What to build with wooden pallets?

[Peter Quinn]

I heard a statistic on NPR the other day that 40% of the worlds annual hardwood harvest is used for shipping crates and pallets. Some of it is not so bad though I doubt much is at the prime end of the scale. At the flooring mill I worked at the lumber packs arrived separated by 4"X4"X48" blocking to accommodate fork lifts. They were strapped to the packs so were always KD (I checked them).

I found SA mahogany, bloodwood, sapele, jatoba, liginum vitae, oak, cherry, walnut...majority were #2 common poplar junk. We got pallets occasionally made of QSWO, boy those staples and ring nails are a bugger. Most of the pallets were southern yellow pine or poplar with occasional oak cross members.

Its cool to recycle pallets but you do have rocks, nails, mold and other hazards to deal with. And more often than not the wood isn't of much use, but keep your eyes open and you may find some worth working for.

[Rick Levine]

Some pallets are useable. I got a couple of decent ones from where I used to work that were used to ship a safe and some heavy refrigerators. They were oak. Also, Norm used some to make this:

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?404

[Mike Heidrick]

It is funny you mention this. The farmer behind me has a pile of them at the end of my property for burning latter this spring. I went out with my forks and picked up 7 of the heavy duty ones. Not for WW but to store my tractor 3pt implements on to keep them off the ground during the winter. Some of them said IBM Z series on them and were used to ship the big mainframes IBM has. Looked out back today and there looks to be more of them so I will go back and check them out again tomorrow.

[Matt Crew]

My wife had requested that I make benches for her dolls that she collects, so I've begun to make them from pallet material that I had gotten from work.
One is glued up but the other two are set together.
The first picture is of a piece of what I thought was ash before I milled it up, but now I'm not really sure. Maybe some one else could tell.
Then a nice piece of qsro.
I think pallets are great for small projects, but you need to use a metal detector.

[jim oakes]

Some pallets are useable. I got a couple of decent ones from where I used to work that were used to ship a safe and some heavy refrigerators. They were oak. Also, Norm used some to make this:

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?404

You could grind them up and make paper. Then print plans on the paper, sell the plans and get rich and famous like Norm!

Actually back when I had more time than money around 1970 ,I laminated pallet wood into 3x3's and made some glass top parsons tables out of them. I got alot of money for them.
Well,they were covered with Brazilian Rosewood veneer!

Today I might get more money for them if I left off the veneer and called them "green".

[fRED mCnEILL]

In my business I get a pallet every week from Coke. 10 years ago or so, when I first started woodworking I cut up one of these pallets and got the most beautiful peice of maple. I thought I had found the "motherlode" and would have a constant supply of nice wood. But the next few I cut up had no useable wood in them at all. Haven't used one since except as a "pallet"

Fred Mc.

[Rob Will]

I would "season" those pallets outside until they become compost. Then, plant a nice walnut or cherry on that spot. In about 50 years, you can make something really nice.

Just kidding but I don't think it is worth it.

Rob

[Daniel Shnitka]

Given the length between the outside and middle or centre support you have enough usable wood without pulling a nail. I have made made beer cases for the cermaic top beer bottles from the companies like Grolsch or Fischer. A dozen bottles to a case.
Using a inexpensive carbide blade in your "skill" saw cut next to the nails. Wear gloves goggles and ear protection when doing the cutting. You will be surprised how quickly you can have a useable supply of nail free wood albeit short lengths 17", 18" and 19" lengths.

[Sam Yerardi]

I wouldn't hesitate to use pallet wood. I've used it on several occasions and while it is usually a tremendous amount of work to get the wood to a usable point, more often than not it has been worth it for me. I've gotten white oak, red oak, cherry, sycamore, hickory, and some types I still can't identify... And I've picked up some Japanese crates that had wood I'd never seen before (and don't know what it is). One pallet had 3" x 6" x 6' beams across the bottom that was a wood similar to pine but was unique. No idea what it is. Pallets are a lot of work (especially the oak pallets) but can prove to be a real treasure trove. On a few pieces I had to use a sledge hammer, crowbar, and a spud bar to break some of it up but most of it came apart without too much trouble. And yes, watch out for nails...

[Joe Unni]

I made a shoji lantern some time ago with oak from a pallet. You can check it out here.

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.p...ighlight=shoji

I actually found it kind of fun to figure out what to make once I had the pallet and other reclaimed materials on hand.

-joe

[Doug Shepard]

Just sticker it for a while and make sure it's dry first (or check it with a moisture meter). I've made a few shop things out of pallet wood and didn't have any problems. My uncle didn't have as good luck with some he got that was obviously pretty green. He made some end table tops that eventually cracked and split so bad he had to toss them and remake the tops.

[Jeff Mohr]

Given the length between the outside and middle or centre support you have enough usable wood without pulling a nail. I have made made beer cases for the cermaic top beer bottles from the companies like Grolsch or Fischer. A dozen bottles to a case.
Using a inexpensive carbide blade in your "skill" saw cut next to the nails. Wear gloves goggles and ear protection when doing the cutting. You will be surprised how quickly you can have a useable supply of nail free wood albeit short lengths 17", 18" and 19" lengths.

Yep...I've done that and found some real nice wood. Currently working on some white oak I got from one pallet. Cutting the pallet like stated above does give you nail free pieces perfect for small projects and the time it takes to zip through the wood is not too bad. Plus, you still get the leftovers for firewood!

[Tim Thomas]

Lets say that you wanted a pearl necklace. To satisfy that desire you have several basic options: (1) Go to a jewelry store and buy the pearls, (2) Search through estate sales, garage sales, pawn shops, etc. to find a good deal, (3) Get some diving gear, travel to a place that has a lot of oysters and dive for hundreds of them in the hopes that you find enough pearls to make the necklace.

If option number 3 sounds like it would be the most fun to you (and it does to me) then you will probably enjoy the hunt for usable wood in pallets, and the subsequent work that is required to clean up that wood. If you just want to get some inexpensive wood, I think there are a lot easier ways to do it (like option 2). And if you don't enjoy hunting for your wood at all and would rather just get out in the shop and make what you want right away, with the best quality wood you can get your hands on, then option 1 is what will make you the happiest.

I've done all of these things. I've bought wood from a nice lumber yard, picked up some great cherry at a garage sale, and just yesterday I got a whole bunch of oak, pine and poplar pieces by cutting up some heavy duty pallets that Mark Springer was nice enough to tell me about. I actually enjoy all of these methods for different reasons, but I am certainly sympathetic to those folks who don't want to spend time sifting through pallets. It is a lot of work, but I feel an amount of satisfaction out of it that I don't get from buying lumber. It just feels like I'm "rescuing" the wood and it makes for a cooler backstory to whatever projects I make.

[Mike Heidrick]

Food for thought for this Monday morning. Chances are, depending on what you build with it, the pallet may be serving a better purpose being a pallet than wood in your project. Why not just let it do its utility job of being the middlewood between a heavy object and a machine that can lift heavy objects. Trying to repurpose a pallet is only done on purpose.

[David Epperson]

This is exactly why HF sells so many 7-1/4" carbide tipped blades for $2.97 ea. So you hit a nail or three - just keeps the edge on the blade.