Another Wood Project

[HiTemp]

I had all this pallet wood and I was hoping to make a nice potting bench out of much of it. About a month ago my daughter said she wanted a potting bench and with a birthday coming up I thought I'd build her one, maybe have some wood left to do one for myself. Then she said she wanted it to be 6 feet long and have a rack on top for seed starting trays... uh oh, that's a lot of wood. But she does do a lot of gardening, having initiated the school garden programs here in town and directed the garden program for one of the local food banks.

I actually had a 3 foot wooden fence in my yard on one side of my pool. We didn't want the fence anymore so I took it all apart and salvaged the wood. There was enough 2 x 4s for the frame and enough boards to make the top work surface for the bench. The bottom shelf I used the old pallet boards. In the top work surface there is a section that lifts off to expose a kind of dry sink with a grid that I salvaged from a section of old dog crate. Under that is a plastic basin to catch any stray potting soil.

I finished it with a colonial maple stain for the frame and top rack, the lower shelf boards and top bench are stained in a weathered oak stain, and the back boards have no stain at all. Everything has two coats of spar varnish, 3 for the benchtop. The graphics on the back were just pictures of carrots, broccoli, and radishes I found on the net and did an ink transfer to the wood by printing it on label paper with the labels removed then rubbing it on the wood.

Here's the finished bench




Here's with the dry sink cover removed




A closer look at the graphics on the back






This thing is a tank. To allow moving it I put a couple lawnmower wheels onto a frame that pivots on a piece of 3/4" conduit running completely through it. It acts kind of like landing gear. If you just lift up on that side of the bench, a 2 x 4 rotates into a vertical position that keeps the wheels lower than the legs by a couple inches.



To retract the wheels, you lift up slightly on the bench and pull on this handle that I carved into the shape of a carrot. That's connected by some thick cord to the lower end of the rotating 2 x 4 and it causes the 2 x 4 to rotate into a horizontal position, allowing the wheel platform room to rise until the legs hit the ground. A short piece of bungi cord keeps the carrot and string tight against the frame until pulled.




I finished mounting all the stuff on the bench last night and gave it to her today, her birthday. She seemed to like it.

[zrct02]

Cool.
Do you have my shipping address for mine?

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Wow, pretty fancy. The veggy graphics are clever.

[HiTemp]

I wouldn't even want to think about how much it would cost to ship one of these. I guess I could take the rest of the pallet wood and slap together a small raft. We'd have to Tom Sawyer it from Pensacola to Galveston, then you could lower the wheels and roll it the rest of the way.

[zrct02]

I like the way you did the wheels. Some while back I built a tool stand and the setup I made for the wheels - well to put it kindly - it sucks. I think I may redo it with your setup.

[HiTemp]

That was the real challenge of the project and I didn't have a plan to work from, just a concept of how it might work. You might want this picture for a better view of the whole works.



I started by cutting a rectangle out of a piece of 2 x 6 that's about 18" long. I cut the rectangles bigger than I needed because I wanted to have plenty of adjusting room. Turns out I didn't need any, it worked fine just as put together. I used some pallet wood (oak) to make the pintles for the wheels. The wheels were less than ten bucks apiece at the big box store, and a half inch bolt works just right for an axle. I bought one bronze sleeve at Tractor Supply to fit the 1/2" bolt, and they are an inch long or so. I cut one in half because I bored a larger hole to keep the nut recessed into the pintle as you can see in the last pic in the original post. Tapped it in with a mallet and pressed it home with a vice.

I drilled the opposite end of the 2 x 6 pieces with a 7/8" spade bit all the way through. Then I cut another piece of 2 x 6 to act as a spacer and drilled the same hole all the way through it also. The 7/8" hole is a snug fit for a piece of 3/4" conduit but not too bad. I put some wax on the conduit and it tapped all the way through with no problem. I cut another 2 x 6 piece for the spacer on the wheel end of the thing, and a couple small pieces to retain the conduit. Those I drilled halfway through and the conduit just sits in them. I did a little bit wobbling to make the hole large enough for the conduit to spin freely.

The 2 x 4 that forms the swing piece is just held in place by two 5/16" carriage bolts through the frame that extend into 3/8" holes drilled in the 2 x 4. I rounded the top to make sure it didn't jam a corner into the shelf boards above, and on the side you can't see I cut a large chamfer by setting my table saw blade to 15 degrees and running it through lenghwise. Then I rounded all the edges on the sander.

It works absolutely great! I have some shop benches and tables on casters and I'm thinking of switching some of them over to this setup too. The wheels hold a ton of weight. Just don't forget a touch of threadlock or hot glue on the wheel bolt threads. If one comes off one side is going down in a hurry.