Covered Cooler

With Christmas coming up, my little sister wanted to be creative and make a gift for my older sister.  I just brought home a bunch of pallets and she had a drink cooler that was just laying around. She decided to elevate the cooler and cover it with pallet wood. The gift was a huge hit! We are just waiting for warm weather to sit on the deck with some cool brews.

 I got a bunch of pallets from my work!!! (Stay tuned for future pallet projects.)

The boards, after we removed the nails.

We made a channel in the side boards for the pallet wood to slide into. The side boards are also from the pallets.

 We added a board down the middle to add strength, then we added the legs.

 Because this gift was from her, I made my sister make the cuts. I had to teach her how to use the saw. She said it was so easy, even a girl can do it! (Her words, not mine). She had to borrow my jacket so she didn't get hers dirty. 

 I also taught her how to use the nail gun. She got a little excited and missed the board a few times.

 We added a lid and hinges. 

 There is also a handle to lift the lid. 

 The finished product! She even stained it. 

 Lift the lid and you see the cooler. Notice the chain on the left, also the boards are set down for the lid to sit inside the top frame.

This is the inside. You can't give a cooler with out drinks!

Concrete Inlay Table

My Sister and Brother in Law just bought a new mountain home and I wanted to make a house warming gift for them. My Cousin just demoed an old barn/shed so I used that wood for the table top. 

I had to run by home Depot and pick up some 4x4's. I cut away half of the wood at each intersection point to create a plush base. 

See that wood on the right? That is the wood that I used for the table top. I had to plane, rip, and cut the boards to the appropriate size. This picture shows the frame of the table. 

I have a special design planned for the table and I had to add some plywood as a solid base for the table top. 

This is the table in place after getting stained.

The other view of the base.

This is the table after stain. I did a concrete inlay so a hot pan can be placed directly on the table top. The concrete has broken beer bottles as the aggregate. I put on a Walnut stain and the concrete has a  beeswax coating to repeal water.