Woodworker or Content Creator

[Edward Weber]

Thanks for the link, I found it very informative.

Now, pallet wood in general, what's the allure?
It's just previously used wood. It's usually low quality, it's dirty to work with and time consuming. Not everyone who uses pallet wood is "upcycling" out of the goodness of their hearr, it's mainly because they think they got something for free.

I showed this video to SWMBO and she asked me how much would it cost to make it out of normal lumber, like maple or oak. to which I replied, well not 10k, I think I could come in a little less than that.

[Edwin Santos]

Now, pallet wood in general, what's the allure?

Just my opinion, but short answer - none.

I'm not even sure I understand why pallet wood projects make such effective entertainment, but it seems that they do.

Here in Phoenix, there is a placed called Porter Barn Wood which deals in well, reclaimed barn wood. Now that's a different story. Usually beautiful old growth hardwood. I walked in there one day when they were receiving a truckload of reclaimed gym floor from an old school in the Midwest.
I can understand the allure of the reclaimed wood "look", weathered or distressed. But there are better ways to achieve it than junk dirty pallet wood. For example, I know a craftsman who simulates rough sawn wood by resawing it through his bandsaw with the guides way opened up and a coarse blade.

[Bryan Hall]

Some of the hourly breakdown doesn't sound right to me at all:

25 hours to breakdown the pallets
Jointing: 15 hours
Planing: 18 hours
Table sawing (?) 12 hours
Glueing up panels: 10 hours + 4 hours
Sanding: 16 hours

and on and on...

Even with the amount of pallet wood he broke down I just don't see how you can burn that much time?

[andrew whicker]

I can't believe he's face jointing them! Just run those things thru a planer flip and repeat. crazy.

[andrew whicker]

Haha, contractor saw, cheap oscillating sander... BUT Festool orbital sander. Who is this guy?

lol

Good music though.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Bob Taylor's pallet guitar is an interesting creation.

[Norman Pirollo]

I didn't realize "making furniture from pallet wood" was still a thing. I can imagine dealing with all those nails. A while back another woodworker, obviously to draw attention, did a twist on this. He made a pallet from some old furniture

Norman

[Edward Weber]

I went back and read the break-down again, it just doesn't make any sense at all. All of his hours seem like they were pulled out of somewhere.
14 Hours mortising, really, where? 16 hours cutting tenons?
5 gallons of glue, I could make that with less than 1 gallon.
I could go on and on, but it hurts.

This brings me back to the beginning.
This guy, by his own admission, wants to get views. The woodworking (if you can call it that) is secondary at best, and all of that is fine. What really gets to me is the amount of likes and the fawning comments, like:
"So many words to describe your work and the pride you put in it... It's simply amazing!"
"Amazing you are so professional and detailed in every corner"

19k views and 1781 comments, mostly all positive from what I've seen.
This is what people these days think a woodworker is, makes me want to puke.

Thanks for letting me rant

[Warren Lake]

While back Rich Rebuilds put an LS motor in a Tesla.

Now that was cool.

[Bryan Hall]

I agree, it's disappointing. I get that we live in a smash and grab all the money you can kind of world but I struggle with how acceptable it is to be dishonest/misleading.

[John Pariseau]

Now, pallet wood in general, what's the allure?

Pallets are free - who wants to turn down FREE MONEY (slight sarcasm here)?
I'm into rustic-looking stuff, so starting with pre-distressed wood gives the final product a bit more "charm"
You can work pallet wood into something beautiful/clean looking - that transformation from cracked/rusted board to a clean, finished product gives one a sense of accomplishment
Sometimes you get oak, most often "pine", sometimes weird wood that you can't identify - the mystery is what matters

All that being said... it's a lot of work to break down pallets into useable pieces without cracking the boards or leaving bits of metal behind. The tools to pry them apart are heavy, nails snap often preventing their extraction, need I mention slivers? I don't think it's cheaper to break them down, and relying solely on pallets limits what you can do if you want to do anything clean or predictable.

[Chris Parks]

I find a lot of useful stuff on YT both in WW and other hobbies but there is one thing I object to and that is the people who deliberately use their YT audience to convince a company(s) to supply all the tools and there are some very noticeable & prominent examples of this. I first became aware of it when someone tried to convince me it was a good idea to supply him with a dust extractor and I less than politely informed him that it was not going to happen. He was actually genuinely puzzled because in his mind I should be grateful he had asked me for the favour.

Another thing that turns me off instantly is the lazy greeting of Hey YouTubers, what's up? Seriously if they can't find a better opening line they haven't got much future because it just grates and I instantly move on.

[derek labian]

You guys... always the haters, so I'll play the contrarian. This guy is not trying to do "fine woodworking" and he's not trying to sell a product. It looks to me like he did it because he could and because it was entertaining to watch. I thought the video was well produced, and it looked like a lot of work to me, so I would guess his estimates were accurate. It's certainly way more than what I would be willing to do for the result. People like watching others take things to the extreme. Go look at some of the ridiculous things at https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/. They also like it being relatable in such a way that they could see themselves doing it. This guy's project is with pedestrian materials and tools so it has mass appeal. The more niche, the less appeal. See HGTV for further examples.

Just my opinion..

NOTE: I didn't watch the whole video, it's not up my alley, but I got the gist.

[Edwin Santos]

This subject has come up from time to time, so I thought I would share this.



I give him credit for his honesty

He was very honest about the abuse the pallet wood inflicted on his jointer and planer knives, including ruining the planer.
While he didn't say it in so many words, I think his message here is that it's not worth trying to build something out of pallet wood. Or if you're going to do it, be aware of all the cost and time implications.

Early on I was taught that dirty wood is damaging to tool edges. My mentor said dirt is basically tiny abrasive rocks. It was a shop rule to never lay wood directly on the ground, at the very least have it up on stickers or blocks. Plus we always cut off the 1-2 inches at the ends of boards to get away from the dirty ends that were dragged on the ground and whatnot. He would be writhing to see grimy pallet wood being run through tooling.

[Mel Fulks]

Even some expensive wood is going to have some grit in it. Some suppliers are careful about handing wood , avoid the ones who send
stuff with rocks stuck in it. Most material that gets planed will go through machine more than once. Some guys want to run everything
slowly and some truly believe that is good for planer. First pass, at least, should be run full speed . Some will question the validity of fast is
good and have to be fired.