Wooden planter made from scrap wood

[AnitaH25]

This is my go-to project when my scrap wood heap gets out of control. Most of the wood I use in my projects is recycled.  This one was made from old bed slats. 

I am lucky enough to have an old thickness planer, so cleaning up the wood is a quick job.  I feed both sides through to remove all the old stain and varnish. For the sides, I use a table saw and just remove about 1mm of the surface.

I used a table saw to cut the wood smaller ready to build my planter. The sizes cut were

20 x 410mm x 35mm x 20mm 

20 x 300mm x 35mm x 20mm

4 x blocks for the legs (legs off an old couch)

4 x 360mm x 90mm for the bas

The base was built by nailing the 4 sides together. The first layer is to keep everything from falling out of the bottom. They were glued and nailed in place using a nail gun.

The legs were also glued and screwed into place in the 4 corners of the base.

The pattern was then repeated over and over until all the pieces were gone. The glue was applied to every piece and secured with a nail gun so I could carry on and not wait for the glue to dry.

The wood was stained using dark mahogany wood stain. In hindsight, it would be easier to stain and varnish all the wood before putting it together. Two coats of outdoor varnish were added to protect the wood from the elements.

The inside was lined with heavy-duty plastic which was stapled to the sides. 

[gippslandhome]

@AnitaH25 

Dear Anita, just a personal thank you for your valuable contributions. As a relatively new member I admire the valued efforts of those who contribute and add so much skill and interest to the community.

I love this project idea and hope you don't mind if I use a similar idea at home?

I look forward to seeing more of your posts in the future.

Kind regards Rob 👍

[AnitaH25]

Thank you so much very kind of you to say.

[Shelby]

@AnitaH25 rhis is fantastic, thanks so much for the idea and the step by step! 

Quick question, where do you find your wood? I’m a newbie and I’m yet to build a network of people keeping their eyes out and a list of places for me to go to find things...

[Purplecow]

Love it 

[Jason]

Thanks for joining in the discussion @Purplecow. I'm sure @AnitaH25 appreciates the kind feedback! Perhaps you might like to build something similar yourself? Let us know if you need a hand with anything - we have members sharing advice and inspiration every day.

Welcome,

Jason

[gippslandhome]

Hi @Shelby  If you keep an eye out on Gumtree in the freebies section you will always find scrap wood and building materials for free.

Kind regards Rob 👍

[AnitaH25]

Thank you so much, I will have a look. 

[DIYology]

@Shelby 

Try your local Bunnings.

In the store I work at there is a cage in the timber yard with usable off cut timber that is either very low cost or free.

We also place skids (basic made up pallets) that are still useable outside for customers to help themselves to.

Snoop around your local and ask the team members what they do with their skids and off cuts.