Tri-fold Pallet based education fair display

For my Master's degree, I have to present a research project at a "poster session."  Rather than make a traditional cardboard poster, I created a tri-fold display out of what else...pallet wood.  Here is about I went about creating this work of art.

The raw materials, left over from the pallet bench build of 2012.

My table saw...

...skilsaw

Some of the pieces that I pulled off the pallets.  

One of a few pieces that did not make it.  I misplaced my nail puller.  So I was separating each board from the pallet the old fashioned way - hitting the shit out of the boards from behind. This piece did not last through the pounding. 

My saw horses...notice also made out of pallets with an old door on top. 

Due to several broken pallet pieces I had to incorporate some leftover birch I had from a shelf project.  I ripped the birch into 3 1/2" pieces to match the width of the pallet piece.  

I had two uses for the cutoffs and unused pieces.  First was to add to my fire pit pile.  

Here are all my birch and pallet pieces cut and ripped to size.  Stacked and ready to go. 

In my effort to be as frugal as possible, I used only left over sandpaper from my garage.  Here is what I had to work with. 

The birch was pretty smooth.  However, I had to sand the pallet pieces quite a bit.  In the front of this picture is a sanded piece contrasted with an unsanded piece in the back.  

Sanded on the left, unsanded on the right...

Here I begin laying out the pieces to form my display.  

Here is a better idea of what it will look like.  12 inch pieces on the sides and 24 inch pieces in the middle.  Along with some hinges it will fold into itself nicely...

I used 1 1/4" gold screws and some 3/4" plywood rips to keep the individual pieces together. 

 A look at the backside...

 Here are the pieces starting to take shape, all it needs is some hinges.

3" nickel door hinges will bring it all together...

Here is the near final product...

a shot of the hinges...

Here is the tri-fold display folded up...

One side open and one side folded up...

 My creative director suggested I incorporate blackboard paint.  I decided to turn the top two pieces into a  blackboard.  Here the boards are taped off and ready for paint.

First coat...

Al of my display pieces and research are laminated against black construction paper and affixed to the "poster" with 1 inch screws (the screws that came with the hinges - I used longer screws to attach the actual hinges).

Here is the final display piece.  MPQ stands for "Masters Project Question."  That is written in chalk on the blackboard paint.  

I mentioned above that I had two uses for my leftover pieces.  The first was firewood and the second was to enhance the previously mentioned pallet bench. I put some of the leftover pieces under the front to tilt the bench back a little, like an Adirondack chair.