Thursday, August 18, 2011

pallet bench





Manthing was stumbling around the internet last week and ran across this upcycled pallet bench. We both thought it was a cute idea and that we could replicate it even though it did not have any destructions to go along with the photos. Since he is having a slack work week and he needed a project, I suggested he work on it today while I worked on a school paper. It turned out to be another one of those "it's as simple as that" type projects that although it looks quite simple, it aint.

He started with two pallets that were not identical in size which caused the first little stumbling block. This meant the pallets could not just interlock and be portable. This meant that he had to come up with a plan b which was fine as we don't need it to be stored away.

With one pallet he removed the pieces and parts to make it look like the picture below.
On the second pallet he removed a slat so that the first pallet could slide through.
Next he slid the first pallet through the second to form the bench
Because our bench is not going to be stored away and will be sitting out in the elements he added pressure treated 4x4 blocks under the back legs. He then added a 1x4 to hide the 4x4's and to hold things in place.Next, he cut the front legs so that it would sit level and added a piece of 1x6 to keep the front legs off the ground. Then he screwed the two pallets together where they connected and added in a couple small blocks of wood for extra bracing. To fill the gaps in the pallets he used slats from the pallet that he removed most of them from. To finish it up he sanded it lightly to get any splinters off to protect our butts and where our legs will hang over.
All in all, it is quite comfortable and is plenty big for two people to sit comfortably. Cost was free but for the few screws. The whole process took about 4 hours including a bit of pondering time to figure out how it was going to be done.

4 comments:

  1. This is Brilliant!....I wonder if hubby would go for one in the garden...hmmmm
    Thanks for showing us this great design.

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  2. neat idea thanks for sharing the "plans" Sheena Marie

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  3. That's cool! Is there anywhere around to get free of cheap pallets?

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  4. oooh these days they are not as easy to come by as they used to be.. places that get pallet deliveries of products may have them if they dont recycle... if i cant find stuff like this i throw an ad up on freecycle or craigs list n can usually get them that way

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