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.
