Wood pallets are commonly used in transporting goods. It’s made up of slabs joined together. Forklifts and pallet jacks can conveniently lift these pallets due to their structural design.
These pallets can be used for a lot more than just carrying goods. There’s a ton of woodworking projects for which you can use wood pallets, such as cold frames for plants and raised garden beds.
Cold frames are used for extending a gardening season. When plants are in a cold frame, they could grow a little bit longer even if the season is about to end. Wood pallets are usually inexpensive and easy to find so it’s a great material to use for building cold frames.
1. Prepare all of your materials and tools.
For this woodworking project, you would need:
• Wood pallets
• Old windows
• Flat hinges
• 1 ½” screws
• Hammer
• Circular saw
• Miter saw
• Hammer and nails
• Pliers
• Drill
• Screwdrivers
Wood pallets are often given away for free by farm supply stores or nurseries. They’re also sold at local farm supply stores, if not given away for free. They come pretty cheap at around $2 to $5 per pallet.
As for the windows and hinges, they can be recycled from scraps from your home. These are also sold at Habitat for Humanity Restores or local glass and window replacement shops.
The rest of the materials like the hinges and screws can easily be found in hardware shops. It doesn’t matter what type of screws.
2. The next step is to dismantle the pallets.
Each wooden palette has several slats. Use a circular saw to cut them away from the rest of the palette.
When it becomes difficult to separate the parts, use a hammer. Tap the slats gently to separate. Then, use the hammer to remove nails on each separated part.
3. Begin the actual building of the cold frame by starting with back and front walls.
To make sure that the cold frame is the right size, measure the window first. After measuring, get the thickness of the pallet slats. Subtract the thickness from the window width and multiply it by two. This is the overall width of both your front and back walls.
Build the back wall first by stacking 3 to 4 slats for a 1.5 ft. high back wall. Remember to use the measurement computed in the previous step. Do the same for the front wall but use one less pallet slat.
Then attach both walls to their supports. The back wall is attached to the taller supports, while the front wall is attached to the shorter ones.
4. Partially assemble the side walls.
After building your front and back walls, we move on to the partial assembly of the side walls. This time measure the length of the window. Use enough slats to match the measured length and then attach these slats to the front and back walls.
It is recommended to start from the bottom up when building the side walls. Stop building the side walls when you reach the top of the front wall. That angled piece will be added at the end.
5. Next step is to attach the window or the frame.
If your measurements hold correct, this should come easy. This is where your hinges and screws come to play. Each hinge should be a few inches away from the edge of the window frame.
6. Lastly is to finish up the assembly of the side walls
After attaching the window, it’s time to finish the side walls. Measure the angled slat that you’ll need. Cut the pallets to the right dimensions and then attach to the back wall.
After attaching to the back wall, measure the overall length of the side wall. Use the measurement to cut a support from the remaining pallets. Then, finish up the side wall by attaching the supports to each side of the side walls.
7. Additional Step: Venting the cold frame
Now, for venting the cold frame. All that’s needed is an extra slat that can be placed below the window. If you need more ventilation, just slide the slat to the back of the box.
Simple materials like wooden pallets have so many uses. Building cold frames for plants and raised garden beds need not be expensive. All one needs is a little perseverance and a bit of DIY-ing.
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