I just bought a house and my master bedroom bathroom had no bathroom set. So I made things out of pallets to hang towels and stuff but I have to say this pallet trash bin is my favorite of the things I made. Here is how I made it for your own use whether is for your bathroom, office, or whatever decorative suits your need.

Materials:

Pallet (s)
Wood glue
Wood stain
Sand Paper (Coarse, I used 150 grit since pallet wood can be rough)
Rags

Tools:

Table saw
Miter saw (optional)
Sander
Straight edge
Tape measure
Pencil
Paint brush

Step 1: Step 1: Break Down Pallet and Choose Your Boards

This pallet I found was a long pallet with long boards, any pallet will do but keep in mind how wide you want the sides of your trash can to be. You may have to glue boards together. I made mine 4 inches per side out of 5 inch boards.

Step 2: Step 2: Cut Side Boards

Cut 8 boards. Using the miter saw I cut mine 12 inches long (which is about as tall as a groceries bag that a lot people store as trash bags). I used the first board to cut the rest of the boards to make sure they were all the same size.

Step 3: Step 3: Cut the Angles and Sanding

Trim one side of each board to get a good straight line. Set the table saw at a 22.5 angle for an octagon. In case you are wondering how to get angle, here is the formula that will work no matter how many sides there are:

(360 / X amount of sides) / 2 = Angle to both sides of board

Look at your boards and pick which side you want on the outside. Cut the boards with this side facing you. With the fence guide to the right side of the blade, set the guide at 4 inches. Cut the first angle with the trimmed side of board against the fence guide. Turn board (Do Not flip) 180 degrees and cut the other angle.

Sand boards on both sides except for the angle cuts to keep the edges sharp.

Step 4: Step 4: Setting Up the Boards for Gluing

Put one or two long pieces of scrap wood down on a flat surface. Put all boards on top of scrap pieces, again with the outsides of boards facing you. Line up all boards as tightly as possible and take another piece of scrap wood to square off the bottoms. Use 2" masking tape or painters tape and tape as illustrated leaving excess tape on one side to overlap when wrapping boards together.

Take the board you used to line up the bottom and set on top of boards with tape. Use this board and the bottom scrap pieces to squeeze the boards and flip the boards over. Using this method makes it easier to flip the boards keeping them together tightly and lined up.

Step 5: Step 5: Gluing the Boards to Form Octagon

Generously apply glue to all the valleys and one or both ends.

Carefully grab both ends and pull up and in to make the ends meet, overlap the tape with a little pressure to tighten everything up. Stand the octagon on a flat surface, push down on all the boards and adjust all corners. Clean off excess glue. Glue sets in about 30 minutes but I wait and hour or two.

Step 6: Step 6: Bottom of the Bin

While octagon is drying, measure from one side to the opposite side. At 4 inch sides makes about 10 1/4 inches. To give myself room, I cut 14 inch boards in length. I used 3 boards to meet or exceed 14 inches wide. Trim the sides of the boards to make a nice joint and glue them together. I did not have bar clamps that long so I tried using tape and it actually worked pretty well. Wait for glue to dry, hour and a half was long enough to make cuts.

Step 7: Step 7: Make Octagon Base

Center octagon on base board. On the inside, mark one side and bottom with pencil as shown. Now on the outside trace the octagon. With a straight edge mark cut lines end to end of board. Cut the lines leaving a little room for sanding later.

Step 8: Step 8: Prep and Stain Inside of Bin

Matching the inside marks made earlier, now mark the outside of octagon and base. Erase the inside marks and sand inside octagon for excess dried glue and inside bottom of trash bin. Wipe dust with clean cloth and apply stain, the longer stain sits before being wiped the darker it will be. Once stain dries for a few minutes, apply glue to octagon, match the marks made on the outside and put on base. Get something heavy to apply pressure to glue. Gallon of paint did the trick.

Step 9: Step 9: Sand and Stain Outside

Once the glue has dried well. Remove tape from outside and sand all sides paying special attention to the open end of bin and the base where room was left to sand off excess wood. Wipe dust with clean cloth and stain the outside of bin. Wipe stain off and in a few minutes trash bin is ready for use. Enjoy!!!