Got 3 hardwood skids, 1 pallet, and some miscellaneous pieces. What should I make?

I collected all this wood to build a raised hugelkultur bed but it turned out to be way more than I needed.

My house has enough furniture and we don't have enough dirt (even with hugelkultur-style fill) for an additional raised bed at the moment, so I'm not sure what else to build. I've found pallets and skids to be a lot of work to dismantle--much easier to chop them up, so whatever I make probably should either use them intact or use large parts of them intact. (In fact, I already made a critical cut on the pallet.)

Looking to brainstorm ideas.What else ya got, permies?

I have compost bins made from pallets and skids.   I keep a reserve around for emergency fence repair.

Neat! I thought 'pallet' and 'skid' were synonyms. But since you used them both, I looked it up and found that skids don't have deck boards on both sides of the stringers. Thanks for the learning opportunity! :-)

I've seen a lot of people wire/screw them together at the corners to make a compost bin. (I just use heaps.)

Presumably you don't need them pallets/skids for keeping things elevated -- we have seven pallets in various places just to keep thing off the ground where they're likely to get wet.

And folks build sheds out of them, but you'd need to get more:

John F Dean wrote:I have compost bins made from pallets and skids.   I keep a reserve around for emergency fence repair.

Come to think of it, I do have a repair I could make! Well, that takes care of a few slats/"deck boards" anyway...

Christopher Weeks wrote:I thought 'pallet' and 'skid' were synonyms. But since you used them both, I looked it up and found that skids don't have deck boards on both sides of the stringers.

I learned something too then! I thought the difference was just that skids are long rectangles whereas pallets are roughly square. So in that case it means I really have 4 skids but one of them is short.

Anyway, I indeed don't have anything I need to elevate, and even if I had enough material to build a shed or a second compost bin I don't currently need either (nor would my wife approve the construction of such).

Hi Ned;
Just thought I would mention that Hugles do not have to be raised, you can have a machine dig you an appropriate size hole.
Fill with wood products and cover back over.  It will have a slight mound that will settle as the wood decomposes.  

Well, I successfully managed to reuse the wood from the pallet to reinforce my compost bin...but I still have 3 8-foot long white oak skids and no clue what to do with them. My wife says they need to go to the curb this trash day if I haven't used them for anything.

The best idea I came up with so far was to build a grape trellis out of them, but I don't have the materials, time, or frankly the skill (just yet) to do it properly in the time allotted. Nor do I have any grape plants, come to think of it.

I was looking at the skids and realized each one could be cut up into two smaller skids approx 38"x28" with an extra I-shaped section left in the middle as well. But then what could I do with those? Ugh.

I take it you also don't have a wood stove? We burn pallets all the time, although cutting them to stove length is a bit of a chore.

If you knew anyone with a biochar barrel/kiln, cut up pallets make good biochar also.

I once stacked four pallets in the back yard to use as a stand for my hay bales for an archery backstop. Worked great.
An unexpected consequence that proved to be a good thing and a bad thing, was that bees moved in and made a hive out of it.
The good thing was my garden had a beehive about 50 yards away and it did great. They didn't even mind the occasional errant arrow that got stuck in the hive.
The bad thing was my wife dropped a big piece of steel behind it and that aggravated the bees and they attacked.
Needless to say, I was then persuaded to get rid of the bee hive. I couldn't find anyone to relocate the bees and had to call an exterminator.
He told me that was the largest wild hive he had ever seen.

Jay Angler wrote:I take it you also don't have a wood stove? We burn pallets all the time, although cutting them to stove length is a bit of a chore.

If you knew anyone with a biochar barrel/kiln, cut up pallets make good biochar also.

I don't have a wood stove (besides, winter is over). Nor am I or anyone I know set up to make biochar. :(

"Got 3 hardwood skids, 1 pallet, and some miscellaneous pieces. What should I make?"

My first thought was "stone soup" but it would take one helluva big pot. (Kidding!)

Make a wooden box and get a PEP BB:

https://permies.com/wiki/124800/pep-dimensional-woodworking/wood-box-crate-PEP-BB

portable wood shed (on skids)

https://permies.com/t/31987/portable-wood-shed-skids

Pallet Shed with Greenhouse and Firewood Adjucts

https://permies.com/t/44728/Pallet-Shed-Greenhouse-Firewood-Adjucts

Anne Miller wrote:Make a wooden box and get a PEP BB:

https://permies.com/wiki/124800/pep-dimensional-woodworking/wood-box-crate-PEP-BB

portable wood shed (on skids)

https://permies.com/t/31987/portable-wood-shed-skids

Pallet Shed with Greenhouse and Firewood Adjucts

https://permies.com/t/44728/Pallet-Shed-Greenhouse-Firewood-Adjucts

Sheds are out (don't need one, don't have enough material for one, not approved by the boss) but maybe I can figure out something I need a box for. And where I might put a box...

You have not mentioned a fireplace for a wood box or kids for a toy box so what about a rag box or a shoe box?

For what is left you might consider patio or lawn furniture.

Anne Miller wrote:You have not mentioned a fireplace for a wood box or kids for a toy box so what about a rag box or a shoe box?

For what is left you might consider patio or lawn furniture.

I have a fireplace, and a fire pit, but plenty of wood for them already. As for the wood box, kids' toy box, rag box, shoe box, and patio furniture, I already have all I need.

The good news is I have a woodworking neighbor/friend who asked for the skids if I don't use them, so at least I know they won't go to a landfill one way or the other.

Did i miss your deadline?  Is the wood gone?

You could SELL a nice oaken box or table or bookshelf .  You could put the free oak skids on CL.

I once made window sills out of oak pallet boards, made little paddle boats (with rubber band) and sold them at craft show.  Make a set of child’s building blocks, and a box to store them in.

Make cut out animal shapes…. Toys, you could make any number of different toys, and sell them.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Did i miss your deadline?  Is the wood gone?

You could SELL a nice oaken box or table or bookshelf .  You could put the free oak skids on CL.

I once made window sills out of oak pallet boards, made little paddle boats (with rubber band) and sold them at craft show.  Make a set of child’s building blocks, and a box to store them in.

Make cut out animal shapes…. Toys, you could make any number of different toys, and sell them.

Thanks. I still have the pallets, but I may have found a use for them: a couple neighbors have expressed interest in composting, so I might build one of them a compost bin out of the skids.

Marvelous!  My compost bins are made of pallets and skids.  I stuff decomposable insulation in the space between the two decks of boards.  (Straw, corrugated cardboard, what ever) As I finish off fall, I make sure the compost material is ready to decompose, and filled close to the top.

In the early spring as the days get longer, and long before the last frost,  I put my tomato starts into gallon containers,  I put them onto the compost which has sunk about a foot.  I cover the plants for the night using poly carbonate greenhouse glazing material, and tarps or blankets if it’s going to be really cold, and uncover them letting the light in if it’s too cold, and uncovering them completely on warm days.  In this way thy are hardening off developing healthy root systems, and getting full sun.  (Our full sun here in arid 6000 feet can sun burn the leaves in half an hour if they haven’t been exposed to it.  It’s been a good system for me.  I like it a lot better than hauling them in and out, or growing long leggy plants that are WAY too tender, that need a whole month of coddling while they get used to being out doors.

Thanks for letting me go on and on about tomato plants on your what to do with pallets thread.  I’m glad you got a solution and kept them out of the dump

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Marvelous!  My compost bins are made of pallets and skids.  I stuff decomposable insulation in the space between the two decks of boards.  (Straw, corrugated cardboard, what ever) As I finish off fall, I make sure the compost material is ready to decompose, and filled close to the top.

In the early spring as the days get longer, and long before the last frost,  I put my tomato starts into gallon containers,  I put them onto the compost which has sunk about a foot.  I cover the plants for the night using poly carbonate greenhouse glazing material, and tarps or blankets if it’s going to be really cold, and uncover them letting the light in if it’s too cold, and uncovering them completely on warm days.  In this way thy are hardening off developing healthy root systems, and getting full sun.  (Our full sun here in arid 6000 feet can sun burn the leaves in half an hour if they haven’t been exposed to it.  It’s been a good system for me.  I like it a lot better than hauling them in and out, or growing long leggy plants that are WAY too tender, that need a whole month of coddling while they get used to being out doors.

Thanks for letting me go on and on about tomato plants on your what to do with pallets thread.  I’m glad you got a solution and kept them out of the dump

I made my current compost bin out of wood people were throwing away: a frame of 2x4s from the dumpsters of a new subdivision, some 2x2s that had a slot routed in one side (I believe they were used to strap down some materials on the back of a truck; I used them as the "rails" for the sliding door at the bottom of the bin), some OSB from those same dumpsters, and some cedar planks (free on Craigslist) to close the whole thing in. I only had to buy a couple little hinges for the lid.

After two years, these cedar planks were falling off, which is why I recently used one of the pallets to create a kind of external frame to hold them on.

If I were to build a compost bin out of skids, I'd need some additional planks to close it in. And I'm currently out of fasteners so either I'd need to actually carve some fastener-free joints, or purchase more deck screws. But I'll bet I could get my neighbor to buy them for me since he's otherwise getting a free compost bin.

My wife does the gallon jug thing too, for a lot of different vegetables, but she just leaves them in the garden. We also have a little basement grow station; my wife points a fan at the plants down there if they get too leggy.

I’ll remember the fan!  That’s genius.