Pallet Shed Turned Duck House

Earlier this spring I started building a shed for myself out of free pallets. I'm not sure exactly how, but at some point the shed for my lawnmower turned into a duck house for some new ducks my wife brought home.

Anyway here are a couple of quick pictures of the process. As usual, the goal here was to be as frugal as possible. I think the total cost for this shed was around $40. I made everything out of free or recycled materials except for some odds and ends like screws and some strapping for the roof. 

I started by laying out my pallet floor on flat rocks and concrete blocks that I had. I screwed them together and then screwed up the initial walls. I used some old wood I had lying around to frame up the top cross beam.

You may be able to see it in this second picture, but I made the roof beams out of small tree trunks that I had cut down earlier in the year. 

After finishing the framing with the pallets adding the beams on the roof and putting strapping across it, I covered the whole thing in old political signs. These things are great. They are plastic, waterproof and best of all free. I happened to have a friend who ran for office and had a ton of left over signs, but even if you don't you can collect these from the side of the road after any election. 

Well here it is my finished below shed, for the ducks. It's been 4 months now and they are living happily in their little home.

As always, let me know if you have any questions. This is not a very detailed post, but maybe it will give you some ideas on how to create your own shed and or duck house!

Hand Hewing Timber - the quick way.

I'm planning to build a carport type structure next year for my tractor. I may even make it into an enclosed garage, but I haven't really decided yet.

My goal is to make as much of the timber out the wood around my house. I'm going to start by cutting the main beams and support beams. This is time consuming work, so I'll be starting this winter/fall and hopefully have most of the beams finished by next spring.

This quick walk-through will show you the easiest and quickest way I've found to cut the beams. For some I will be using a slightly more complex plan that actually involves measuring - Gasp! I'll post directions for these as well shortly. 

The only tools I use for this are a chainsaw and a sharp ax.

Step #1 - Find the log you want to work on.  Try and find something as straight as possible. This will minimize the amount of work that you have to do later on.

This one is relatively short, but will be used as a support beam.

Step #2 - Using my chainsaw I cut perpendicular lines down the log. I try to keep them at an even depth and as level as possible. In this picture I have already rolled the log onto it's side, but the cuts should be done as "flat" as possible and keeping the saw as level as you can. Be aware that the log itself is narrower and wider in certain spots. Take this into account with the depth of your cuts. This first set of cuts is the most important, since it will set the tone for rest of the log.

Step #3 Turn the log on it's side and using your axe start cutting out the wedges. Don't worry to much about getting everything perfect on this first pass. Once you have cut out all of the wedges you can then go back and clean up and shape the cuts.

Step # 4 Using the the finished side as a guide, start over and cut the top of the log again. Turn the log on it's side and use your axe to repeat the process and cut the beam flat. I use the first finished side as my guide for my second and third side of the beam. Basically I leave the side opposite of my first cuts till last. I find that it is easier to eyeball the shape this way and it turns out much closer to square in the end.



Here is the finished beam. All four sides cut and shaped roughly. Later I may go back with a draw knife and sander to clean up the rough ax lines, but then again I may not since this is just for a tractor shed.

Like I said, this is a pretty simple walk - through. There are really only two steps - Chainsaw cuts then Axe shaping. You just have to do the process four times. Just take your time, and trust you eyes and you will end up with some simple to make lumber that is great for any kind of rustic building work.

Cabinet Door Shelf

My wife got these two cabinet doors for free and asked me to make a set of shelves to hang on the wall.

1) I started by cutting the doors at a 45 degree angle on my table saw and gluing them together. 

2) Here you can see the backside of the shelves and the corner bracket I made for the clamps to attach too.

I cut this out of some leftover boards I had lying around

3) I then took a couple of pieces of pine and cut out the shelves. I had to use two pieces and glue them together.

4) Here are the shelves glued and nailed into the cabinet doors. you can see the first coat of stain on the shelves as well.

5) These are the left over pieces from the cutting on step one. I decided to use these to cap the front of the shelves for decoration.

6) Here is the finished shelving with the decorative pieces glued on the front.

If you have any questions please let me know. 

Cigar Box Guitar

My brother-in-law is a fantastic musician. He primarily plays guitar, but he also plays trombone and drums.

One of his favorite things to do is play home-made and strange instruments.

So i decided to make him a cigar-box guitar for his birthday.

I made everything out of recycled materials, except for the tuners and strings.

I got used cheap tuners at a local guitar shop and an old cigar box from a friend. Then I just went to work. The neck is made out of red oak, and the fretboard is made from the wood inside the cigar box. I made the frets out of wire coat hangers.

Anways, here is the finished product. Let me know what you think!

Handmade Bow Rack

Last year I made a handmade bow rack out of some scrap wood I had lying around.

It's basically just a rectangle with supporting struts. I cut a wooden dowel, drilled out the holes and glued it in. Then I varnished the whole thing.

Here it is with my bow and my son's bow.

Goggin Family Crest

For Christmas a couple of years ago I made shields for my Mother and my Father in Law with their family crests painted on them.

Unfortunately I don't have the picture of the making of this sheild. The good news is that you can find a great set of instructions here - Make a Shield Walkthrough

Basically I built a curved press, I cut 2 pieces of plywood to the shape of the shield, and glued them together while clamping them over the press. This way, when the glue set, it keeps the curve. It's hard to see the curves with the way that I took the pictures.

Here is the finished shield blank.

Next I glued on the canvas and painted my Mother's family crest on it by hand. I'll post the other finished shields later.

Finished Shield - Goggin Family Crest.

DIY Softbox for photography

About a year ago I built myself a soft box for portrait photography. 

The idea was to make this for cheap as possible out of stuff that I found around my house.

Step One: Lay out my lights

Supplies:
Old Powerstrip - FREE
Left over wood - Free
Ligh sockets - $4 I think? It was a year ago, so I'm not really sure.

I traced the powerstrip and where I wanted the light socket holes to be

Step 2: Drill the and fit the lights

Step 3: Shape the Frame

Supplies:
Old Bike Spokes - FREE
Duck Tape - FREE
Balsa wood - FREE
White tube things - FREE

Basically I used some old bike spokes and anything else I could find around the house to make the frame for the lightbox.


Step 4: Building the Tripod

Supplies:
PVC Pipe - Free
Duck Tape - Free
Shelf mounting brackets - Free
Pencil - Free

I took 3 old shelf brackets, and just duck taped them to the larger PVC pipe. I then drilled holes in the pipe every 2 inches or so up the pipe. By placing a pencil through the holes a peg I can slide the other smaller PVC pipe up and down to raise or lower my tripod.

(Because of the narrrow legs on my tripod I secure it by using sandbags at the base)

Step 5: Clamping the Frame to the tripod

Supplies:
Fishing Rod holder - FREE
Small wooden Block - FREE
Fishing Line - FREE

I screwed the small block to the back of my frame.

The metal thing you see is an old fishing rod holder I had never really used. I flipped it over and it worked perfectly as a clamp. I can raise and lower the angle on my softbox just by loosening one screw.

I also used some fishing line to tention the balsa wood at the top. This gave the frame a nicer appearance, and some extra stability.

Step 6: Starting to put it all together

Supplies: Zip Ties - FREE

Here is a front view of the frame on the stand. You can see the first piece of fabric hanging on here as well.

After this I mounted the lights strip to the box using zip ties. I then took the frame off the clamp and started to add the fabric.

Step 7: Adding Fabric and Finished

Supplies:
Black Fabric - Free
Needle and Thread -Free
Wood Glue - Free
Silver Survival blanket - $3
Safety Pins - FREE


I cut the fabric to shape, and sowed all of the black panels on. I also glued the back of the panel to the wood.

What you can't see is the inside of the box. I used a silver reflective emergency blanket (you can find them in the camping section of most walmarts) and glued this to to black fabric and the board at the back to reflect the light.

I then saftey pinned the white fabric to the front of the box to help diffuse the light.

There you go, all finished.

Step 8: Take Photos

Here is a photo of my wife I took with my new softbox.

I hope everyone enjoyed my Softbox build.  My total cost for this project was around $7.
This was not meant to be a real walkthrough, but more of a way to show you what you can create if you look around at the resources you already have available.
I hope this ispires others to go out there and create!

Custom Recurve Bow Case

A Custom Recurve Bow Case that I made for my Samick recurve.

It holds 12 arrows, my bow, and all of my accessories.

I made it out of an old box for a telescope. I then used layesr of pink insulation foam and cut the shapes for the limbs, riser and compartments.

Ski Chair

Ski Chair - Made out of random Lumber and a bunch of old skis from a local ski shop.

Getting started

Welcome to the first post of the Good Luck Green Project blog.

Here you will find images, ideas and project that Becky and I are working on.

We will do our best to always give a step by step walk through and explanation on our projects.

Thanks for taking the time to look!