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00:05 Speaker 1: G'day knuckleheads, Uncle Knackers here, and today, I'm going to show
you how to build the world's easiest sandpit, or sandbox, out of my favourite thing of all
time, beer. Well perhaps not beer, but a sandpit full of beer. That's a good idea, I like it.
So what I've decided to do is to build the sandpit or sandbox out of my second most favourite
thing in the world, a trusty old wooden pallet. Now, the great thing is, is that they're easy
to assemble and they're free. You've gotta love that. Now, a lot of people don't do this,
but the first thing I'm going to do is build a base out of old pallets for the sandpit
to sit on. And the reason for that is that I want to create some drainage, I don't want
the sandpit becoming waterlogged. We get a fair bit of rain here, and the ground moisture
is quite high, so hopefully, by doing this, it'll prevent the sandpit from becoming a
mud pit. So here's the pallet base for the sandpit. Now, obviously you can make it any
size you want. I wanted mine to be 1-1/2 pallets long, so I've cut one pallet in half and I'm
going to attach it to this pallet here. Now all we need to do now is to do some excavating,
just to get it nice and level, and we're ready for the next stage.
[pause]
01:56 S1: The last one. That wasn't very hard. Now, with the base in place and being nice
and level, it's time to cut down some pallets and attach the sides. Now, as a quick side-note,
I think I'm getting a bit too old for this caper; a bit of shovelling and I finish up
with a nasty blister. Absolutely hopeless, just too old and too soft. Give up. Now, the
pallets for your sandpit, the ones that you wanna try and find are ones that have the
stamp "HT" on the side, that stands for heat-treated. They haven't been chemically treated, so these
are the ones that you want. So now it's time to cut the sides for the sandpit. I'm making
mine 400 millimetres high, which is about 15-3/4 inches. Now with the pallet in the
sandpit, we'll have an outside skin, which is what you'll see, and an inside skin. Now,
the inside skin has to be solid to keep the sand in, but the outside skin can be any configuration
of boards you want, which I reckon can make it look fantastic.
[pause]
03:11 S1: There you go, that wasn't too hard. Now it's just time to fill in the blanks.
[pause]
03:27 S1: So there we have it. There's the outside skin and you can see that I've put
a thinner board in there just for some contrast, I like it. Now the back, all we need to do
is fill that in totally with boards, and that will stop the sand from coming out. Now, just
before I install these sides, I want to give the bottoms a lick of paint just for a bit
of added protection.
[pause]
03:57 S1: With those bottom boards painted, it's now time to attach the sides to the pallet
base. And it's really important to get this first panel nice and level because I'm going
to put a lid on this sandpit, and if the sides aren't level then the lid isn't going to quite
sit right.
[background noise]
05:17 S1: With the walls in place, it's now time just to tidy things up a little bit,
fill these gaps in with any leftover pallets and also put a cap on the top here. And I'm
just using some hardwood fence panellings because my shed is chock-a-block, and this
is the perfect place to get rid of a few.
[background noise]
06:08 S1: So there you go, with the capping all done, it's now time to fill in those gaps.
[background noise]
06:29 S1: Alright, the floor is all done and you may have noticed that I've used any old
bits and pieces that I had lying around to do it. We're gonna have some garden netting
going across the bottom and up the sides of this and that will stop the sand from falling
through. Okay, that's all done, now it's time for the lid. A slight correction, I actually
went ahead and made the lid for the sand pit, but after making it, I thought that it might
be a bit too heavy and I don't want somebody to copy it, have it come down and hurt someone.
So instead I'm going to dismantle this and make a gaming wall on the back. So this is
what I mean by a gaming wall. I've made that frame from the old lid. I'm going to put some
cement sheet on that back half over there and paint it with some blackboard paint. And
on this half here, I'm not really sure yet it's kinda evolving as I go. I'm thinking
maybe something to do with water, interesting.
[background noise]
07:55 S1: Now all you need to do to attach the gaming wall to the sand pit is to screw
it down to the capping. And to finish the process off you'll need to attach some timber
to the back of this frame work and screw it all the way in right down to the bottom of
the sandpit. You need one here, one up the other end, and one back there in the middle,
and that will really strengthen this frame.
08:21 S1: Now for the blackboard all I'm using is this four mill cement sheet. And I'm going
to cut that using the cement sheet cutters. Now if your not going to use them you can
also use a grinder with a masonry disk. If you do use a grinder make sure you wear a
dust mask.
[background noise]
08:56 S1: Too easy. How good does the gaming wall look now? Actually, I've changed the
name from gaming wall 'cause that sounds like a casino and should be covered in poker machines.
It's now an activity wall. Now what I've done is I've got some more pallet slats and painted
them nice bright colours. I'm going to nail those off in a vertical position. I didn't
want to put them on horizontally because that will create a climbing hazard for the kids,
and I don't want that. And you'll also notice that I've put in some extra support for the
blackboard to make that a bit stronger. So what do you reckon, I'm absolutely rapt, it's
looking really good.
[background noise]
09:44 S1: Now before I secure these boards with screws I'm going to pre-drill first because
I don't want these boards to split. With the slats all done it's now time to install the
blackboard. Now that looks pretty good, and to keep it in place I'm going to put some
trim around the outside, I'm just using some old hard wood fence palings.
[background noise]
10:25 S1: How good does that look? Well, we are getting close to finishing this all we
need to do now is put a coat of paint on the front there, put a cap on the top, some weed
mat and some sand, job's done.
[background noise]
10:47 S1: So there you go, the weed mat's down, ready for sand now if you're installing
weed matting, grab yourself one of these staple guns, they're an absolute ripper, makes that
a very easy job.
10:59 S1: So the idea for the water feature that I came up with was to get some clear
hose and attach it to these slats using pipe clips which I've painted yellow. I've got
a clear funnel up the top here, and the idea is to get some coloured water by mixing it
with food dye, pour in the top and watch it gurgle and bubble all the way down until it
comes out the end. I think the kids are gonna love it. Whoop, almost forgot! Don't forget
to put a shelf in with a lip for your chalk. Beautiful. Alrighty I think it time to fill
this thing with sand...
11:38 S1: With the sand in place, the job looks fantastic. Now, I've just done a couple
of quick extra things to finish the project off, and the first thing was to get some dale
and I've painted it purple, and I've attached some string to the top using some staples,
and I've hung a funnel beneath that, I then drilled a hole in the top of one of those
slats. You insert the dale, the funnel hangs down, you fill it full of sand, and that loads
your dump trucks. Now, that is pretty cool. And the second thing I did was drill a hole
in the top of this capping, so that I can insert an umbrella for those hot, sunny days.
Perfect.
12:22 S1: So what do you reckon? Not bad for old pallets. Now, a quick run down. We finish
up, we've got some capping to sit on, we've got capping to cover any ugly joints; we've
got a water feature, a blackboard, a loading dock, and an umbrella. What else more could
you possibly need?
12:40 S1: And also, when putting those slats on, don't have them sitting on top of a capping.
Raise them up a little bit because if you don't they'll suck up the water and rot out;
and if boards do rot out on your pallet sandpit, you can simply unscrew them and screw another
piece on. And when the kids outgrow the sand pit, get rid of the sand, fill it full of
veggie mix and grow some veggies. Win, win. Great tip knackers!
13:07 S1: And if this is your first time to my channel, please subscribe. The button is
just down there. And don't forget to give it the old thumbs-up. It'd be greatly appreciated.
And don't go just yet, because they'll be a few photos going backwards and forwards,
of the final product in a few seconds' time.
13:22 S1: Well, I've had an absolute ball doing this job. And it's kind of evolved from
the world's easiest sand pit to a slightly different beast, but I suppose that's what
DIY is all about.
13:34 S1: Anyway, after all that, I think I need a cup of tea. So, 'til then, I'm outta
here. Cheers.
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