Not necessarily trash such as milk jugs and packing peanuts, although that has happened - But more like items that people are planning to take to the Goodwill or broken pieces that people are trying to offload in their yard sales for $1. Growing up, my dad and granddad were always into thrifting/bargain hunting/picking, so naturally, I became rather fond of it all and begin doing it on my own as a sort of hobby. 

Today's piece is one of my favorite pieces that I've made thus far. I stumbled across this beautiful 120mm missile crate at a giant junk sale. There were mounds upon mounds of junk in this guy's front yard, but way back in the corner I spotted this crate, you guessed it, full of junk. Since it was fully functional and in great shape, I asked the guy what he wanted for it and his almost instant response was, "$20 with everything in it". I wasn't interested in the crap inside, nor was I willing to pay $20, so I thanked him and started to walk away. Suddenly he spoke up, "well how much were you hoping to spend? Let's dance!". After taking a moment to think, I told him I was hoping more in the $5 range - after all, it's just an old crate. He wasn't willing at that price, so he responded with, "how about we meet at $10?". I was a bit stunned that he was willing to drop it $10 in that instance, but I could also tell that he wanted it gone - So being the obnoxious bargainer I am, I told him I would do $7 and he could keep the stuff inside...He fumbled around in the crate for a minute, pulled out a couple of hand saws and said, "fine, $7 it is, but you can keep all the other junk!".

Crates in this size and conditions with the markings visible can be sold to the right person for $25 or more, but of course, I had bigger plans. This needed to be more usable in every day life.

Later on, I came across those random pieces of steel in a free box and snatched them up to use as legs. I also happened to have a spare piece of glass at the house that turned out to be perfect for this piece.

This was the simplest project ever - All I did was a bit of surface prep such as cleaning and light sanding, being careful to leave the words in tact. I then brushed on a coat of BLO (boiled linseed oil). Once dry, I waxed the entire outer surface, screwed on the legs and set the glass atop the crate. That's it! Super simple.