I am building a compost bin out of discarded pallets for our new place. However the particular pallets we found for this job had wide gaps between each slat, which isn’t ideal for the job of holding compost in.

I had already removed one side of each pallet (we don’t need double walls), giving a number of spare planks. Last night, I set to cutting each plan in half lengthways, creating battens that could fill the gaps enough to stop material spilling out while still leaving room for air circulation.

To begin with, I worked by hand but I am glad I had an electric saw; it didn’t take long to realise that the time to set it up would be more than paid back by the speed of getting the job finished and the promise of not wearing my arms out in the process!

Tonight I might go back and finish the job but with ear plugs — nailing the battens on was too noisy a job in the confines of our utility room!