Hello I am Craig Phillips and in this video I am going to show you how to make your own
bench out of recycled pallet wood.
The tools you are going to require, a cordless drill with drill bits, a set square, clamps,
screws, hole cutter, tape measure, chop saw, and if you don't have a chop saw a hand saw
is fine.
Now the standard size of one of the pallet slots is usually about 1200mm which is what
I am going to use for the seat of the bench.
All I need to do now is cut two legs to size.
Now I am choosing them to be about 400mm again you can pick your own size that suits you.
Quick mark on it.
I am going to do my cuts with the chop saw, it is a lot quicker and easier when you have
got to do a lot of cuts.
Of course if you haven't got a chop saw you can always use your hand saw.
Now just place those legs across here and here and then place the bench section on the
top and we will drill a couple of pilot holes in there, glue them and screw them together
and then stand it upright and double check the size.
Now it is very important to make sure your corner is nice and square when you are fixing
these together.
Once you have got one side glued and screwed in nice and firm do the same on the opposite
side.
Now the opposite side is fixed together you can stand that up, double check that you are
happy with the height of the legs and of course the length of the bench.
Then you can start cutting yourself a kit of parts.
All you need to do now is cut about at least eight of these for the minimum width of the
bench, of course you can make it wider if you prefer.
Now we need to cut 16 legs.
Now the 16 legs are cut you can start fixing them together.
What I have done is cut some little off cut pieces which I'll just put under temporarily
to keep it level and help square it up.
Again using your set square double check that you have got your corners nice and square.
Drill a couple of pilot holes in them, and apply a small amount of glue.
One thing to consider when you are doing the corners, each timber that you are lapping
on top of one another, you are putting two screws in, so once you have put them in at
one angle, the next piece of wood put them at the opposite angle so you don't drive them
in to one another.
OK, that is the 8th piece now put on the top of the bench.
You can stand that up, double check that you are happy with the width of it, you have got
your eight legs either side of it all glued and screwed together.
Once you are happy with that you can then cut some off cuts to put down the face of
that to keep it nice and flush there to the floor and then the same again on the opposite
side here.
We can cut a piece tight into there all the way across.
OK, get a small bit of glue on the back of that piece, level it up with that front leg,
couple of little pilot holes and then drive a few more screws right the way in so it is
nice and tight.
The same again on the opposite leg.
OK they are the two front pieces in, now the same again with the top section.
OK so that is now the whole structure more or less complete.
We have got all the slots in, the legs are in position, we have got the reinforcement
bits on the two front legs and also the reinforcement bit on the back.
You are now at a point where you can take the rough edges off the timber.
You might find that it has got different colours in some areas and splinters as well where
you have been cutting it.
The best way is by using an electric sander.
And of course if you haven't got an electric sander you can always use a hand sander.
Now all the edges are nice and smooth the next stage is to stabilise the base of the
legs.
Now of course you have got a gap in there so you will find a tiny bit of movement.
We could of course cut some small pieces of timber and simply slide those in.
However, it is nice to be creative and cut out some little circular pieces of wood and
slot them in there.
You will see that it not only looks good but it will make it a lot more stable.
Really quick and simple to do by using a hole cutter.
Now all my circular pieces of wood are cut I am just going to apply a little bit of wood
glue on both sides of them and then slide them in between the legs.
Now at this point I don't have to worry to much about getting them level until I clamp
them and then IO will square them up.
Now once they are all placed into position, of course the glue is still wet on them.
I am going to get a clamp and start to gently tighten it up.
Once I get a bit of grip on it I can then focus on getting these to look relatively
level.
OK.
OK, so now you are happy that you have got them level, squeeze them together with the
clamps and then you can get yourself a little damp cloth and just try to wipe off any of
that glue that is oozing out.
Perfect, now once that glue is dry simply remove you clamp and that is your bench complete.
Now of course you can varnish, stain it or put wood treatment on it if it is going to
be outside.
Now for more pallet project videos please visit the website, silverlinetools.com