Introduction: Pallet Garden Bench

I was given this blue pallet, which it turns out are the strongest pallets in the world built by CHEP. It was a bit of an effort to get apart but they have more (and better quality) wood which is useful.

I sketched out an idea for the bench and then kind of made it up as I went along so unfortunately this is more of a guide than specific instructions.

Materials:

Pallet

24 long screws for seat frame - Iused a combination of 10 x 3" and 10 x 4"

4 short screws for the back support - 10 x 1"

Tools:

Mallet & hammer for breaking apart pallet, plenty of guides online for this.

Jigsaw

Handsaw

Powered Drill

Drill pieces, including a counter sink if possible to set the screws into the frame

Wood glue

Clamps or an extra pair of hands to help hold pieces in place.

Step 1: Cutting Main Frame

For the seat I used 3 pieces from the top center of the pallet which were about 1m long and 100mm width.

I put 2 pieces the same thickness (16mm) between the three and then drew a semi circle at each end with a radius of half the seat width.

This was then cut out using a jigsaw.

For the supporting frame I used slightly thicker pieces from the bottom of the pallet. I cut the pieces down to make a box with the length being slightly smaller than the straight edge of the seat (~660mm x 330mm).

The blocks from the pallet were used to support the corners.

for the front legs I cut down a pair of pieces from the top of the pallet to 420mm and then drew a curve of radius 50mm (half width of section) fort he foot. This was then cut using jigsaw as before.

For the back legs I cut down pieces from the bottom of the pallet to 800mm and cut the feet as for the front legs.

The edge pieces for the top of the pallet were slightly larger, approx 120mm, so i used one of these for the back support.

Step 2: Additional Leg Features

To add support I decided to introduce some bracing at the bottom of the legs.

I made a rough mortise and tenon using the drill to drill some holes and then cut out the mortise with the jigsaw.

braces were made to be about 50mm in height and to be 400mm long.

I also cut a block down to 60 x 100 x 100mm. Along the 60mm side I cut the block at an angle going from 20mm in at one edge to 40mm at the other to leave two identical angled blocks to glue to the back legs. I used a level at this point to work out where to glue the blocks.

A mortise was cut for the back legs, and i used a chisel to adjust for the angle to allow the tenon to come through straight.

The tenons were cut down allowing for thickness of leg + half thickness of brace = 41mm. The tenon was then curved to match rest of design.

Step 3: Fixing Frame

Using a roof strap and a square the frame was fixed into place with screws.

Although a bit difficult to see in the picture remember to attach front legs at this point too, otherwise they might look odd fixed to the front of the frame.

The back legs were then screwed into place with the angled block fixed to the back of the support frame in line with the corner blocks. NOTE, at this point you also need to have the braces between the legs as it will be difficult to fit later.

I had cut some prism/triangular pegs and drilled holes through the tenon and then hammered the pegs through to secure.

The seat could then be screwed into place, using 2 pieces again to secure the separation between pieces.

The back was then clamped into place and screwed on using the shorter screws (screw length dependent on the thickness of pieces used).

Step 4: Find a Place of It in the Garden

And there you have it, a garden bench