Salvage Army

I haven't posted for a while because I've been starting what I hope to be a regular article on this page.

I like making stuff. I don't really care what it is as long as it works, it looks good, its for free or it's very inexpensive.

In today's disposable society there's so much stuff that people through out every day that could be used for a multitude of purposes. Skips are like a free second hand shop.

After all, we seem to care so much about recycling but seem to forget the most efficient way to do it is to just re-use the stuff we would have normally thrown away.

Here is the first of my things I made out of stuff that would have nomally gone to the dump.

Here is what I had...














Lots of wooden slats from an old Ikea bed that was damaged beyond repair. They're all the same length height and width so I thought I'd make something like this...













It costs £109.99 from ebay. Not cheap. Its a rustic Mexican coffee table/chest. the top is hinged along the centre and has two doors. I thought this was a great piece of design because its great for storage of DVDs books games etc. It looked simple and being 'rustic country' means you can bash it about and not worry too much.

So I got some cheap unfinished 1'' by 2'' and screwed the slats on with some antique black screws. In fact quite a lot of dry wall screws are black so I just used them. They're actually better anyway. Then I cut the 1 by 2 off at the ends to make 2 boards.














Can you see thats its two boards? No reason that they're linked. It was just late and I didn't want to do any sawing.

From here, its not too hard to make your general square.














Try to make sure the diagonals are the same length (that proves it's square) but if there not quite right you can re-adjust them with a 'persuader'. I call my persuader a hammer :)

Now I put in a centre bar.














This is what the hinges will rest on. Its just another slat with a 1 by 2 supporting it.

Then I made the doors. Guess what? slats screwed to 1 by 2.

















I tapered the ends so that it could open and close but if it didn't fit when I put it on the box I'd just trim a bit more off. That’s why it was good to pick that rustic style.

Then I covered the bottom with pine tongue and grove cladding.














It was the only other wood I bought but it was worth it for the finished affect. This was 2 packs at £1.98 each.

I now used a very old technique to make new pine look old. You treat the wood with a solution of caustic soda or 'lye'. There is a reaction between the sodium-hydroxide, oxygen and the tannic acid in the pine. It' kind of a fast forward for the ageing process. Science is cool.














When it was dry I used spirit vinegar to neutralise the surface (caustic soda is alkali).

This also means I didn't drink it, splash it on like after-shave or rub it in my pets eyes.

Then it was a matter of finishing the piece. I feel like I can call it a 'piece' now because it actually looks like a piece of furniture.














I chose a natural bee's wax to bring out the grain.

The ageing process really brings out the natural old honey colour of the pine.

I guess you could say I splashed out on the hardware.The Hinges were £2.99 and the handles were £2.89 (I trawled through ebay).














I'm happy though that I didn't compramise too much. I think after all my hard work it was worth it.

Tadah! Ready in time for Christmas and a happy new year!















My version cost:
£3.96 for 1 by 2 wood (loads left over)
£5.88 for hard ware
£3.96 for tongue and grove
£1.10 for wax (some left)
£3.60 for screws

Total: £18.50

Saving: £91.49/the planet.