My New Bench

      We had some friends over on the holiday weekend to get ready for our Tang Soo Do test and decided to have a nice BBQ while they were here.  The night before the practice we realized that we lacked seating for our friends.  I asked Photo Dude if it was possible to use some of the fantastic salvaged wood we had in the garage.  Now please remember that Photo Dude is an electrician NOT a carpenter by any means :)  He is an amazing husband though that will pretty much always take my crazy ideas and make them work.  So he started playing around and cutting up the pallets for me.  He even got to use his new table saw that he got for only $40 at a yard sale. 
      Photo Dude used scraps of wood to make sure that the planks were evenly spaced.  He did tell me that if he were to do this project again he would probably build the X supports and then add them to the top instead of trying to get them into the proper place last.



I love the way the bench looks, it isn't anything too finished and if it gets knocked around it won't be ruined looking.  We (okay Photo Dude not me) are also going to try and figure out how to build a table with a flip top so that it can be stored against a wall in the shed.

Love It!!!

Salvaged Pallets

We finally treated ourselves and got a brand new mattress. It is the first new mattress that Photo Dude and I have ever had together. Going to sleep each night is such a wonderful thing now :) When Photo Dude went to get the new mattress he noticed the huge stack of pallets that the mattresses come on and asked if he could have some. Four was all the poor little Ranger could fit but that was a good start for us. With a little team work we got all four pallets disassembled in just about an hour and a half. It might have gone quicker but we did have to get the kids set up with sidewalk chalk and other things to keep them busy and in sight. This salvaged wood is hopefully going to become our future chicken coop and will help us keep the cost down for building supplies.
After the first pallet or so Photo Dude really got the whole process down to a science. He is going to explain his technique just in case you haven't done this before. We really only damaged a few boards and those can still be used for the smaller pieces we'll probably need for something anyway.
So after the trial and error period I got this down pretty good.
If you are planning on doing this I hope to save you some time getting it down. You want to start by removing the bottom slats.
This is the side with the fewest boards. Prop the pallet up on some other wood so there is nothing touching the wood to be removed. Using a small sledge hammer, I was using a 3 lb dead-blow, strike the slats next to the main crossbars starting on the outside of the pallet. Next step just flip it over and do the same thing with the top. once all the slats are removed it is time to pass them on to my lovely wife to pound the nails out. I did help once I got them apart. It is best if you have them to do this on some saw horses if you have them. It just saves some time and is a little easier on the back. I know this sounds like common sense but I did not get it figured out until half way through for some odd reason. I would recommend finding a mattress store and check with them for pallets. they are sturdy and have long pieces. Last not I would strongly suggest safety glasses for whoever is tearing the pallets apart.

All together we salvaged 12 2X4 that are six feet six inches and 36 1X4 that are six feet one inches along with a few smaller pieces. 

EDIT* We actually got 

(4) 62" 2X4

(12) 78" 2X4

(11) 82" 1X4

(23) 86" 1X4

We estimate that it would have cost us around $100 to
purchase that much wood new.