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CJ's 4H recycling project

Jonathan Shively

Jonathan Shively

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8,123
Location
North West Indiana
Warning, this will be picture heavy. Have two old tailgates, one a green Dodge Ram tailgate off of one of Fina's (CJ's mom) old pickups and a white Chevrolet tailgate off of a truck my mom and dad rolled over 6 times when they got hit in the driver's door from a car that ran a stop sign. Anyway, wood was from trusses and lumber I got from a house building company (TollBrothers, Inc) that went out of business. I knew the truck driver that was supposed to haul the lumber to the landfill, he hauled all the spec trusses and wall patterns to my house. Been scavenging and burning in my outside wood boiler for two years now. In the entire project, only 4 - 3/8 X 8" carriage bolts, 4 flat washers and 8 nuts were purchased. Even reused screws I took from the wall patterns. Paint was left over from his woods project from last year. Here goes the pictures:

CJ figuring out how the tailgates should meet together.
CJ bench idea.jpg


CJ washing the tailgates we had laying around the farm.
CJ washing tailgates.jpg


When the girls were little and we had a lot of ponies with different diets, we had mousetraps on each stall so they would feed each pony correctly. Well the fan kept blowing our "detailed" plans around so we put it on a converted mousetrap to hold it in place.
CJ bench plans.jpg

Did not get any cutting and assembly pictures as we were busy. Here he is sanding the front brace.
CJ sanding front brace.jpg
 
Alright, here is the bench finished except for some clovers and a saying, "4H is 4U". Think the white clovers and letters will liven up the paint job. In the meantime, here is CJ on his bench.

CJ on finished bench.jpg

CJ, Lou and Bear.
CJ and Maamaw (Lou).jpg

CJ and me!
CJ and Bop (me).jpg

I really will try to update with the white enhancements on it and also at the end of the month how it does at the county fair.
 
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I absolutely love this. John, you are a treasure to those around you (physically and virtually). Congrats to you both!
 
Very cool. I've spent some time sitting on opened tail gates out in the country. That's a great project that will definitely be around years and years from now.
 
glenn bradley said:
I absolutely love this. John, you are a treasure to those around you (physically and virtually). Congrats to you both!
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I have held this project until I thought he was capable of completing it. His skills were up to it. He ran the sliding compound miter saw very well, not his first time with the sander, I admit to doing the dados on the table saw for him. My wife will tell you I am something, don't know if her words would be, "treasure" most of the time! :ROFLMAO: Thanks!

Ted Calver said:
Well done CJ!! Nice addition to the homestead or wherever it ends up. :thumb::thumb::thumb:
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That is being debated between Lou and Fina! Thanks Ted.

Brent Dowell said:
Very cool. I've spent some time sitting on opened tail gates out in the country. That's a great project that will definitely be around years and years from now.
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Me too and that is what I always thought wrong with most tailgate benches, they have the pretty side up if used for the bottom so you know what it is. Using two tailgates eliminates this problem and gives you the feel of really sitting on one (for those that have experienced that). It was built with years of use in mind.
 
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