m0use's Haus Of Projects

This was a fun project that was a few years in the making and a year later to see if they would last a season for this upload to happen. Before any of this I would bike aorund town grabbing up all the old Ikea solid pine bed slats that I could find and storing them in the basement. I have a lot of wood down there, any size worked as long as I have enough of them. The hot days to find them were the first and last of the months because that's when people where moving in/out. I also kept an eye on the free section on local online classifieds as well. The entire purpose of this was to recycle as much off the streets as I could before buying anything to finalize the project. In the end I only bought sealer, screws and some takeaway/beers. All the wood was 100% free and salvaged off the streets of Toronto saving it from the dumpster bin. After collecting all the slats for about 2 years I was playing aorund with them on how I wanted to make this work. I had previously done a little project like this before but I messed it up and the boxes where crap. did not last longer then 2 seasons, they where thin and shallow as well could not grow much of anything in them. I Was talking to my friend who is renovating their house and we brainstormed some ideas on the boxes, I found some designs I liked online and said lets make something like this out of what I have here. We tossed out a few of the design features when looking at them as it would have been wasted wood and extra work not needed. If I had more wood them maybe it could have been an option but simple was the name of the game. They taught me what I needed to know like how the miter saw and sander worked, plus all the other tools I was using. They did help out with a table saw and creating the triangle support joints in the corners, They used some pine left overs they had while making a staircase indoors. I did not feel up to the task of using a table saw given all the relatives I know who have lost a finger to them. In the end we decided the design would be three boards high and take an alternating pattern on corners. layer one short, layer 2 long, layer 3 short. Went with a galvanized and painted deck screw so it can take the weathering. Ran into some problems like making everything level as some of the boards were warped and other ones had undesired aspects like knots and tacky sticker goo I could not remove. So I used them for the base that will not been seen so much. Clamped everything down and called it a day. Once it was all done and over with, I then brought them back home from my buddies work garage and started to seal them. I went with a boiled linseed oil as its a food safe option should the wood degrade into the soil I will plant in them. I will need to reapply it to the boxes year after year but the main coat is the most important one and I put it on 3 layers with a good dry in between coats. the inside of the boxes that where coated did not degrade at all as the sun did not hit them so it will not need a new coat just the outside. Overall the end result was very impressive for myself, I've never taken a woodworking class ever and It was a near perfect outcome for me. Heavy Duty Planter Boxes for all my gardening needs. I made a last min decision to add in a plastic liner to preserve the wood even longer and stapled that into the frame. it has held up quite well and may need replacing end of 2nd or 3rd year out in the sun. Used a thick moisture wrap plastic with UV protectors in its formula. Lets see what I can grow in them this year! m0use's haus of projects - garden box edition