I’m very excited to share today’s post today because this is the first time I am sharing a video with you. The video, time lapsed video was my husband’s idea and the day we did it I was more nervous about the video than the doing the project. So what am I doing in the video? Making a USA Pallet Wall Art with the jigsaw.
Before we get to this cool video let me share the the first steps of making this USA Pallet Wall Art. You start with pallet boards and a map. I found this map at a local education store for about $6.
- Cut out the outline of the USA.
- Lay out your pallet boards. Use enough boards for your cutout to fit. Pallets are often warped so you may have to flip or turn end for end to get the best fit and least gap space between boards. While your working on your board arrangement lay the cut out on top and left in different spots to see if any knots or gouges and things like that will fall in places you don’t want. You can even cut the end off of a wonky board if making that cut will leave a smaller gap between boards.
- With the map cut out where you want it make marks on the sides of the boards, like mark where the edge of Maine, Florida, Texas and so on will fall. Also mark where shortened boards line up to neighboring boards. You are going to flip all these board over now and after making sure the front is how you want it these marks will be your guide. You can sand off the marks in the end.
- Flip over all of the boards in order and line up the marks you made.
- Cut a piece of plywood to the approximate size of all of your boards laid out.
- Using construction adhesive such as Liquid Nails, glue the plywood to the back of your pallet boards. To pull all of the boards flat to the plywood add screws. It would be a good idea to flip over your map and lay it on top so that you add screws away from the map outline area since you will be cutting with a jigsaw on those lines and don’t want to cut through screws. Make sure to get screws in each board on both ends. Now let all of that sit so the glue can set up.
- Before you start cutting the shape with the jigsaw you can cut off some of the larger portions of boards with a circular saw.
- Now you are ready for the jigsaw. This is a good Jigsaw to use.
Here’s my DIY video debut:
That is a lot of jigsawing. The video is only about 25 seconds long but I was cutting for over an hour.
Here are some tips for using a jigsaw:
- Always be aware of what you are cutting off and what you are keeping. You can make additional cuts but can’t really add the would back on.
- It’s ok to cut small areas off at a time. Something this large can’t be done in one continues cut. (maybe a super pro)
- Slow down for curves. Try backing up some for tighter curves
- Sometimes coming from the other side makes a cut easier
- Use an air compressor to blow the quickly accumulating saw dust off of the pallets so you can see your cut lines
At this point you are ready to be done but don’t stop, it’s closed to being finished. The whole piece will be rough so you will need to sand it. My husband has an oscillating spindle sander, so we used that. But even that couldn’t get in all the tight spots. A Dremel would work great on all of the jagged edges of the map.
The USA Pallet Wall Art is very HEAVY. Carefully secure it to your wall. We made our own cleat and screwed those into the studs in our designated spot. We love this on our wall. We have thought about adding nails or tacks to each location we have visited together as a family. My daughter would like for just the state of Indiana to be painted on the map since that is where we live. We are thinking over all these ideas before we do anything else to it.
Thanks for Stopping By At Home with Sweet T!!!
-Tracy
