Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

Staining Pallet Wood

Talking about painting pallet wood got me remembering about how one member, @McChooky, used rusty nails and vinegar to make a stain for their pallet projects...

Screenshot of photos...

If you like that look, as I do, here is how you make that stain...

An old jar filled with rusty nails filled with apple cider vinegar.The longer it sits the better it will look .Strain it before using it to get dirt and debri out.You can use vinegar by itself which is darker or add rusty nails to give it an orange red tint.

If you disassemble pallets like I do, you probably have a bucket of old rusty nails sitting around in the garage or shed. This is an excellent use of those old, bent, no good for anything else rusted pallet wood nails.

 

[chickengr]

That will work, of course. Have you consider using the board-on-board method of filling those spaces? I made a roof top for a reclaimed lumber storage rack using pallets and then added additional pallet planks to fill the gaps....

View attachment 4034483

That would be perfect as a sidewall mounted vertically. As a roof top, I put a slight slant on it so the water would drain off the back end of the roof. Is that design 100% waterproof? Probably not, but it's good enough for my storage rack.

I would think that using those completed board-on-board pallets would be great for building a goat shed, for example. Anyways, I can find lots of pallets to use extra planks much easier than free plywood or tin.

Some of the advantages on the board-on-board method of filling those gaps is that it takes almost no time for me. I just use my nail gun to fasten down the additional planks to fill the gaps. But even if you had to manually nail in each board, or use screws, it would not be hard or take very long. Also, I like the natural looks of the completed panel using all pallet wood planks. If you wanted, a person could paint those pallet panels filling in tiny cracks in the wood while at the same time adding color to your project.

my problem is to dismantle pallets. I am not strong, don't have many tools and almost always brake wood. luckily a friend's son brings me some plywood pieces from his work that are almost pallet size.

 

[chickengr]

Staining Pallet Wood

Talking about painting pallet wood got me remembering about how one member, @McChooky, used rusty nails and vinegar to make a stain for their pallet projects...

Screenshot of photos...

View attachment 4034486

If you like that look, as I do, here is how you make that stain...



If you disassemble pallets like I do, you probably have a bucket of old rusty nails sitting around in the garage or shed. This is an excellent use of those old, bent, no good for anything else rusted pallet wood nails.

I have rusted nails as well as burnt engine oil. just have no time.

both vinegar and oil are good against mites. btw, rusty nails in water are good for chickens. at my grandparent's time people always put a handful of rusty nails in water dishes (usually old saucepens). I have no idea what for, just know it was for "good health". people use iron sulfate in gardening against worms. iron is used against some bacteria as well. if you google it you will find more information. I already use an old rusty dish for water in a muddy coop and all chickens are healthy. when I used plastic waterers, washed them every day, once a week I bleached them I had sick chickens.

 

[gtaus]

my problem is to dismantle pallets. I am not strong, don't have many tools and almost always brake wood. luckily a friend's son brings me some plywood pieces from his work that are almost pallet size.

Understand. We all use what we have and can do. I have had to buy new tools as I get older. Fortunately for me, I am still healthy enough to enjoy my hobbies and can afford those tools I might need.

 

[McChooky]

@gtaus​

Thanks for sharing the tip on vinegar and rusty nails stain! This is the cheapest stain you can make to get rid of mites and add color

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus​

Thanks for sharing the tip on vinegar and rusty nails stain! This is the cheapest stain you can make to get rid of mites and add color

I don't have a problem with mites, but I really did like the color of your rusty nail stain. I have kept that stain idea in the back of my mind. I will have a project someday that I will need a nice stain. It is just a great idea that I had to reshare again. Thank you.

 

[gtaus]

I got my new budget Performax 8-1/4 inch table saw from Menards last week and picked up an extra Hercules table saw blade at Harbor Freight yesterday for 40% off.

I don't have everything unboxed yet, but I did pull the manual for the table saw and have been reading it inside the house. It's still too cold to be working in the garage without additional heat. Priority is still on putting the cars in the garage because our nights have been dropping down to almost -20F.

Dear Wife said she is looking forward to me working outside and building some more pallet wood raised garden beds this spring.

Not quite sure if she meant she was looking forward to me building new raised beds or just having me not in the house! I chose to think it was the former.

My plan was to build an adjustable stand into one of my 2X4 foot mobile pallet wood workbenches for the new table saw. But the foot size of the table saw appears to be too big for my original ideas of building it into the 2X4 foot workbench. I might have to go with a stand alone design for the table saw. It's really not an option for me to build a bigger stand for the table saw due to the space limitations in my garage where I need to park my cars in the winter. So, I'm back to square one on my ideas.

I was in Home Depot the other day and had a chance to check out their table saws again. One of the things I liked about the Menards Performax table saw ($125.00 on sale) is that it has a rack and pinion rip fence, which is much more accurate than the rip fence I have on my older Craftsman table saw. When I was at Home Depot, you had to spend over $300 to get a table saw with a rack and pinion rip fence.

I don't know how Menards is able to offer that feature on their Performax table saw for half the price of similar equipped table saws! Performax is not a brand name that first comes to my mind as quality tools, but that Performax table saw has many good reviews online. It's basically a copy of the Skil table saw that sells for $300. Probably made in the same Chinese factory. At any rate, I'm looking forward to using it and finding out if it's a keeper, or not.

And since I'm talking about budget, the Hercules table saw blade normally sells for $20.00 at Harbor Freight. They had an Inside Track Club (ITC) member special appreciation day sale for 40% off on saw blades yesterday. So, I picked it up for only $12.00. The Hercules is Harbor Freight's top band line of blades. I watched a YouTube review of budget saw blades a few days ago and a professional cabinet maker said he has switched over to using HF Bauer saw blades. He said it just made more sense for his shop to buy new HF Bauer blades than paying $20.00 each time to get his expensive table saw blades resharpened.

For those who don't know, HF sells the Warrior (Good), Bauer (Better), and Hercules (Best) line of saw blades. I ended up buying the Hercules, their best saw blade, because it was the only brand that had one in the 8-1/4 inch size that I needed. I probably would have been happy with the Warrior blades for my pallet projects if they came in the right size for me.

Well, I'm getting my shop ready for warmer weather and anxious to try out my new tools. Later.

 

[gtaus]

Home Depot Diablo Spade Bit Set Clearance

I was in town today and found the Diablo Speed Demon Spade Bit 16-piece set with pouch marked down to $10.00 at my Home Depot! I had a smaller set of these Diablo spade bits and paid more for it a year ago. If you need some good spade bits, these are really good, IMHO....

For $10.00, I bought another set because it has more, both larger and smaller, bits than my other set. It was worth it for me. I also like the "Speed-tip" on these bits. They really help to center the bit and bore into the wood. They really are Speed Demon fast compared to my other spade bits. Check them out if you are in the market for a good spade bit set.

Note: I originally posted this in the Frugal Tips thread, but I meant to put it here too because I will be using those spade bits in my future pallet projects. Also, I wanted to add that if you bought all those spade bits individually, they claim it would cost you over $100.00. So, the 16-piece value kit was initially sold for $27.00 around the holidays, but now they are clearing them out at even lower prices.

Bonus pictures: I really like the included roll up/display heavy-duty cloth case that comes with these spade bits. You can mount them on a wall using the 2 metal rings on the case...

Or you can roll it up and toss it into your work bag...

That heavy-duty cloth roll-up case is so much better than having your individual bits dumped into your work bag, or even the plastic cases I have for my other sets because the plastic cases always seem to break and/or crack after a while. I think this cloth case will last much longer.

 

[Knobby]

One of my buddies just dropped these off the other day. Will probably wind up using them to build a shed for my solar panel setup.

 

[gtaus]

One of my buddies just dropped these off the other day. Will probably wind up using them to build a shed for my solar panel setup.

That's a good buddy! Looks like some really good material there to work with. I rarely see a pallet with complete wood on top. And I love getting those few pallets with plywood tops. I can always find a good use for some plywood.

Please share some pictures of your solar panel shed when you start your build. Everyone loves to hear and see a project come together.