WebEcoist’s 20 pallet DIY woodworking projects
Back in the days when items shipped in wooden crates, many woodworkers got their start building projects out of that packaging material. With cardboard replacing wooden crates, there is still one excellent resource for finding project wood on the cheap – wooden pallets.
This green online green site offers some interesting inspiration for projects that can be built with recycled shipping pallets. From the whimsical to the uber-practical, readers can find all types of links to plans to turn trash to woodworking treasure.
Sure, there are several standard caveats when dealing with pallets:
- They may belong to a shipping company, so ask before you take them!
- They are typically assembled with a bajillion staples and nails, so be sure to go through them carefully to ensure you get all of the metal out before you start to work
- They are also usually filled with all kind of grit which can easily dull your blades. Clean them thoroughly with a wire brush and a blast of compressed air to dislodge the worst of it.
Tom I use pallet wood to make beer mugs and Ice Chest
http://www.facebook.com/borgswood
come on by and check them out.
Another thing to be careful of is that they aren’t stained. Some pallets, especially if they’ve been international, can have had ‘stuff’ leaked on them. Stuff you really don’t want to be atomizing and breathing.
I’ve done a few things with pallet wood before and for me it’s debatable as to whether or not it’s worth the time, energy, and wear and tear to reclaim the wood.
90% of the wood I use came from a large stamping plant just outside Chicago.
They brought in their steel coils on big oak pallets, and the plant manager, who was a really nice guy, allowed me to take some.
You help slow down the land fill and the lumber price is mostly the labor of dismantlement.
(plus a cutting mistake doesn’t result is a big $$ lose…lol)
Here are just two of the things I’ve made from it.
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/18413
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/57379
Jamison Sellers makes his furniture out of pallet wood: http://www.jamisonsellers.com/
Many of the pallets he finds are exotics. After all, they’re made from whatever is cheap and local, so if you’re shipping from Africa, southeast Asia, or the tropics, the locally-available woods are our exotics.