Pallet Wood - yes or no?

[Hugh Jardon]

We've just had some equipment delivered, and there's a pallet going begging at work. Is the collective wisdom that it's free wood, so take it, or is it that it's more trouble than it's worth?

[Brian Williamson]

I built a Stickley style dining room chair from an oak pallet. The nail holes just add character!

[Jason Rutkowski]

Watch for metal! I smoked a set jointer knives with "free" pallet wood. I never seen a hidden nail, even after i throughly checked by eye and hand. Get yourself a good metal detector.

[Brian Kincaid]

Damage and wear to cutting edges due to metal bits, dirt ground into wood means it is just not worth the effort to me.

Same with crating plywood. If it were quality material they would not have used it for pallet / crating.

-Brian

[Tony Bilello]

..... Is the collective wisdom that it's free wood, so take it, or is it that it's more trouble than it's worth?

This ought to be an interesting debate. I think it would be more interesting if responders would also state their motives.
If you are in favor of reclaiming wood, is it for environmental sake, because it would be a cool thing to do or are you strictly money motivated.
I am not a 'reclaimer' because it is too risky to my tools and way too time consuming. I would rather build than reclaim. I can certainly understand why others would have a completely opposite point of view.

So for me. it is more trouble than it is worth.

[Tom Esh]

No way for woodworking, but great for mulch. A local company shreds them and dyes it. Breaks down much slower than the pulp or sawmill variety.

[Hugh Jardon]

Thanks for the comments so far.

It's strictly a money thing, not an environmental thing.

I'm thinking I can probably get up to 3BF out of it, and so that's $10-$15 of "good money" saved.

A secondary motive is that on the "slats", there's some cup and bow, so I'm thinking that would make some good training on the jointer (I'm a recent jointer owner), and it won't matter if the whole thing ends up as matchwood.

On the other hand, if it costs me $50 in blades to save $20 of wood, that's poor economics. But then again, if that $30 difference teaches me something about the jointer, then it's not badly-priced education.

[Neil Brooks]

I haven't, but I'm pretty sure I will.

I got a metal detector, finally.

The free part is intriguing, of course, but .... then ... so is the "environmental" aspect.

That doesn't have to be your motivation ... not even 1% ... but you STILL do the deed, and can make mention of it, if you choose.

As you know, though, some pallets are ab-so-lute garbage. Have to be pretty particular. I don't have much interest in planing down to a 1/8" board ;)

[Neil Brooks]

Which reminds me:

Maybe we should add:

- haven't, and don't plan to

- haven't, but just might

:D

[Jim Rimmer]

I pick up some pallets at work ocassionally but I only get the new, one-use stuff. I use it for practice and prototypes. Many years ago I had a friend that owned a Kubota dealership and he offered me their crates and said they were mahogany. My guess it is pretty cheap Phillipine or Luaun. He was paying to have it hauled off. Don't know if they still make them out of it now or not. I thought I might check with the local Kubota guy now that I have a jointer and planer but as mentioned by others I would only want clean and will get a metal dtector.

[Zach England]

You couldn't pay me enough to dismantle pallets. What a PITA. I screw them together and use them as compost bins.

[John Denture]

Clean the wood up with a stiff bristle brush to remove as much grit and dirt as possible. Consider spraying it down with water and letting it dry before using the brush, depending on the character of the dirt. Use a metal detector if you have even the slightest suspicion that you have not gotten out all the nails.

I recently deconstructed some pallets and got some absolutely beautiful old red oak, some excellent poplar, and some nice maple. A lot of newer pallets are really made with junk wood, but if you find some older ones sitting around, they can be a gold mine of tight grained, nicely figured wood hiding under a grey patina.

[Ray Newman]

Since 'ya nevva' know what's in the wood or might missing something from a visual inspection, pass on using it. A good metal detector will warn of metal, but if you don't have one, you're taking a chance.

Myself, I just can't see taking the chance of ruining your jointer knives and incurring the replacement or re-sharpening expen$e and the time (and some will include the frustration) to install and re-set the knives?....

[Paul Johnstone]

I can get 3 board feet of wood for much less than $10-15.

FAS grade oak, kiln dried for less than $2/bd ft
Check Craigslist, you can get air dried stuff for around a $1 bd foot.
Since you are thinking about pallet wood, you obviously don't have a preference for wood species.

Again, if you want to save money, check the materials section of CL. Be prepared to give the wood a good look over. There's a couple small sawmill owners in our area that advertise there. You will also see the occasional guy getting out of the hobby or whatever that needs to get rid of some wood. Although it really helps if you have enough money to buy 100-300+ board feet at a time when the opportunity is available. But a lot of the small sawmill guys will sell you as little as you want.

[Mike Whelan]

I just finished my workbench about a month ago. It's probably about 80% pallet wood. Here's a link.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=136438

[David Gregory]

Grab it and enjoy the freebie!!! I've reclaimed many pallets and have gotten some rare and very pretty woods from them. Where I work we're always getting in shipments from Canada on rather large pallets. The runners are usually 3"X4" Maple and the top boards are generally 6" X 1" Maple with some running as wide as 10" down to 3" wide. When nails are removed and the wood is surfaced some of the smoothest and prettiest grain you ever saw is there. So far, I haven't built anything much using any of it, but I am stacking this for future projects. At today's retail for those dimensions of Maple, I'm sitting on around $2,000.00 of lumber right now.

[Paul Hingco]

I've only used it once and had pretty good results. I followed the advice of using a metal detector though. Definitely worth the investment.

[Tom Lowry]

Great source for cheap wood, just watch for nails, screws and staples that can wreck your shop tools. I watch what comes on the dock and grab the oak pallets that have at least 4/4 runners and good decking that are still in fairly new condition. Nails can be a bear to pull out of oak after they rust a little.

Here is one thing I built from pallets.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/DesertSkies/Wod%20Werkin/ModelWagon.jpg

[Dennis Ford]

I voted yes, but would like to qualify that. The excessive number of nails can be a lot of trouble. Some pallets / crate lumber have sections without nails, usually only a foot or two long, I like that stuff. Rarely will I resort to salvaging a piece with a bunch of nails.

[John Coloccia]

I usually take pallets, if for no other reason than firewood/kindling.

[Scott T Smith]

I voted "no" for the following reasons.

First, pallet wood is usually manufactured from very low grade - ie logs that would not make the grade for furniture grade wood.

Second, pallet kilns are operated so as to dry the wood quickly and sterilize it, with no concern for wood integrity. You will find a lot of case hardening, checking, and other defects in pallet wood. You will likely see more wood movement than normal during the seasonal changes.

Third, pallets are often drug through the dirt, embedding rocks and other debris which is detrimental to just about all woodshop equipment.

Fourth, depending upon where the pallet is from, other unsavory items can be present in the wood. Think of chemical spills on the pallet, etc.

Fifth, the slats are usually pretty small - you are limited with what you could build with them.

In short, IMO the risks outweigh the rewards.

[Jim Mattheiss]

I got a pallet and disassembled it. I only used the cross boards as the runners were mangled. In one pallet I got some sort of spalted maple which was BEAUTIFUL. In the same pallet some other cross boards had the visual impact of vanilla pudding - no character what so ever. I made a jewelry box out of the maple and firepit ash out of the rest of the pallet.

You'd need a large supply of pallets to build a single chair I'd think.

Cheers

Jim

[Randy Gazda]

My local turning club meets at hardwood lumber outlet. We decided to use some pallet wood scrap for a demo one day. Within minutes of starting to turn the wood, half the group was gasping for air. It didn't appear to be treated wood, someone guessed it was teak. I don't know what it was, but it was nasty on the airways.

On the other hand, I have a pair of sawhorses that I built from packing/pallet wood, they work great.

Just my two cents worth.

[Brendan Plavis]

IT was most likely just really plain a** dirty....


But, I wouldnt use pallats too too much, as I really wouldnt want the 'sharp spinny things' to hit the 'sharp pointy things'..... I mean, if I saw some really nice wood in a few of them, I would grab them, but I would then go over them with a fine tooth comb, as well as a magnet test....

[Clarence Miller]

I scavenge through pallets and have found some beautiful 1/4 sawn oak under some grime. Use a metal detector and a belt sander to remove the grime.

[Joe Mioux]

I get palletized supplies all the time, thus lots of pallets.

I usually give them back to one of my vendors.


I really don't want to spend the time pulling nails.

[Kevin Groenke]

If it's not gritty, I'll sometimes give it a chance. Usually I just take a circular saw between the skids rather than pulling nails, though the Crescent nail puller (http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/ProductImages/assembly/173621.jpg) works great. I once scored ~500bdft of misc asian hardwoods used as dunnage in shipping containers. Hardly any nail pulling there (that was the good ol' days).

-kg

[Lee Koepke]

brush clean and hit it with a belt sander (well ventilated area) before you put any good tool blades to it. Me, even though I knew better .... caused me an early flip of my planer blades because of the gritty residue. got some nice oak out of it.

[Joe Shinall]

I'm making bookcases from birch pallets. I went from having to buy 10 sheets of birch ply at $40 a sheet to buying $2 pallets and only 3 full sheets of ply. Cut my cost down over $300 just for pulling nails and filling them with bondo. Painting the bookcases so didn't have to worry about the grain condition.

So yeah, to me it's worth it when you are doing a hobby on a budget ;)

And the 2x4's from the bottom that I pulled off and any scrap ply, I rip down and use for mockup pieces.

[Jim Rimmer]

At 9:20 PM CDT it looks like an even split. I quailify my response by saying the pallets I get are one time use only, clean, and I go over them very carefully for metal, including nails and any other that might get picked up somewhere.

[fRED mCnEILL]

I used to get product delivered to me weekly on a pallet. When I first got into woodworking I took a pallet and dimantled it for the wood. From the stringers I got the nicest 4X3 in. maple and thought I had hit the motherlode. I was excited about all this beautiful free wood I was going to get.

But that was the first AND ONLY decent wood I found. Subsequent pallets were of poor quality so I gave up.
Fred

[John Shuk]

It just really depends on the pallet and condition. We get some pallets at work that have gorgeous wood. I've not made anything with it but in the right persons hands some very nice boxes could be made. I say go for it but watch out for pitfalls. The resin coated nails make life a bit harder when taking them apart. I recommend just cutting the good wood away.

[glenn bradley]

I vote yes. LOML and I make all sorts of things out of them. Milled thin they are fun for scroll work, small boxes, pencil holders, etc. We tagged these items as "PalletArt" and have quite a bit of fun without the fear of botching a new idea on expensive material. The scraps and failures go to the stove at my dad's.

[Joe Spear]

It really does depend on the quality of the wood in the pallet. Some pallets are worthless, but a few years ago I found an 8-foot-long pallet in a Lowes parking lot. I threw it on top of the van, took it home, and dismantled it by cutting the boards next to the nailed joints with a reciprocating saw. I checked for metal in the boards, found none, sanded with a belt sander to clean it up, and machine-planed lightly. I edge-glued the boards to make panels. When I was finished with the whole project I had a new underfence cabinet for my Jet Xacta cabinet saw.

[Hugh Jardon]

Thanks to all for their replies.

It seems as though "yes" is slightly ahead of "no", but that was the other way round yesterday.

All of which tells me there isn't much in it, and probably has more to do with the condition of the specific pallet itself, rather than a general yes or no.

This one is quite clean, so I think I will take it.

[Kevin Lucas]

I love pallets as a wood source. Their usually cheap or even free and since I'm cheap (reads broke) I use a lot of slats to make display boxes. Yes they do have nails but they aren't that hard to get out. They do hurt planar blades (my fault I didnt cut off the end of the board) if you get metal.

I look at craigslist daily and you can find some from big companies for free making me wish I had a truck and not a tiny Rav4 ) Another source is pallet refurbishers. New cheap pallets, 5 boards for a buck or 2$ for 5 2x4s. I'm drooling over a BIG stack of long wide hardwood and waiting for a relative with a truck to show up! Its a treasure hunt you never know what you will find. You can get some beautiful stuff out of "junk".

[Allen Tomaszek]

From time to time I get pallets at work that are made from nice wood. Qsawn oak, walnut, every now and then a curly maple board will show up. I just use them for small projects. The vast majority I don't bother with just because of the time involved in dismantling, denailing, etc but that doesn't mean that it's not worth it for someone else. Go for it. Then you'll know if it's worth it to you.

[Roger Benton]

there's a sheet metal retailer two doors down from my shop, they get raw stock delivered on 10-12 foot long pallets, the long skids of which are 3"x4" hardwoods of various species. They break them down and store it all in stacks until there's too much at which point they call a dumpster service to cart it off.
Every now and then some buddies and I will pick through the stacks and collect a dozen or two of the straightest boards. Mostly poplar but lots of maple, beech, oak, some cherry, and some other white - blonde hardwoods I can't identify. Besides using smaller pieces for furniture parts, they are great for making cauls, jigs, shop tables, shop carts, clamp racks, sawhorses, dollies, etc. Part of my workbench top and the vice chop are pallet wood. When we get a large delivery of wood or steel we always have skids.
Since it's free wood, I have absolutely spending the time with a metal detector to find the odd nail, or brushing off the dirt. If some boards are really covered in dirt I'll hose them off, they're dry in a day or two.

So basically my answer is:
go for it.

[Donny Lawson]

I think pallet wood is great. You never know what you will find.I've got some Mahogony boards from the runners.They will be great for small projects.I made my daughter an oak wagon out of pallet wood and it turned out nice.
Donny

[Keith Christopher]

Couple of items in my mind.

1) if it's free and it's not all busted up some nice wood in some pallets.
2) If you want to save your tools invest in a drum sander.
3) hand plane (or power hand plane) the edges before jointing. (get rid of ground in dirt and hand planer knives are cheaper.
4) if it looks good and works in your project, USE it.


Just my 2cents.

[Richard Dragin]

I made this tool box from pallets at work. There were shippments of Luan and the pallet wood seems to be the same which I believe is Philippine Mahogany.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j147/DraginRichard/IMG_0474.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j147/DraginRichard/IMG_0483.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j147/DraginRichard/IMG_0484.jpg

[Keith Harrell]

Yes, Keep in mind that it may not be dry to 8 percent. I made a lathe stand and was very surprised how much I had to tighten the bolts every week.
Free oak is always good.