One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

This past Winter I saved a few pallets from futon shipments. Normally I toss these on a burn pile in the Spring, but this year I decided to put some time into reclaiming the lumbar and turning it into something useful. The hardest part of the whole process was breaking the pallets down and getting the lumbar cleaned up to the point it could be worked with. I just got done making a wine rack with the lumbar I salvaged from these pallets. Once the wood was clean, it was a lot of fun to work with. It was gratifying to know I was building something with material that was being re-purposed. These pictures tell it all.

At first I underestimated how much work would be involved in braking a pallet down. There are SO many nails and they all have to be pulled to be able to work with the wood.

Once free of nails, I cleaned each board up with my stationary belt sander. As I started working with the wood I discovered there was a fair amount of oak and pine. 

Building the legs.

As the frame of the wine rack started to take shape I couldn't resist building in a couple neat features. This drawer was kind of an impulsive decision, but I think it turned out nicely.

Glass storage! It will fit 6 average sized wine glasses.

Here it is complete. It's just waiting for a clear coat of finish. The bottom shelf was necessary to square the legs. It would have been nice to have a third and fourth row of bottle storage, but the lumbar had to be forced square and the hardy shelf on the bottom was the easiest way to do it. All things considered, I'm happy with how it turned out. Pretty amazing this material would have just ended up in a dump or fire pit. Now it's a wine rack!