top to hide it but I've never been satisfied with that. That well would be so adorable there! I'm wondering if something like that would be light enough for two people to shift easily for when we pump the septic tank. What do you guys think? It'd need to have roughly a 2' diameter. Any one have ideas for an attractive septic cover made from pallet wood?

I have three of those ugly septic accesses in my yard so I've been thinking about covering them for a while. I think the old-fashioned well would be quite heavy at that size. I can lift the one I built by myself, but it is heavy.

One thing I thought of was making a half whiskey barrel-type cover out of pallet wood with no bottom that I can slip over the septic cap. Then I could insert a shallow pot or feed pan and plant flowers in it.

For one of my septic covers I plan to make a fake concrete rock.

 

[Paz]

I built my own closet! It’s kinda ugly, but sturdy and useful it was also fun building. I don’t have electric tools so it took a while, but again, I had fun.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I have three of those ugly septic accesses in my yard so I've been thinking about covering them for a while. I think the old-fashioned well would be quite heavy at that size. I can lift the one I built by myself, but it is heavy.

One thing I thought of was making a half whiskey barrel-type cover out of pallet wood with no bottom that I can slip over the septic cap. Then I could insert a shallow pot or feed pan and plant flowers in it.

For one of my septic covers I plan to make a fake concrete rock.

I was worried something like that would be too heavy. Ive tried the whiskey barrel and that spots just too hot to grow anything in planters here. I wonder if I could build a pallet wood sundial? That might be light enough.