Easy Garden Rack From Pallets

This idea came from two facts :

• There are always tools lying around in my garden because there no place dedicated to it.
• I had one big pallet (almost 5m long) and no use for it.

As I already have a sink in my garden, I wanted to make a dimension matching rack next to it so I started by drawing a 3D model on Sketchup as an overview of my project.

Material :

• Planks (Dimensions can be found in Step 1)
• Wooden post
• 2*5 cm wood
• Screws (or nails)
• Angle brackets
• Sandpaper
• Varnish

Tools :

• Crowbar + hammer
• Saw (Handsaw, miter saw, circular saw, or whatever you have)
• Set square
• Clamps (optional but useful)
• Measuring tape
• Paintbrush

I started by measuring the height and the depth of the sink in order to resize my SketchUp model to reality.

Then I measured the pallet dimensions too, that way I knew the amount of planks and their size I would need. Its components were 4 planks of 485*14.5*2.5 cm and 4 posts of (..........). I used almost all of it, I have 2 posts and a quarter of a plank left.

Dissemble the pallet, be careful with this step, there are a lot of 'ibles teaching you how to do it properly here's a good one :

https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Pallet-Bible-A-Guide-to-Finding-Inspecting-and/

Trace and cut the planks to the dimensions, the SketchUp model is useful for that step. A well prepared project is a easy project =)

I used the clamps to tighten the planks together as I screwed them with the small piece of wood.

I did a test fit before assembling the panels together and noticed a gap... It seemed that I forgot to take into account the thickness of the planks for the width of the top shelf, but ain't nothing a circular saw can't fix ;)

Once it fitted I could take the measurements for the middle and bottom shelves, that way I wouldn't make mistake ;)

I sanded the different parts before assembling because I like the sanded look and it eliminate most of the wood shards. I varnished it later because I thought it wouldn't be weatherproof otherwise.

I used metal bracket to assemble the three vertical panels, I did not fix the shelves so I can dissemble it more easily for winter storage. Later, I added a small tool rack on the right of the structure (see next step) with the parts i had left from the pallet.

Here's the final result with tool rack and varnish !

Hope you like it, my next step is to add some kind of shelf under the sink.