Southern Texas

Well we made it to McAllen Texas, 98% OT my folks stuff made it with no problem.  We had one small issue, we blew a tire, thank god for duel wheels.  It is a large country, we drove three days and never left this great country.  2000 miles in three days is a long way to go, but a beautiful ride.  We are going to Mexico today, sight see and rest before hauling tail back.

Well that's all for now, I will update when we get back.

Another project

So what's been happening since I last wrote?  Well a friend of mine asked me to make her a wine rack, so I have been working hard at getting to the point I feel comfortable putting the project aside while I go to Texas. Of course being the good business person I did not settle on a price, no contracts, nothing...but it is for a friend, I am sure it will all work out.

My folks left NY several days ago, and now are back in their new home state of Texas.   I will be leaving Monday to take their stuff to them in a Chevy Silverado, with a 12 foot trailer on the back, should be great on the gas mileage.

Here are some pics of the wine rack in progress:

The 'X' is a visual for me, have to figure out how to make it all fit together and look good at the same time.  So that's what I have been up to.  I will update folks on my trip across country, looking forward to a nice 4000 mile round trip.

Be good to one another.

The Blog

I was reviewing the statistics today on who is reading my post.  I wanted to see if anyone was viewing the post and where they were from.  Of course the US had the most page views, but to my suprise Russia was in second place.  When I was young, I had the opportunity to go to Russia and let me tell you, the people are great and the country is beautiful.  I know much has changed since I was there, but I would love to go back.  Germany was in third place, and having been stationed in Zweibrucken for three years all I can say is WOW, the beer was great the people were welcoming and friendly and it made for a great experience.

I am going to ask everyone a favor, could you drop me a note telling me a little bit about yourself, where you live your intrest and anything else you would like to share.  This will allow me to add more content.

Thanks and have a great day.

Moving on

Well I completed my first spice rack today of course using 100% reclaimed materials.  Just stained it, and will put on the sealant tomorrow.  One thing that I notice, the longer you make an object the less objective you become.  I guess it came out ok, but I am hoping someone would like it enough to buy it and take it to their home to give it new life.

 I talked to a friend today, and she asked if I could make a wine rack that would hold about 60 bottles of wine, have a top and she wants a place to hang glasses.  Of course I said sure, not 100% sure what I am going to do, but I do have some ideas.  I also heard from another friend who would like me to make a table. Once I hear back from him as to what he wants that will give me something else to work on.  If I get these things stacked up, by no time it will be Christmas.

Dropped the trailer off for the folks, getting ready to move them to Texas in about 2 weeks.  Should be a fun time.  Just hope that the price of gas drops, because I am going to use a couple of gallons along the way.

Well that's all for now, hope everyone had a good and safe weekend.  Talk to you soon.

The end of Summer a.k.a the end of the garden constuction

As summer draws to a close, I can say that the raised garden beds are 98% finished.  We need to construct 2 more beds to make the end, however that is only a couple of hours worth of work.  The beds have been lined, and we actually got dirt in them thanks to one of the best landscapers in the world Steve from S&D Landscaping.  He is GREAT.  Not only does he do our landscaping, but he is really a nice guy and I have never met anyone that works as hard as he does, and is the perfectionist that he is.  He dropped probably close to 4 yards (maybe more) of screened top soil in the yard for us.  Talk about a huge savings, not only the cost of the materials (which he did not charge us for) but the delivery.

So what do they look like filled?

 Now when next spring comes, all that needs to be done is to mix in some compost (which we are making), peat moss (that we will have to buy) and veggies...it is a very inexpensive way to add floor space to your garden, and really they don't look bad.  My brother asked a question about what happens when the pallets 'rot' away.  They will do that, and I could paint them which would make them last longer, however the way each of the sections are constructed, all I will have to do is pop the bad pallet out, and put in a new one.  Hey worse case scenario is that I dump all the dirt into the garden area, tear the beds out and have one hell of a bon fire.  I have figured out the cost of this project and divided it into linear feet, it comes out to about $0.35 per foot.  That is with screws, plates, a couple of 2x4's wire, fabric.   I think we can get enough veggies to warrant the cost.  Hell I have $20.00 in a bean pole, and the damn rabbits ate all of the beans, so I lost on that this year.

For those who know me, they know that I hate winter...let me re-phase that, I HATE WINTER, and of course living in Upstate NY winter starts like 10/1 and goes to the end of May.  Now of course I am going back to college in the Spring semester, but I have decided that I am going to continue to make rustic pallet furniture.  I actually have an order for a wine rack. I will make up a bunch of stuff (thank God for a Barn) store it during the winter months then when the art festivals start up I will buy a booth and see what happens. If I can make a few bucks on the side great, if not at least I can keep busy during the damn WINTER.  It is so sad to see that the stores now have their Christmas decorations going up...if you don't believe me go to any Hallmark Store (r) and look at their decorations...really?  This stuff was up before Labor Day.

I will leave you with this though, life is to short to worry about those things that you can not change, and so I try to concentrate on things that I can change.  People ask me all the time about things and my common answer is that if you want to start a business, follow a dream, try something different go for it because some day you won't be able to  and then there is nothing but regrets.  Am I going to be able to sell pallet furniture and  wine racks etc...I don't know, but if I don't try the answer is no.

Here is hoping that today is a good day, and tomorrow is even better..take care of one another because that's all we have.

Reclaimed furniture

So what is reclaimed furniture?  It is an idea that I can not take credit for, however I am giving it a shot.  Having built raised garden beds out of pallets all summer long, I began looking at some of the pallets and wondered if I could reuse them in such a way as to take an ugly item that is destined for the burn pile, or landfill or some other fate where it would never be appreciated and put it to a practical purpose.  So I grabbed some pallets that I could work with and started making furniture out of them.  First you have to find a pallet that will work for your needs.  As you can see they are rough, full of splinters and dirty...that is ok because we are going to the next step.

Sanding, and lots of it.  Here I am using a third sheet sander, I find that it works well with 60 grit sand paper and lots of it.  I will move to 120. then 220 grit paper before I am done.  I also have a palm sander which works really well.

The next step is to purpose the piece.  Is it going to be a piece for a workshop, or garden?  This piece I decided to due as a piece that could be put in a living room, or somewhere else inside.  So now I cut 4x4's for the legs, this is the only lumber that I bought for the project.

Now that I have measured three times, and cut once I attached the legs using heavy duty screws.  When doing this step I square the legs to the front of the table top, and not the side piece.  The reason for this is that the side pieces of pallets support a lot of weight, and they bow out, or are not perfectly lined up.  But the table top tends to be more square, and it gives the piece a better look.  Now that the legs are supported, I need to add support and help square the piece up.  I do not know if in true wood working this is kosher, however it works really well and looks good.  So I go to another pallet that I picked up, take it apart and use some really nice 1x1 lumber.  It is a hardwood, but I am not sure exactly what type.  I take the inside measurements, and add a bracket, this is another item that I purchased.

After doing that on both sides, and securing it the table is ready for stain.  Now a couple of notes, 1. Sand your 4x4's before attaching them because it is so much easier.  I used un-milled lumber, it is rustic and looks like it belongs with the pallets.  2. I do not endorse products, however, Stanley "L" brackets are the worst.  First they are made in China, and secondly they are not uniformly stamped out, and sometimes the screws they provide go right through the hole.  I had the same problem with the Garden Beds that I made so it was not just 'fluke' it's a real quality control issue.

 Now you are ready for stain.  My goal here is to sell this piece and I know that the darker stains are in, so that is what I decided to do.  After staining I added several coats of Polyurethane to seal it, and really make it shine.  When adding the polyurethane make sure you wait at least 4 hours ( I waited overnight ) and you must lightly sand between coats.

And there is the finished table.  The actual time was probably about an hour of sanding and taking the pallet apart, then about an hour to put it together, with about 24 hours for staining and finishing.

The neat thing is that the cost of the table breaks down to $8.00 for the 4x4, $2.95 for the brackets (which will be less after I use up my current stock) about $2.00 in sandpaper, and probably $5.00 in stain and finish.  For less than $20.00 I have recycled and reused something that would have ended up in the landfill or someplace else we would not appreciate it.  

More to come on different projects.