Fun With Wood, Reclaimed 2x4 projects

Ulma Doctor

Infinitely Curious
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I got a whole bunch of 2x4x36" and 2x4x38" that were going to be dumped.
i thought that this was a heinous waste of resources.
i decided to find ways to repurpose the wood.
here is the story of the projects that will come from the resources.

here is the pile of wood

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for the first project,
i started resawing the 2x4" into 3/4" x 3/4"x 36"slats and 3/4"x1-1/2"x 18"supports with my ryobi 10" contractor saw

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i used a crown stapler and eyeballed square and started installing the slats, using a spare slat for spacing and baddabing,
i now have a swarf catching reclaimed wood doormat!!!

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and now it sits in front of my garage(shop) door, leading into the house.

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now the little woman will not have to clean up as much swarf in the house!
 
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Great project, Mike. I like the re-purposing idea for a limited resource. I don't know about you but my wife says that if I make a mess, I get to clean it!
thanks Mikey!
i'm the luckiest guy on the planet, she doesn't give me any crap for messing things up. :grin:
i'm sure she doesn't like it, but she has never complained.
i do try to be mindful.
i figured an hour of work on something like this, may save her some time to do other things.
 
I don't know about you but my wife says that if I make a mess, I get to clean it!

I get that same treatment.
One night she got a painful sliver in her heal. I of course had to play Dr. It was a curl of swarf that had curled into her heal. Not knowing this pulling on it with tweezers was not working, just making her howl a lot.
I finally figured out that it was a curl and twisted it out (to many screams).
When she finally caught her breath she says "what was it"....A wood sliver I say....don't know how you got that!

Nice job on the door mat Ulma....hope she doesn't go barefoot and get a sliver.LOL
 
I get that same treatment.
One night she got a painful sliver in her heal. I of course had to play Dr. It was a curl of swarf that had curled into her heal. Not knowing this pulling on it with tweezers was not working, just making her howl a lot.
I finally figured out that it was a curl and twisted it out (to many screams).
When she finally caught her breath she says "what was it"....A wood sliver I say....don't know how you got that!
Nice job on the door mat Ulma....hope she doesn't go barefoot and get a sliver.LOL
Thank you rgray!
you are brilliant!, i'm gonna keep the wood sliver idea in my back pocket :eagerness:
 
well i got an itch to make something for my son.
i took one of the 2x4's i reclaimed and made him a toy that i made from a quick design

the Tracks,
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the Hull
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the Turret and Barrel
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Pre-assembly
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and the assembled work
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and after inspection and finish sanding by my supervisor, he went off to play!

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a very simple and fun project from something that was going to be thrown away.

thanks for reading!
 
Well i was at it again today.
for the project des jours, i made a DVD/Video game rack that can likely hold 300 or more dvd's, etc

i started with 3- 43" 2x4's, and ripped them 3/4" thickness x 4" (nominal) wide, and gang cut them to 42",
i then fed them through the planer and took an 1/8" off , to clean up the saw marks
i took 2- 43" 2x4's, and resawed them to 3/4" square , giving me 16 pieces
i cut 14 of the 3/4" pieces to 41-1/4" length.
i cut the remaining 3/4" pieces into 10, 7-1/4" cleats for supports for the horizontal members
i cut a top from some reclaimed oak plywood and slanted the top slightly , (my Blue Ray player has an idiosyncrasy with the remote control angle so rather than prop up the blue ray, i slanted the top 3* to compensate with a wedge in the rear under the top)
i smacked it all together with half a million 1/4"x 1-1/2" crown staples
i the used a router to relieve the edges with a 3/8" carbide roundover bit
i gave it a twice over with 150 grit sanding sponges.

i'm considering a white wash finish, but i like the look of natural wood.
Whaddya think???

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thanks for looking!
 
It's amazing how much lumber gets wasted. My company was next door to a new Hitachi office, they uncrated some machines and threw several large 2x4s in the dumpster- It's holding up my workbenches now. Even the Japanese are wasteful sometimes.
Mark
 
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