Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Same place as "cheap as chicken feed."

No doubt from the same person who never had to buy either dirt (topsoil) or chicken feed!

 

[chickengr]

I have just a few pallets left. unfortunately there is no place near I can find them for free. now I depend on a friend who will bring me "fence like" pallets from work. to be honest I prefer to work with them as they mostly don't need to be dismantled.

 

[gtaus]

I have just a few pallets left. unfortunately there is no place near I can find them for free. now I depend on a friend who will bring me "fence like" pallets from work. to be honest I prefer to work with them as they mostly don't need to be dismantled.

I have a nice supply of salvaged wood myself. In some ways, working with salvaged wood is easier than pallet wood. Most of my salvaged wood is standard sized lumber leftover from other projects or from demolitions. Pallet wood is not uniform sized.

That leads me to think of what other challenges one might have with using pallet wood.

As I have mentioned, designing projects for pallet wood has to take into account that not all pallet wood is of uniform size and thickness. Sometimes it is an easy modification to the build, but other times I have to think for awhile before I come up with a solution that works for me.

That's why I always try to describe the pallet wood modifications I have to make when I convert a standard lumber project into a pallet wood project.

For example, on my pallet wood raised bed v2.0, I redesigned the framing to be on the outside of the raised bed. Take a look at this build in progress...

This shows the bare bones framing of the raised bed with the pallet wood 2X4's. Instead of tacking on the pieces for the sidewalls on the outside of the frame, I figured out that it was better for me to put the planks on the inside of the frame.

That solves two problems that I have seen in many raised bed builds.

1) Having the planks on the inside of the 2X4 framing means the weight of the soil will be pushing the side boards out, into the 2X4 frame, which is very strong. I should never see any sidewall blowouts in this design which is a common problem with many raised bed builds that have the boards tacked on to the outside.

2) Since pallet wood planks vary in thickness, anywhere from 3/8 inch to over 3/4 inch, you would never get the appearance of uniformity if the pallet wood planks were attached to the outside of the framing. By nailing the planks to the inside of the framing, eveything looks flush/even from the outside and the boards with the different thickness are inside and covered with soil.

Here is a picture with the planks attached to the inside of the 2X4 frame...

I don't know how well you can see it in this picture, but the outside face of the sidewalls is smooth and even, the inside, of course, is not because the different thicknesses of the boards are on that side - covered by soil later.

3) BONUS: Although not a problem per se, there is another advantage to putting the planks behind that 2X4 framing. The raised bed is 16 inches tall. Most of the planks I use I cut down to 16 inches. However, all I really care about is having the top of the boards flush with the 2X4's. That means I can use up scraps of wood as short as 10 inches in the middle, and even the place where the notches are, I still only need a plank piece about 13 or 14 inches long. From the outside, you never will see that I used a shorter piece of wood because the 2X4 frame hides it.

Anyways, working with standard sized lumber has advantages, of course, but sometimes you can redesign a project for pallet wood and overcome those differences. Although I am getting pretty good at breaking down pallets to salvage as much wood as possible. I agree with you that using salvaged wood from other projects is sometimes much easier to work with. I think I spend as much time breaking down pallets as I do actually building a project. But I enjoy it, so it's not wasted time for me.

 

[Sally PB]

I especially love finding goodies that folks throw out!

The frame of my chicken run is metal tubing that a neighbor "just wanted out of there."

The fence posts around my garden are salvaged from signs that the company my husband works for made for a customer. The customer didn't need the signs and was going to toss the posts. Did hubby want them....? 10 foot, steel U-channel posts... hmmm... Uh, yeah. And we're going to get more in a couple months.

I just looked online; one site had those posts at about $52/each. Not including delivery.

We also found a super heavy duty chain and hook beside the road. Hubby needs to pull down a "leaner" tree when he's cutting wood? That chain won't break.

that using salvaged wood from other projects is sometimes much easier to work with

When we burned down the old farmhouse, we salvaged the red metal roofing and the wooden planking we used on the porch roof. That wood has been repurposed into walls and shelving in our basement pantry.

I would have liked to have salvaged more from that house. Raccoons had moved in, though, and it was FAR from sanitary in there. There were also a lot of places where the wood had rotted, so it wasn't safe in that regard.

 

[gtaus]

The frame of my chicken run is metal tubing that a neighbor "just wanted out of there."

The fence posts around my garden are salvaged from signs that the company my husband works for made for a customer. The customer didn't need the signs and was going to toss the posts. Did hubby want them....? 10 foot, steel U-channel posts... hmmm... Uh, yeah. And we're going to get more in a couple months.

I just looked online; one site had those posts at about $52/each. Not including delivery.

We also found a super heavy duty chain and hook beside the road. Hubby needs to pull down a "leaner" tree when he's cutting wood? That chain won't break.

Fantastic salvaging there! Really impressive. Just think of how much stuff gets tossed as junk every day that has real value to someone with a bit of imagination for repurposing something in a second life.

That's what I like about these pallet projects. We are taking something that would end up in the landfill and creating something of greater value.

Last week I was out for a 30-minute walk and found a ~2 foot piece of usable 1-1/2 inch PVC pipe alongside the road. It probably blew out the back end of a pickup truck heading into the landfill. I can use it as a drainpipe in a sub-irrigated planter. I was all excited about that find - even though new it was only worth maybe $2.00. Not any treasure like you found. But, still, I get a kick out of finding something that I see value in that someone else just needed to get rid of.

I used to have a big, thick, heavy 100 foot rope that dad and I used to pull and fell trees. It walked off on me about 10 years ago. It is possible that it was stored away safely somewhere in a garage or shed, but I have been looking for that rope for years. I doubt I will ever see it again. It would cost a lot of money to replace it, and I don't cut many trees anymore, so I do without. But I sure do know the value of a good rope or chain for tree felling. Congrats on that find.

 

[gtaus]

I had to run into town today. I stopped by an industrial site that I got a lot of pallets from last year. I asked them if they were giving them away this year and they told me to take whatever I wanted. Fantastic! I drove back to where the pallets were staged. Unfortunately, they were all too long to fit into my old Ford Explorer. So, I will have to empty out my utility trailer and go back there some other time to load them up.

As I was looking through the pile of pallets, I noticed that a number of those long pallets had been put together with torx head screws instead of pallet nails. I love those type of pallets. They are so easy to take apart and you can salvage just about every one of those torx head screws for other projects.

After making a few stops around town, I went over to the Auto Parts store that has been a great source of pallets for me. Today was another good day. I loaded up 6 pallets of average quality and got a nice bonus piece of solid 5/8-inch plywood about 3-1/2 feet square. That plywood was in very good shape.

One of the things on my pallet project list to make is workshop drawers. I think the plywood I have been saving would be good for that project. My idea is a simple box or crate drawer system. Something that I can completely take out of the cabinet and bring to my worksite. I have absolutely no experience making drawers, boxes, or crates. Whatever I make will have to be simple. I got an 18 gauge brad nailer/stapler from Harbor Freight last year and plan on using the staples to make those drawers/crates. I think they will hold better than brad nails.

Dear Wife helped me move the two new raised beds I just built in the garage this past week and we stacked them outside. When I get the riding mowers running, I'll take the raised beds to the backyard garden and set them up. No hurry yet. We are expected to get snow this weekend. So, winter is not over for us.

Well, I am really happy that I have already built all the new raised beds I wanted to build for this year. Still have about 2 months before I have to set them up for planting. I live in zone 3B and we don't typically plant stuff outdoors until the end of May. Memorial Weekend is usually the official start of our outdoor gardening season. I am way ahead of the curve this year.

 

[gtaus]

New 2X4 Foot "Half-Sized" Pallet Wood Raised Bed

I finished building a new 2X4 foot pallet wood "half-sized" raised bed this afternoon. The idea was that I would put it/them between my regular 4X4 foot raised beds to get more gardening beds in the same amount of space.

It's still winter here, with temps this morning at 8F, but I put the half-sized raised bed outside between my other beds to get a quick idea of what it would look like. Also, I wanted to see how much walking room I would have between the beds. Here is a picture of the setup, but keep in mind that the bed will have to be leveled off in the spring when the ground thaws out. It looks all catty wampus right now, but it gives me an idea of what it could be.

After I got the half-sized raised bed centered between the larger beds, I still had 19-1/2 inches of walkway on both sides. That's wide enough for me to mow with my small 16-inch push mower. Or, maybe I'll just use a grass trimmer. Seems like more than enough room to walk between the beds. Also, there is still about 6 feet between the next row of raised beds, so I can drive my riding mowers in there with a wagon full of topsoil or compost.

In case anyone is wondering if it takes half the time to build a half-sized raised bed, the answer is unfortunately, no. It takes just as long to build the 2X4 foot raised bed as it does for me to build a 4X4 foot raised bed. But that's OK. For this project I was trying to make better use of my gardening area, not necessarily saving labor on the raised bed project.

 

[Molpet]

I still had 19-1/2 inches of walkway on both sides.

Depends on how wide your hips are shoulders are. Also bending over to weed or harvest without hitting the plants in the other box

 

[gtaus]

Depends on how wide your hips are shoulders are. Also bending over to weed or harvest without hitting the plants in the other box

Good points. Once the plants grow out, there might be less room between the beds. Also, I might not always be the only one working the garden beds.

Is there any "minimum" working distance between garden beds that is recommended?

One other option that I have considered is just butting the half-sized bed up alongside and touching the full-sized bed. That would still leave 3+ feet between the garden beds plus it would still increase the garden beds in the same space. Some beds would now just be 4X6 feet if I moved the half-sized beds right alongside the existing beds.

 

[Sally PB]

When I plant out my tomato plants, there seems to be SO. MUCH. EMPTY. SPACE. By the end of the season, I can barely walk between the plants or the rows.

The same with squash plants.