Building the Potato Condo: Part Two - The Assembly

By the time I finished preparing and laying out all the pieces of the potato condo, I had already accumulated all the tools I needed.

Here's the full list:

• Hand Saw
• Jigsaw
• Oscillating Power Sander
• Drill
• Wood Screws

Now it was time to start putting everything together. I began with the sides. There were two beams of the first pallet that had broken in half the long way when I was making my first fumbling attempts at pallet disassembling. I used these as the frame for the structure, and started screwing the slats into place. I made sure to drill holes for the screws first, to avoid cracking the wood, as well as making the job easier.

Here you can see the front in progress, and then from the back once I completed the side. I made sure that the bottom was level, but decided the top didn't have to be, and the uneven line contributed to the rustic aesthetic.

When I was a kid and learning the fundamentals of building by helping my dad, he taught me some crucial sayings, including "measure twice, cut once." I didn't follow his advice this time, and I paid the price. Because I had eyeballed the majority of my measurements, not all of the slats were the exact same length. I solved this issue by cutting twice, using the jigsaw to remove any excess hanging over.

The front and back panels were completed in a similar manner, but the lengths of the slats did not have to be evened out. Instead, I decided to center them and allow the "imperfection" to become part of the design.

I attached the slats of the front and back panels to the same frame pieces that held the sides. During this phase, I had to be careful in the placement of my screws to be sure that none intersected.

Finally, on the front panel, I wanted to add a feature that would make it easy to harvest potatoes from the bottom of the container, rather than having to pull up and replant every time one was ready. I could always unscrew a few of the slats at the bottom, but I knew there was an easier way.

I used some scrap wood to attach three slats together, so that only two screws attached all three slats to the frame. This meant I could easily remove two screws, pull some potatoes, and then replace the panel. This design can easily be adapted to work with a hinge and a latch, but I didn't have any hinges lying around, and I had already made quite a few trips to the hardware store. Frankly, I was getting tired of all the driving.

Once everything was secured in place, I took the power sander to it again, just to make sure there weren't any splinters I may have missed. Structurally, the potato condo was complete at last. If I were growing outside and didn't care for any decoration, I could put it out in the yard as is and start planting. However, I did want to gloss it up a bit, and I didn't want water draining all over the floor in my basement, so I had a little bit more work to do. That's a story for another day.