Compared to the labor you will be putting into it, the wood is pretty inexpensive. Why screw up a project to save a few bucks; especially when you consider the work necessary to simply get the wood ready, and all the scrap.
You may also have to work around defects like nailholes, and watch for embedded grit, as these pallets are set down anywhere. I've made a few boxes out of pallet scraps, and found that the sound of a planer blade hitting a piece of whatever, sucks! Tom Work at your leisure!
Tue, Jun 22, 2004, 10:16pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Spenzdad) ponders: Do you think if planed and edged that that type of wood would be satifactory for small projects?
Archives. Look.
- Bazooka Joe
You can do it. It is true that it takes some time and effort getting the wood ready but that is part of the challenge. IMHO The nail holes, cracks and wood defects add immeasurably to the interest of the completed project. All my projects are made with used or salvaged wood and metal. Good luck and post some pictures of your progress over on alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking.
Larry
Spenzdad schreef
The first step would be to recognise wood that would be satisfactory. Pallets have been made of all kinds of wood, but in better than 95% the wood of a pallet is suitable only for a pallet.
I have seen some pretty nice projects done locally out of pallet wood. A lot of the pallets manufactured in the southern kansas area are from lower grade native Oak, but some of the low grade lumber has interesting grain. The risk you run is inbedded objects such as nails, wire, etc. Some of our pallet lumber is harvested from hedge rows (barbed wire). A few busted planer blades can override the savings.
If you do this you might want to invest in a low end metal detector.
A friend of mine would be entertained by your reply. He has a stack of mahogany that he obtained by disassembling the pallets that Yamaha snowmobiles and personal watercraft came on. Seems like a waste of mahogany to me, but I wasn't the one paying for the mahogany.
That doesn't really make sense. Unless Yamaha makes the items in South America, they would have to import mahogany to make their pallets. That seems rather unlikely.
Fri, Jul 23, 2004, 9:22pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (toller) says: That doesn't really make sense. Unless Yamaha makes the items in South America, they would have to import mahogany to make their pallets. That seems rather unlikely.
I've been given to understand Japan imports a large amount of lumber/wood, so it would be possible. Mahogany also grows in southern Mexico, North America, Africa, the West Indies, and probably a few more places, too.
JOAT Every thing that happens stays happened.
- Death waxes philosophical
That has not been my experience. I'd say closer to 60%. Use some care in selecting the wood. It is not suitable if you want long lengths with no holes. I also have some 2 1/2" square that came from runners on a skid that will eventually become table legs. Now the initial skid was about 8' long and I had to cut some pieces out, but I have very nice 3' long sections.
Use a metal detector. I nicked a planer blade on a nail that I did not see. Ed
Pallets have been made of all kinds of wood, but in better than 95% of cases the wood of a pallet is suitable only for a pallet.
Edwin Pawlowski schreef
selecting the wood. It is not suitable if you want long lengths with no holes. I also have some 2 1/2" square that came from runners on a skid that will eventually become table legs. Now the initial skid was about 8' long and I had to cut some pieces out, but I have very nice 3' long sections.
The point I am trying to make is that the first step is to have a good eye for what wood is worthwhile. Just picking up a random pallet and trusting to the law of averages that this will give nice wood is very much a losing proposition.
Anybody asking the question OP asked is well advised to give it a miss. It would be entirely different if somebody asked "I have this pallet that seems to be made of this lovely mahogany. Is there a reason I should not be using this wood?". Then we could hem and haw about chemical preservatives (and drying problems and metal detectors). PvR
OTOH, it might be something more "interesting". Hoadley, in "Identifying Wood", has an anecdote about a friend who dropped off a bunch of samples for him to identify. After discovering that they were all new to him, Hoadley asked his friend where they came from, and his friend replied "crating boards from a Japanese motorcycle".
On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 22:20:03 +0200, "P van Rijckevorsel" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email
IME quite a few pallets are treated with something to stop rot, and bug attack. be careful.
***************************************************** It's not the milk and honey we hate. It's having it rammed down our throats.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.