Happy Earth Day (a week late...)

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Forward: I kind of set this up a little like a Blueprint, but since it has nothing whatsoever to do with Metalworking, I figured I'd just post it here in the non-metalworking thread.

Hey everyone,
Since we all tend to be about recycling now and again (there's lots of scrap steel out there after all) I figured I'd recycle something different last week for Earth Day. So, in the same vein as "any heavy chunk of steel can be an anvil" I present "Any pile of pallets can be...Something"

I took a walk during my morning break at work a couple weeks ago and noticed that some of the pallets in the pile behind the warehouse were pretty decent looking lumber. After a quick request to the grounds/building manager, I was more than encouraged to get rid of some of the excess pallets! So I loaded a nice stack on the truck after work.

(The bottom four pallets are the main material sources for this project. The one's on top are for storage purposes at the farm.)

I had my raw materials. What I needed now was some oaf with the correct assortment of power tools and hand tools who had a few free weeknights on his hands....

(Special thanks to my five year old who thought daddy looked SO funny trying to look tough...)

Now for the tricky part. Just for the record, tearing apart pallets is easy. Tearing them apart while managing to not mangle all the lumber in them is not so easy. But after a couple hours of surgical precision with a saw, hammer, and prybar, I had my materials.

(Not all of these materials ended up being used, but it's always nice to have more than you need so you can select the better pieces to actually use.)

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Here's some of the pieces after being cut to length.


And here's the main sub-assemblies.


Things are starting to take shape at this point

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

And last but not least, the Final Product, my brand new, post-consumer content potting bench!


All of the materials put into this workbench were either free (the pallets) or surplus from other past projects of mine (a couple handfuls of multi-purpose screws and some leftover Thompson's Waterseal). This oughta make a handy addition to my backyard gardening hobby.

Always remember, the common person might see a pile of junk, but the Frugal Blacksmith should see a resource pile for future projects!

-Aaron @ the SCF

[rstegman]

I heard about a guy who made furnature from pallet woods. Some of the woods would be expensive if purchased. Each country uses whatever junk wood that is in their area.
I regularly use the three by threes and four by fours for my wood turning and wood carving projects.

Roger
Earth First
We'll strip mine other planets later...

[Don A]

I've heard of pallet scroungers finding some from South America that had rosewood boards in them.

I have started collecting some pallets (pine & oak, mostly) to burn for charcoal.

Like everything else, the bag charcoal at Lowes has gone from $4.00 to $6.00.

Don