East Linton Tool Library volunteer, Dave Foley, talks us through how to make cost effective, environmentally friendly flower pot holders by upcycling waste materials and using tools loaned from our Tool Library.
"A few weeks ago, we had decking installed at the back of our bungalow. My wife had asked me to make some flower pot holders to help create some attractive flower displays on the decking, so I asked the installer to leave me any useful offcuts of the decking planks, which he did.
The offcuts also included long, thin lengths that had been cut from full length decking planks to fill the final gap between the decking and the bungalow wall. These were ideal to create the corner joints and feet for the pot holders. I also had some single ply that I had saved from the packaging of a furniture delivery we had some six months earlier. I used this to fit across the base to rest the flower pots on.
To help make the construction of the holders easier I borrowed a handheld circular saw from East Linton Tool Library. This enabled me to cut the various decking lengths to size quickly with neat square ends. I loaned a cordless drill and drill bits to drill the holes so that inserting the screws did not splinter the wood, plus screwdriver bits to make the construction easy and quick.
After cutting the various components to length the pot holders were put together using the cordless drill, screw driver, set square and decking screws, the latter being the only purchase. In total the 5 pot holders I made cost under £6.
The photos show the raw components and the finished product!"
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