“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
This is true, especially for creative and crafty people to turn whatever piece of trash they find in their homes into something more useful. It could be as simple as recycling and reusing milk cartons, pizza boxes, or glass bottles lying around the bin.
However, others who are craftier can refurbish just about any material into something profitable, especially if you can use hand and power tools. We saw how others turned some great dollar or thrift store finds into something that looks unique and brand new.
Pallet on the sidewalk
It’s not every day that you find a pallet thrown out on the sidewalk like this one. But Morley Kert, famous for his woodworking videos on YouTube and Instagram, knew that this trash would be his treasure.
After discovering that no one owned it, he took it home for a woodworking project – a chic, modern-looking coffee table. His challenge? To sell his finished product for $600. Will he reach his goal? We’ll find out later but first, let’s look at how he transformed this pallet into a living room beauty.
Trash to gold
First, he disassembled the pallet and separated each wooden plank. He also used a metal brush to clean the wood since its sides had dirt.
Next, he used a planer to smoothen the board and a table saw to even out the edges. He lined them all up and saw that he could make a bigger coffee table if he cut them in half, so he did.
He glued all the wooden planks together in two batched so it would be easier to put them back in the planer later in the process. After gluing the wood together, he clamped them and let the glue dry for about an hour. Then, he passed them through the planer again, glued the two parts, clamped them, and let them dry.
Next, he sanded the surface and sawed off the sides to make them even. Since there were cracks on some parts of the surface, he filled them in with clear resin, set dry, and sanded them again.
Now, the fun part! He used a compact router to create beveled edges on the sides. Then, he coated the wood six times with a semi-gloss diamond finish and let it dry.
For the table’s legs, he bought a pair of steel coffee table legs from Amazon, which added to its modern-chic look. Altogether, he created a beautiful table out of a discarded pallet. But will he make a profit out of it?
Ka-ching!
He took photos of his finished product in an art gallery nearby and posted the item on Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, and their neighborhood’s Facebook Page. He got some leads, but it’s pretty pricey for a coffee table.
But one person reached out to him and was interested to see the table. After the viewing, they bought the table for $550, which was not that bad! The couple wanted to bring a piece of home to their New York apartment since the wood was made of local hardwood and was made by someone back home.
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