I live in south Africa and wood here is extremely expensive...at least to the average guy, I use old pallets to make headboards and other furniture, I use a disassembly tool and remove all nails , once it's gone through a thicknesser planer it's quite beautiful, the furniture I've made after sanding and staining is not rustic at all and comes out really smooth and professional looking, for me it's absolutely worth using and I'll keep at it
Greetings from Florida .He has most likely changed his mind now that the fool running our Country has caused wood to become extremely expensive as well.
I'm sure your furniture looks amazing(any videos?) But it's not just the nails you got to watch out for it's other stuff as well like stones & grit embedded into the wood & sometimes chemicals so quite a few hazards to look out for esp if you are using a thicknesser.
@@deancyrus1 I tried to copy a link for you but no luck, but here on RUclips there's tons of them, just punch in pallet tool, I use the type that has the long handle and two prongs at the end, its easy enough to make....don't even have to bend over to strip the pallet
I built all the shelving and benches in my garage using pallet wood. Saved me at least a thousand dollars and I just got them from work. Didn't have to go anywhere so it probably saved time too.
AWESOME! I’d Love to see that! Do you have any pictures? Is there some way you could show off what you did? Because I only turned this video on to .. probably oppose it. Im TOTALLY down for recycling reducing re-using & I actually have turned some really ugly palette wood into some nice looking pieces just with just Sanders. There’s tools for taking out staples & … I work around the things he’s talking about. I’m gojng to use as MUCH palette wood as possible in my garage shelving. And I’m going to put a lot of time into I don’t care I’m in no big rush. There is noooo reason to waste wood. I like that you saved money & made use of perfectly good wood that may otherwise have been thrown away. You’re awesome. Can I see?
The best takeaway I can see from this video and from the comments and from personal experience is that this is really up to the personal preference of the wood worker. Some may have the time, some, not. others may not WANT to spend the time.. it's all relative. I give a thumbs up for the info and time spent on making this video.
Now that is a very true and correct comment. It is really up to the individual. Though this guy does seem like a bit of a wood working snob. I really feel wood working on more of an artistry activity and encourage all people to build something useful or just plain cool looking.
I agree on most of what you say! But sometimes especially for rough projects it's worth it. Also in some occasions the dirty look of pallet wood adds a lot of character to a piece!
@@Littlelamb2023 You can ‘make’ rustic-looking wood without a great deal of time, and still work with clean, dry lumber that isn’t going to wreck your blades. Pallet wood sucks except in a woodstove.
I get my pallet wood from a nearby company that uses a lot of one way pallets. It's basically fresh from the saw mill. Yes, I have to disassemble it but now I'll never have to buy nails again. I built most of my workshop furniture with it by laminating it into 2x4s and such. So I guess I saved a bunch of money. Plus ppl throw away all kinds of things which land on the company's pile. Treated 2x4s upt 5 meters long, 2x6 and 2x8... Also a ton of expensive screws that I'll be able to use again. Sl for me it totally pays off to go there once in a while.
I personally have never had any dramas with pallet Wood. I collect mine from a local tile Shop, they have one off disposable pallets, so they are new, no chemicals and are only heat treated. I have decked out my entire work shop, floors, walls and ceilings for free. 👍🏽 Plus I have built an entire chook pen, 3 bay compost bins, countless outdoor day beds, raised dog beds, and so much more... I have a pallet breaker and never crack any boards when dismantling, I have an AirLocker pneumatic nail punch which means no hammer or crowbar needed for nail removal. I have save so much money by utilising what would become landfill.
When you are time rich and cash poor, it can be worth salvaging pallet wood for some projects. I've build a lot of gates and garden furniture from pallet wood and it all lasted many years and looked great. I'd never bother trying any fine wood working with it but for rustic outdoor projects it's great. You can also salvage a lot more wood than you did Colin if you take a little more care. An electorinic pipe / studfinder is a great way to test for any residual metal in the salvaged timber.
A strong magnet is also a super quick way to find metal, battery free. They rarely have non-magnetic metals in them...at least in my area I've never found it.
Time rich and money poor, but have a joiner and saws and planers, makes sense The only reason i would go for reclaimed wood is for it's look, not because it saves me money or time, it is not
Oh, Maxx, I hear you. I'm 74 and will celebrate three-quarters of a century-old soon. I'm on Social Security. I scrounge wood from wherever I can. I'm making a shop cart presently from salvaged wood.
dont need any fancy tools, i made a small chicken coop out of pallet wood with just a hand saw, hammer and elecrtric drill. i managed to get more out of the pallets than he did too.
Very good presentation! I agree with your analysis on the very limited cost saving. The one point I would like to add: most of these pallets are used in industrial applications. Having worked in a number of manufacturing plants I know there are all kinds of nasty (deadly?) chemicals that get spilled on them. I wouldn’t want to build something with them and have around family and friends. And I certainly would not want to burn them.
The secret i found to salvaging these things is to use a car jack and wind it open until it pops the nails out of the upper boards. Avoids the need to saw it at all. Of course its only worth doing if you find a frigging pristine pallet to cut up
My feeling is that many people see the pallets as a challenge to use more than anything else. I have seen people take pallet wood and make some pretty incredible projects with it. I like the idea that something that was eventually going to be thrown in a landfill or used for firewood is turned into something useful and beautiful. I saw one headboard project where the person screwed and glued pieces of pallet wood that were about 5 by 10 inches each into a thin MDF board and arranged them in a Herringbone pattern. They then sanded it silky smooth by hand and put a nice lacquer finish on it. It was really beautiful and much nicer than many headboards you would see in a furniture store.
You are complaining about what most call "character" the cracks, nails, imperfections. I did a shiplap wall with bought wood and one with pallet wood. The pallet wood wall looks much better.
I've used pallet wood to make a large log store outside, which would have cost me a couple of hundred to buy something smaller. It was time consuming yes, but for me I enjoyed doing it. I also don't have the planer or jointer, just table saw and portable saws. Also sanded down some pallet wood to make some boxes for the garage. Time eperience doing these things with free wood makes more sense than buying wood from the store that likely is just as warped anyway.
Completely agree, aside from the satisfaction of reducing waste in a landfill, i gained experience and tried skills that i would not have with store bough wood (although through bruised hands and splinters, i was tempted many time). I would do it again if i had to
Agree 100% it's a source of basic wood to make basic things, and at no cost is an opportunity to learn techniques. Also, like anything else in life, you have to be selective - the clean lightweight pallets that are used inside shipping cartons for some appliances are great if you can find them and don't want large dimension wood
That also depends on the type of pallets. I live near a bass boat manufacturer and they run an ad weekly offering free wood. What they have is huge crates. Many contain 4x4 and 6x6 oak ranging from 6 foot to 18 foot lengths. As for the basic shipping pallet like you show, I gave up on those a long time ago.
Pallet wood is only as good as it comes. I have found some really nice pallets on construction sites because some of the new machinery, or supplies come on new pallets custom made for whatever came on them, these are the pallets I look out for. Some specialty pallets are made of red oak, some are popular, even maple. Some have 3/8ths plywood in them. I have found tie down bolts in some, and some are held together with nice construction screws! Never goto a grocery store, or big box store for pallets, those are trash. Also, if you do get pallets from there, expect to make a rustic, old looking "thing" out of it, because of the aforementioned fact that you cannot run these piece into a planer. Hospitals, specialty suppliers, and big industrial construction sites are the places to look. I should also mention that these specialty pallets are often much longer and have boards 8-12 feet in length, making the time to recover them worth while.
Yeah I get some 4 quarter pine pieces about 90 plus inches long with rounded edges and Hard maple runners from a heating and cooling place. They get the sheet metal delivered on them.
I built my steps out of three pallets that had steel on them, each board was 1"thick, i also used a belt sander to turn them down insted of a planer since I don't own a planer. They were all red oak which came out looking like rootbeer.
In my retail career we often had little half and quarter pallet sized "shippers" that were a one-way trip pallet. They were some very nice lumber, not the dirty beat up stuff.
I think it depends. If you drive around regularly in a vehicle that can transport pallets, you can keep an eye out for clean, new pallets made from hardwood and just grab them when you see them. Or if you know where to look for good pallets, you can spend an hour on Saturday morning driving around collecting them. The common ones in decent shape are also good for specific projects, like quick-and-dirty planters for strawberries.
I agree. I wouldn't use it regularly but I use it now and again. In fact I repaired some garden furniture and decking joists round the swimming pool recently, perfect for that. I also have a wood stove so nothing gets wasted. If the pallets are really good, then one can sell them back to a pallet company (in my country at least ), so that's the best use of all.
@@touofthehighplains If it was one sitting on the ground outside. Where I am most of the pallets you can pick up for free/cheap never saw outside. They went straight from a warehouse to the truck, then back to the warehouse and they are only tossing them because too many of the boards are cracked/broken runner. The rest of the pallet though? Excellent wood.
Agree Colin. It is very rare I use Pallets any more. Sometimes I can use the 'Dunnage' boards, which is the support boards that lift it off the ground to get the forks in. BUT specialist Pallets used for large machine parts do give good returns. I built two Adirondack chairs from 'Jarrah' from pallets I picked up from a factory. The moral is, be very picky.
What do you use the stringers for? Ive been wondering what I can use mine for but there’s not a lot of videos on RUclips showing what people actually build using them.
Great video! I agree with you Colin as I don't use wooden pallets for several reason. They are as follows: 1. possible nasty wood splinters in my hands, 2. Many times, pallets are sprayed with toxic chemicals to kill bugs so they is why I don't even use them for the fireplace or fire pit and you don't want to breath these chemicals, 3. possibly bring home some bugs, 4. possibly ruining my hand and power tools, 5. like you said, the wood is checked and split for the most part and not worth using or saving.
But for a rustic outdoor application They're perfect. For instance A planter box to hold pre planted container flowers But I do agree You've got to be super careful I deal with pallets everyday on the job and it is very common to see barrels and bags of chemicals, paint and such being shipped on these. I wouldn't use this in a food application such as a planter box or raised garden bed.
As others have mentioned in the comments in order for repurposing pallet wood to make sense you have to be very picky. First if the pallet is marked with the letters “HT” it is heat treated and unless there is an obvious discoloration from a spill of some sort it is safe to issue. Secondly look for clean pallets, if they are cracked and weathered (like the one in the video) or painted or have discolored areas avoid them. some pallets are made from very nice wood. I have found pallets made almost entirely of cherry and many oak pallets. I have built several very functional pieces of shop furniture from it.
Great video and worthy point made .Over here in the UK we pay a lot more for our timber than you and I use a dedicated wrecking bar which avoids leaving metal in the intermediate cross bearers so I get more useful timber out.I also can get almost new pallets.
I have watched a lot of videos on RUclips by many different channels, that truly make some fantastic items. Izzy Swan and Paul Jackman are two that come to mind right off the top. They are both very talented woodworkers that continue to use pallet wood. Just saying. Felix
My only experience with a pallet was when I had some heavy ceramic tile delivered. They told me that I could keep the pallet. I thought I could dismantle it, but found out the hard way they were put together with ring-shank nails. After about an hour and only one board removed, I finally got smart and took it back to the home store. I didn't want to chance my saws on it.
I currently use pallet wood to build a lot of different products even did two sets of stairs in my home. So if you can pick out the pallets, you can pretty much use mostly all the boards, I do the rustic stuff, I have people that want the most warn wood for planters,end tables, and benches.
Yes, Colín, it takes much longer to use pallet wood, it can damage the tools, and the finish is not the same. But there are many more factors to consider. if you have a good method to disassemble them, in the end it doesn't cost that much. In my case, to use this wood I use cheap tools. I also use it when I want a rustic finish or type of furniture. Above all, you should bear in mind that in many places in the world, such as Spain, plywood is very, very expensive. And perhaps the most important thing is that by reusing this wood we avoid cutting more trees.
Very good video. I totally agree. The savings are minimum if any. I wanted to make a nativity stable from pallet wood since there are so many ideas out there. I had to find someone local who had free pallets, spend a couple of days messaging people in Facebook, OfferUp, Craigslist. Then drive and pick them up and go through the same cleaning process you did in the video. I had to remove the center nails since I needed to put them through the planner. Too much work for $10-$15 worth of wood, and it still has all the nail holes in the middle. I picked up a few pallets since I was planning other projects, but ended up cutting them all up for firewood.
Colin is right, and if someone says that they have never broken a saw blade or a plane knife, then the truth is not. I've used a lot of pallets in my long life and despite all caution by using magnets and metal detectors repeatedly caused things to break. Thank you Colin for sharing this video with us. i like your work very much.
This is a great perspective on pallet wood. I recently purchased a pallet tool and it makes disassembly very fast. About 5 minutes a pallet, then another 5-10 minutes to remove the nails. It's much faster than using a pry bar (takes me over an hour with a bar and I usually end up breaking 1/2 my boards) and can save you money over buying blades long term. Using pallets is a way to be more sustainable in your building, but you really do end up paying time instead of cash for the material.
Good information Collin.Back in the 80's I worked in a planing mill here in Ontario. I can tell you that the lumber we billed and built pallets from had already been deemed not good for any other uses. Mostof the raw and green) lumber had already been rejected by all other customers and was turned into pallets by us. Most of it was from deciduous trees that were culled to allow access to viable timber.
My wife's ex worked at a Honda motorcycle shop in the 70s. The bikes were shipped in Mahogany crates. When his dad found out, he said get me all you can, and proceeded to make a complete set of kitchen cabinets for his home. They were beautiful! I don't ever see mahogany nowadays in pallet wood, but there is a tropical wood that they use that is darn near the same look. I've gotten quite a bit of it amassed the past couple of years. Not very large pieces, but enough for making boxes.
I've used pallets for years and you have to be picky with what you use .I can't afford a Planer thicknesser so i just sand the faces and use them for projects based on the quality and age of the wood ,I have two log burners to heat the house with any off cuts so nothing is wasted . If you were in the UK you'll be paying about £40 for those 8 boards ,and some would be no better than the split pallet wood . I have had pallets made of Oak and other hard woods ,which I couldn't afford to buy here . So yes if i was in the states i would probably buy fresh clean wood but in the UK on a budget you learn how to pick a nice clean pallet and remove the nails . Some of us are doing wood work as a hobby so we do what we can with the budget we have .
Yes Collin I agree. Cutting out all cracks and nails leaves virtually nothing. When you get all the nails the blades still have to contend with the rust that is left. Thanks for the opinion.
I agree with your observations for the most part. Sometimes you come across very nice boards without spiral shank nails that come apart quite nicely. We received some supplies from South America on pallets made from various strains of mahogany & the skid sections were 3" x 4" pauduk! The colors were amazing, ranging from golds, reds, purple, greens & deep rich chocolate brown. It would have been a sin to alter the natural colors so I used amber/orange shellac for the base coat & only clear shellac for additional coats. I would love to take credit for how the wood looked but that was God's hands at work!✌
I only kidnap fresh milled 5/8" or 1.1" oak boards from my dock when we send them back. Perk of working in receiving. Most every pallet I take is new heat treated wood. Tip; ask someone in grocery store receiving to save you pallets.
I love watching Colin and his video's, that being said, I end up using probably 95% of my pallets. The cutout supports are fantastic when making bottle racks. The split ones can usually be tightened up with wood glue and a little saw dust and a clamp. A lot of people love the rough look, even so much that i've had to use my auger wheel to rough them up more. If you split it in half, I just charge $50 stained, that's $100 per pallet. It's a great hobby with a lot of imagination when using these projects. Just my in put.
Seems to depend on where you are from the quality of pallet wood. Here in europe the standardised road transport pallets are made of the best quality wood with no knots or a maximum of 1 small knot per meter of wood. Pallets are also taken out of circulation and rebuilt when they are battered. When you recieve goods you usually return the same number of empty pallets and the drivers are usually very particular about the quality of the pallets they take.
When I first started woodworking, I used a lot of pallets. I got caught up in the repurposing of used pallet wood and the whole rustic aesthetic, but as time went on pallets kind of became something I don’t really wanna mess with. The time spent was beginning to outweigh the money saved. Lots of cleaning, and breaking pallets down, sometimes a lot of effort with little yield. At this point I’d rather spend the money on fresh, nicely mulled clean lumber and just go straight to building my project.
Never mind the expense of replacing or resharpening high quality blades. I killed the fine finish of my excellent $265 tablesaw blade the other day before I got halfway done prepping the pallet wood stock. I can build two average kitchen cabinet jobs with that blade and still have it going 90%+ in feed rate and nearly 100% in quality. But I killed it trying to use pallet wood for one single $700 4-foot hallway table. Just poor economy, and several hours of extra time wasted that you don’t have to do with lumber mill stock. All those videos about pallet wood furniture are just that: videos. I learned my lesson! Not life-changing expensive, but expensive. When I sell this piece for what it’s worth I’ll wind up with less than $9 an hour for my effort because of what that pallet wood cost me. I was stupid.
Those turners must not make much. Used to be that if the wood were figured then it was trash. Now people poach trees with burls that make them useless for most applications. Pallets are a great material for certain people but not perfectionists.
Nice Demo Collin, yes it’s not easy to use pallet wood and many people will take without observing first - I just posted a video on how to use a circular saw with a demolition blade to dismantle a pallet with much less effort. While I’m quite sure that it won’t turn you into an instant convert of the church of pallet wood you may nonetheless find it interesting. I punch out all nails with an air punch and usually pressure wash pallets before they even come close to any tools. If you do want to cut boards on the outer rafters as you showed I recommend a home made track saw so the saw is easier to handle and doesn’t get pulled between the boards. My opinion, love your channel and videos - thanks for sharing
I broke 3 pallets down today and found it so satisfying. I used a hammer and masonry chisel as a lever. The current price of wood is crazy and I get these pallets for free. Honestly, I'd reject the pallet from this video, you can easily get better wood. Recycle, enjoy.
I live in Vietnam and right around me about 10 pallet shops making standard size and special pallets for a near by industrial area. The wood used is fast grown logs or trimming from better wood. The pallet end up all over the world so you could be using stuff from here. I needed some quick fencing and went along and bought a pick up truck load of new timber in the three different pallet size pieces for VND 1,000,000. that's about $30. Enough for18m of fencing, plus they also lent me a nail gun and gave me the nails. Ten years later the fence is still there though I did splash some wood treatment on it with a broom.
Find a metal stamping factory that uses heavy coils of steel. The pallets they're transported on are thick and sturdy maple or oak. Usually, the company will give them to you if you ask.
I started hobby woodworking just a year ago, and I agree. The money saved is not worth time invested when it comes to pallets. Douglas fir is already dirt cheap. If you want "free" material there are other options: use your scrap pile, raid the junk pile for new construction. Even better, plan ahead and go buy only the lumber you need for the project, minimizing scrap accumulation. I like Steve Ramsey's minimalist approach.
I got 5-ply, cabinet grade plywood out of a Cisco router pallet. Cisco wastes money. They glued foam to it all, but I just scraped it off with a oscillating saw. Only took 3 years to get around to doing it. Now it's my squatty potty stool.
I remember about five years ago when pallet wood projects were the new hotness ... I think everyone came to the conclusion that the only really appropriate time to use this wood is when you are intentionally trying to make something look rustic. Otherwise the effort to clean the boards up is just not worth it.
There are more than a few video's i've seen where new boards are processed in order to feign a "distressed" look. pallet wood saves the time it takes to "distress" or to make a piece look Rustic. I've nicked a jointer blade with a small staple, which was a huge pain for one board but that was my own fault. The wood wizard is 30 bucks i believe, and a pair of ceramic magnets can be had for a buck at harbor frieght to find any metal. I have a couple old table saw and circular saw blades that I sacrificed until I finally bought a blade that can handle wood with embedded metal. Worth it because I reclaim wood from not only pallets but from old doors pretty often and whatever else i can find that people throw out. I went from about about hour to fully disassemble a pallet with a prybar, hammer and pliers, and now it takes me maybe 10 minutes or less. It all depends on what you want your outcome to be and what syle, as well as how you want to dedicate your time i suppose.
I enjoy using pallet wood for all my projects. As long as it's HT marked it will do for me, cracks can be glued. I would much rather recycle wood than see more trees felled.
I use pallet wood for all of my wood working and I just finished the inside of my new home. And now the big project of mine are Raised Beds for growing as much food as I can. We live on The Big Island of Hawaii and we can grow all year long, Our zone is 10 A/B I use the skids as the corner posts and the slats as the walls of a 24 inch panel That gives me 2 foot depth bed and as long as I want. I used pallet wood for all of the facing of all the cabinets in the house and will be making all of my outdoor furniture from pallets.Also as flooring for a Lanai and the roof as well I do not know where you get pallets, But it has been my good fortune to find all kinds of HARD WOODS in the pallets I get here! Redwood, Cherry, White and Red Oak, Poplar, and the list goes on! The scraps I burn and add to my compost. The hard wood scraps, I use in my BBQ, (Makes great coals for Burgers and Steaks). AT no cost to me, I will continue to use the this most versatile material for ALL OF MY WOOD WORKING PROJECTS!
remembering a PBS show 'Square Foot Gardening' I obtained from the pallet making facility on the edge of town a few scrap or damaged (free) pallets. The wood was thin wood, but once off the frames I was able to make several footlong pieces, and made several wood frames. They lasted for years with potting soil in them. A friend of mine obtained several, left them as pallets, and made a compost bin in his back yard. Unless I am planning to cover it with clear or colored epoxy, I don't want it exposed inside the house.
I've made planters with the good chunks of old 5/4" deck boards that I replaced maybe 5 years ago. Used deck stain on them, then wrapped the inside with vapor barrier and used cheap patio bricks as a footer and they don't seem to have aged a bit. I suspect they have a decade or more life left in them.
Many years ago, myself and a friend would go around picking up pallets and selling them to a company that repaired and re-sold them. It was good money too. Could be a good way to get money for new wood.
I discovered very quickly that recycling pallet wood was not a money saving proposition. But for me it's one thing I do for the environment. There is so much wood out there already. And I heat the house with the remaining bits. In the end, nothing goes to waste and that's what does it for me.
My dad did this *once*. He made a few beautiful oak items of the thick uprighs but never did it again. It was too much work for such a small reward. It's fun to do once.
I don't use pallet wood to make fine furniture, nor do I expect to, so I don't have to discard 60% of the weight of a pallet. On the other hand, it is great when I need nondescript wood for spacers or for something where knots and old nail holes don't matter. Not everything I make goes in someone's living room. :)
And forgot I made some large planters from thick pallet wood that looks really pretty good - again saving a hundred on buying the wood. But now I want to make stuff inside the house I would be looking to get much better wood to do these jobs. Thanks for the video. You did show a better way for me to use my time 😉
I completely agree with you on this one.I run a workshop for a charity and have had to ban the use of any machinery when pallets come into the shop.The cost of one sawblade,or one set of planer blades far outways the savings on the timber.Our stipulation is that if you want to use pallet wood ,then you use the hand tools (preferably your own).We have uses for some of it when making planters for instance,but it doesn,t last very long at all.1 nail or staple is generally enough to ruin any blade.Not to mention the danger from loose knots flying out at high speed.Some of the members of the club have really complained a lot,especially when i ask if they are willing to pay for new blades etc from their own pockets.A few have even left in anger.But after all we are a charity and money is tight at the best of times.
My job gets a lot of odd size pallets. Often only used once because of they’re not a typical size. So I frequently use pallets for projects. I bought a pallet buster on amazon for $40 to pry the wood apart. And I also got a pneumatic nail remover to shoot the nails out. Takes about 10 minutes to bust a pallet apart and remove all nails.
The few pallets I managed to get I disassembled with a crowbar after it became clear that despite the required elbow grease, anything else would be too much hassle. I now have a decent collection of boards some I have already used for a project or two and it only cost me the price of that crowbar. For an idea of the awesome stuff you can make with pallet wood I strongly recommend Jackman Works on RUclips 🙂
I've made a few things out of pallet wood and I've nicked a planer blade messing with it. Nowadays I use pallets as pallets, in the garden and in my wood stove.
I make many beautiful projects from pallet wood, but it never goes near a planer or joiner. I wash the wood with a scrub brush, a bucket of dish soap and water, and a garden hose, and let it dry in the sun. Instead of trying to smooth the surfaces, I do a little bit of hand sanding. This gets it ready for a finish (usually oil-based poly) while retaining the rough texture and saw marks, which is ideal for the kind of rustic furniture that I make. It is hard to know if pallet boards have been chemically treated, so I prefer not to be generate a lot of sawdust with power tools anyway. Rather than try to make the wood conform to a narrow view of what wood should be, I try to find uses for the wood as it is.
I use pallets to make nest boxes for wild birds, I only use pallets that are 20 mm thick and not chemically treated and paint them with mistints cheap paint, I’ve made hundreds of nest boxes and find they are very suitable for this application.
In my 20's and 30's I'd have probably loved finding some free pallets and used them for various projects, but in my mid-50's I'm much rather just get right to work on the wood that I've bought. As for the weathered look, I'm not into it, but it also seems like it would just be easier to throw some rough-cut lumber on a stand outside and let it get weathered that way. Not criticizing guys who love gathering pallets and making stuff out of them, I think it's a wonderful idea, but for me it's not worth the time and hassle and potential for damaging my tools.
Colon I know it is so much work using pallet wood but I love the texture and appearance so much. I have made so very nice end tables with it that would have cost very much if purchased in a store. I also like to make rustic American flags with it. Thanks for the video.
I use a lot of pallet wood. I was able to hook up with a guy who collects and sells pallets. He gives me the non-standard sizes that he can't sell. One of my project was to use the wood for my living room floor. It took me 2months of taking the pallets apart, cutting to size, planing to uniform thickness, etc. But the end result was absolutely stunning. Later I used the skids to make a butcher block counter top for our new stovetop. Was it worth the effort? Yes. Would I have started the floor project knowing I would be taking 110 pallets apart and spending 2 months preparing the wood? Not on your life.
Thanks, Colin. A very informative video. Now I need a reciprocating saw...but I’ve never used pallets before and now probably won’t, so again, thanks for the heads-up!
One thing I learned years ago. Your time is valuable. At the end you got about $6-$8 worth of wood. How much time did it take to get to that point 15-30 minutes? Say you get paid $18 per hour at work. That free wood costed $4.50 - $9.00 in effort . It very well could have saved you money to buy the wood new.
Ive seen so many videos talking about it being cost that makes people use pallets. I’ve only ever used it to make very rustic pieces for the look. Yeah I can go buy lumber at the box store, but the time for me to faux age my piece takes just as long as tearing down a pallet.
It's still a lot of work to disassemble and clean up. I've spent a few decades in warehouses in shipping and receiving and in retail doing the same. I'm quite familiar with pallets and all of their issues, a lot more so than the average lay person. One of the biggest problems with pallets, is you have no idea what was shipped on them. Even FDA certified pallets for for food, will get reused for other purposes. Pallets are not single use items most of the time. They are used, reused, and rebuilt, until they fall apart. You have no idea what was shipped on it, what it sat in, or what was spilled on it, or what was leaked on it, while it was in use.
I disagree with this. I’ve made several rustic tables and furniture pieces and sold them with no issues. Don’t use a circular saw to cut the wood off, your wasting wood. There is a tool called the pallet buster that takes them apart quickly and yes you have to remove the nails but it’s worth it in the long run. And why the laugh after everything???
I agree, I use pallet wood for what it is and that's rustic wood. I wouldn't ever try to make fine furniture out of pallet wood so I very seldom plane it or joint it. I also have a pallet buster and I can break down an average size pallet in 5 minutes plus it saves the ends of each piece. To each his own.
I've found pallets with nice plywood tops 4' x 4' totally useable. It also helps if you work at a place that has a lot of stuff delivered on pallets, then you get the pick of the litter. Storage boxes are a good use of pallet wood. I've gotten some nice mahogany from foreign pallets. On a farm we built shelters for mini horses from pallets. I know a guy who got not only pallets but storage crates for huge transformers, the pallets were good and the ply was great, of course he worked for an electric company. Not all pallets are equal.
Only one time in my life I came across a 5x7 pallet with 1” thick top boards and 4x4 runners, all solid oak. Had it in my truck and a carpenter on the job tried to bargain to get it from me.
Thanks Colin. I do think pallets have some use though. First of all, recycling old wood should be encouraged - I appreciate we need to look after our tools though! I used pallets to make some rustic signage for a wedding venue, some offcuts for a bug hotel and various other small garden projects. You don't get the weathered look from new timber! Thanks for the great video 👍
Considering the price of wood now, if disagree. I broke down some larger pallets in about 30 min, drove it 2 blocks home, and sold it for $100 an hr later on FB. They were 2x4s average length of about 5 ft. Today 1 2x4 x8ft is $15.00 at Lowe's. If you want to make quick money, I recommend getting in to the free wood hustle.
Most pallets locally are either hardwood or plastic, sometimes softwood or plywood. I have a couple pallets down cellar I use as pallets for storing items on. I never use pallet wood for woodworking, but have friends who do. Outside, pallets can be used for stacking firewood on. Thanks for the economics lesson on reusing pallet wood.
picking up old weather exposed palets you OF COURSE can only expect what you have there on your workbench...I work for a transportation company and we throw away so called "one-way-palets" that look MUCH better than yours, some of them looking brand new. The lumber then looks way better and is in much better shape with less cracks in the ends and so on. Of course nobody would want to build furniture with it ( except for rustique looking stuff, i.e. ), but you can still use it for having french cleat elements to put on your cleat wall, for example...they are accurate enough for that. All of this wood is in any case good enough for some outdoor shelves, little arts/handcrafted deco-"bullshit", splints and so on. or (as I do) for beginners to try out and practise cutting, sawing, assembling. So the saved money might indeed a bit higher than the 8 USD... The rest of the wood will take care of my room temperature or the fire place as you mentioned already. Greeting from germany and the best wishes
Very good advice when starting out I used pallet wood for practice cuts, practice joinery etc.. practice makes permanent. The little tool shelves and mini tool sheds (like little bird houses for tools) I've made from pallet wood are still going strong after years in the Seattle elements. Thanks Uwe!
Sometimes at work we get these beautiful hardwood pallets that are like 2.4m x 1.2m. They spend their lives indoors and on concrete. Yeah, it takes a while to pull them apart and a fair bit of elbow grease cutting the nails with a hacksaw, but hell I’m not letting them go to waste. And I can burn the offcuts in my wood heater so win win.
I worked for a sharpening service in a large metro area. We had lots of “repurposers” come in with blades. Most often multiple carbide tips missing, bent blades, and destroyed planer knifes. If you cut pallet wood, use a cheap blade. Or a jigsaw. Cutting that crap on a table saw is sketchy. ( wear safety glasses) I was always surprised at how many folks don’t. A flying carbide tip will ruin your day.
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I live in south Africa and wood here is extremely expensive...at least to the average guy, I use old pallets to make headboards and other furniture, I use a disassembly tool and remove all nails , once it's gone through a thicknesser planer it's quite beautiful, the furniture I've made after sanding and staining is not rustic at all and comes out really smooth and professional looking, for me it's absolutely worth using and I'll keep at it
Greetings from Florida .He has most likely changed his mind now that the fool running our Country has caused wood to become extremely expensive as well.
Well said
I'm sure your furniture looks amazing(any videos?) But it's not just the nails you got to watch out for it's other stuff as well like stones & grit embedded into the wood & sometimes chemicals so quite a few hazards to look out for esp if you are using a thicknesser.
What tool do you use. I have just put a nice palet on my roof. I haven't bought a planner yet. Don't know what one to get 😭
@@deancyrus1 I tried to copy a link for you but no luck, but here on RUclips there's tons of them, just punch in pallet tool, I use the type that has the long handle and two prongs at the end, its easy enough to make....don't even have to bend over to strip the pallet
I built all the shelving and benches in my garage using pallet wood. Saved me at least a thousand dollars and I just got them from work. Didn't have to go anywhere so it probably saved time too.
AWESOME! I’d Love to see that! Do you have any pictures? Is there some way you could show off what you did? Because I only turned this video on to .. probably oppose it.
Im TOTALLY down for recycling reducing re-using & I actually have turned some really ugly palette wood into some nice looking pieces just with just Sanders. There’s tools for taking out staples & … I work around the things he’s talking about.
I’m gojng to use as MUCH palette wood as possible in my garage shelving. And I’m going to put a lot of time into I don’t care I’m in no big rush. There is noooo reason to waste wood.
I like that you saved money & made use of perfectly good wood that may otherwise have been thrown away. You’re awesome.
Can I see?
The best takeaway I can see from this video and from the comments and from personal experience is that this is really up to the personal preference of the wood worker. Some may have the time, some, not. others may not WANT to spend the time.. it's all relative. I give a thumbs up for the info and time spent on making this video.
Now that is a very true and correct comment.
It is really up to the individual.
Though this guy does seem like a bit of a wood working snob. I really feel wood working on more of an artistry activity and encourage all people to build something useful or just plain cool looking.
I agree on most of what you say! But sometimes especially for rough projects it's worth it. Also in some occasions the dirty look of pallet wood adds a lot of character to a piece!
exactly making say a rustic milk bottle crate or even a garden bar looks way cooler in old pallet wood
@@Littlelamb2023
You can ‘make’ rustic-looking wood without a great deal of time, and still work with clean, dry lumber that isn’t going to wreck your blades. Pallet wood sucks except in a woodstove.
Very fair assessment Colin. I have pressure washed the pallet before disassembly with some success but the added work is a labor of love.
I've been using pallet wood for years and never had so many problems as what's described in the video.
I've never had problems with pallet wood my self course I build rustic tables as far as I'm concerned rustic is where. It's all bout
yes there certainly is some bullshit advice on youtube
I think he picked the worst possible pallet to use as an example. You can easily pick up pallets in excellent condition.
I get my pallet wood from a nearby company that uses a lot of one way pallets. It's basically fresh from the saw mill. Yes, I have to disassemble it but now I'll never have to buy nails again.
I built most of my workshop furniture with it by laminating it into 2x4s and such.
So I guess I saved a bunch of money.
Plus ppl throw away all kinds of things which land on the company's pile. Treated 2x4s upt 5 meters long, 2x6 and 2x8... Also a ton of expensive screws that I'll be able to use again.
Sl for me it totally pays off to go there once in a while.
I personally have never had any dramas with pallet Wood.
I collect mine from a local tile Shop, they have one off disposable pallets, so they are new, no chemicals and are only heat treated.
I have decked out my entire work shop, floors, walls and ceilings for free. 👍🏽
Plus I have built an entire chook pen, 3 bay compost bins, countless outdoor day beds, raised dog beds, and so much more...
I have a pallet breaker and never crack any boards when dismantling, I have an AirLocker pneumatic nail punch which means no hammer or crowbar needed for nail removal. I have save so much money by utilising what would become landfill.
When you are time rich and cash poor, it can be worth salvaging pallet wood for some projects. I've build a lot of gates and garden furniture from pallet wood and it all lasted many years and looked great. I'd never bother trying any fine wood working with it but for rustic outdoor projects it's great. You can also salvage a lot more wood than you did Colin if you take a little more care. An electorinic pipe / studfinder is a great way to test for any residual metal in the salvaged timber.
A strong magnet is also a super quick way to find metal, battery free. They rarely have non-magnetic metals in them...at least in my area I've never found it.
Time rich and money poor, but have a joiner and saws and planers, makes sense
The only reason i would go for reclaimed wood is for it's look, not because it saves me money or time, it is not
Oh, Maxx, I hear you. I'm 74 and will celebrate three-quarters of a century-old soon. I'm on Social Security. I scrounge wood from wherever I can. I'm making a shop cart presently from salvaged wood.
dont need any fancy tools, i made a small chicken coop out of pallet wood with just a hand saw, hammer and elecrtric drill. i managed to get more out of the pallets than he did too.
Very good presentation! I agree with your analysis on the very limited cost saving.
The one point I would like to add: most of these pallets are used in industrial applications. Having worked in a number of manufacturing plants I know there are all kinds of nasty (deadly?) chemicals that get spilled on them. I wouldn’t want to build something with them and have around family and friends. And I certainly would not want to burn them.
The secret i found to salvaging these things is to use a car jack and wind it open until it pops the nails out of the upper boards. Avoids the need to saw it at all.
Of course its only worth doing if you find a frigging pristine pallet to cut up
I bust open the riser block style pallets using a hydraulic porta power unit. It is kind of like a jack.
I use a $40 pallet buster and $50 pneumatic nail remover. Takes me about 10 minutes to fully disassemble a pallet and remove all nails.
My feeling is that many people see the pallets as a challenge to use more than anything else. I have seen people take pallet wood and make some pretty incredible projects with it. I like the idea that something that was eventually going to be thrown in a landfill or used for firewood is turned into something useful and beautiful. I saw one headboard project where the person screwed and glued pieces of pallet wood that were about 5 by 10 inches each into a thin MDF board and arranged them in a Herringbone pattern. They then sanded it silky smooth by hand and put a nice lacquer finish on it. It was really beautiful and much nicer than many headboards you would see in a furniture store.
I love pallet wood and 2023 in the spring I will be building a wood shop 12x12
No one throws wood into a landfill :D
It's great as firewood, and wood is also extremely recyclable. MDF and particle board etc.
You are complaining about what most call "character" the cracks, nails, imperfections. I did a shiplap wall with bought wood and one with pallet wood. The pallet wood wall looks much better.
Kind of like knotty pine, right?
You actually pay more for that look
I've used pallet wood to make a large log store outside, which would have cost me a couple of hundred to buy something smaller. It was time consuming yes, but for me I enjoyed doing it. I also don't have the planer or jointer, just table saw and portable saws. Also sanded down some pallet wood to make some boxes for the garage. Time eperience doing these things with free wood makes more sense than buying wood from the store that likely is just as warped anyway.
@N Crims Yep- profit in experience and skills gained, save on labor. Elbow grease is a cheap commodity, unless it's someone elses elbows.
Completely agree, aside from the satisfaction of reducing waste in a landfill, i gained experience and tried skills that i would not have with store bough wood (although through bruised hands and splinters, i was tempted many time). I would do it again if i had to
Agree 100% it's a source of basic wood to make basic things, and at no cost is an opportunity to learn techniques. Also, like anything else in life, you have to be selective - the clean lightweight pallets that are used inside shipping cartons for some appliances are great if you can find them and don't want large dimension wood
When I used to work in solar and the portopotty was too far, I'd just go piss on the pallet pile LOL hows that kitchen hutch treating ya?
@@WasteyCasey: Who goes to look for a pile of pallets to pee on? Stick to cartoons child.
Some pallets are made from good wood, especially when they are from high-end equipment shipments or other expensive items that are shipped.
Exactly. All the pallets I source are in excellent condition.
That also depends on the type of pallets. I live near a bass boat manufacturer and they run an ad weekly offering free wood. What they have is huge crates. Many contain 4x4 and 6x6 oak ranging from 6 foot to 18 foot lengths. As for the basic shipping pallet like you show, I gave up on those a long time ago.
Damn I'll be right over!
Pallet wood is only as good as it comes. I have found some really nice pallets on construction sites because some of the new machinery, or supplies come on new pallets custom made for whatever came on them, these are the pallets I look out for. Some specialty pallets are made of red oak, some are popular, even maple. Some have 3/8ths plywood in them. I have found tie down bolts in some, and some are held together with nice construction screws! Never goto a grocery store, or big box store for pallets, those are trash. Also, if you do get pallets from there, expect to make a rustic, old looking "thing" out of it, because of the aforementioned fact that you cannot run these piece into a planer. Hospitals, specialty suppliers, and big industrial construction sites are the places to look. I should also mention that these specialty pallets are often much longer and have boards 8-12 feet in length, making the time to recover them worth while.
Yeah I get some 4 quarter pine pieces about 90 plus inches long with rounded edges and Hard maple runners from a heating and cooling place. They get the sheet metal delivered on them.
You sound like a good scrounger to me.
Machinery pallets are the best! So much oak
@Markus Patients youre lucky.. i always get red oak
I built my steps out of three pallets that had steel on them, each board was 1"thick, i also used a belt sander to turn them down insted of a planer since I don't own a planer. They were all red oak which came out looking like rootbeer.
In my retail career we often had little half and quarter pallet sized "shippers" that were a one-way trip pallet. They were some very nice lumber, not the dirty beat up stuff.
I never understood the fascination with pallet wood. It's hell on tools.
I think it depends. If you drive around regularly in a vehicle that can transport pallets, you can keep an eye out for clean, new pallets made from hardwood and just grab them when you see them. Or if you know where to look for good pallets, you can spend an hour on Saturday morning driving around collecting them. The common ones in decent shape are also good for specific projects, like quick-and-dirty planters for strawberries.
@@billybatts9491 Nice! I bet it's a lot of work breaking those down, though!
Excellent perspective on the value of pallet wood for woodworking. Thanks for taking the time to work that out.
As long as you’re careful, using a magnet to find nails, for example, pallet wood can be used and very nice.
I agree. I wouldn't use it regularly but I use it now and again. In fact I repaired some garden furniture and decking joists round the swimming pool recently, perfect for that. I also have a wood stove so nothing gets wasted. If the pallets are really good, then one can sell them back to a pallet company (in my country at least ), so that's the best use of all.
I agree. You have to put in that prep work.
He just said gravel and dirt embeds itself into the wood that chips and degrades blades.
@@touofthehighplains If it was one sitting on the ground outside.
Where I am most of the pallets you can pick up for free/cheap never saw outside. They went straight from a warehouse to the truck, then back to the warehouse and they are only tossing them because too many of the boards are cracked/broken runner. The rest of the pallet though? Excellent wood.
Agree Colin. It is very rare I use Pallets any more. Sometimes I can use the 'Dunnage' boards, which is the support boards that lift it off the ground to get the forks in. BUT specialist Pallets used for large machine parts do give good returns. I built two Adirondack chairs from 'Jarrah' from pallets I picked up from a factory. The moral is, be very picky.
Peter Compton Agree about being picky. I look for a place that always has a supply of the type I get most returns from and stick with that.
What do you use the stringers for? Ive been wondering what I can use mine for but there’s not a lot of videos on RUclips showing what people actually build using them.
Great video! I agree with you Colin as I don't use wooden pallets for several reason. They are as follows: 1. possible nasty wood splinters in my hands, 2. Many times, pallets are sprayed with toxic chemicals to kill bugs so they is why I don't even use them for the fireplace or fire pit and you don't want to breath these chemicals, 3. possibly bring home some bugs, 4. possibly ruining my hand and power tools, 5. like you said, the wood is checked and split for the most part and not worth using or saving.
But for a rustic outdoor application
They're perfect.
For instance
A planter box to hold pre planted container flowers
But I do agree
You've got to be super careful
I deal with pallets everyday on the job and it is very common to see barrels and bags of chemicals, paint and such being shipped on these.
I wouldn't use this in a food application such as a planter box or raised garden bed.
As others have mentioned in the comments in order for repurposing pallet wood to make sense you have to be very picky. First if the pallet is marked with the letters “HT” it is heat treated and unless there is an obvious discoloration from a spill of some sort it is safe to issue. Secondly look for clean pallets, if they are cracked and weathered (like the one in the video) or painted or have discolored areas avoid them. some pallets are made from very nice wood. I have found pallets made almost entirely of cherry and many oak pallets. I have built several very functional pieces of shop furniture from it.
Pallet wood rules
Great video and worthy point made .Over here in the UK we pay a lot more for our timber than you and I use a dedicated wrecking bar which avoids leaving metal in the intermediate cross bearers so I get more useful timber out.I also can get almost new pallets.
Thanks for the video. That was one poor pallet I would not have bent down to pick up. However there are some much better ones out there.
Thanks for reinforcing why I don't try to salvage pallet wood anymore. I'm still using up the kindling I accumulated from a couple of years ago.
I have watched a lot of videos on RUclips by many different channels, that truly make some fantastic items. Izzy Swan and Paul Jackman are two that come to mind right off the top. They are both very talented woodworkers that continue to use pallet wood.
Just saying. Felix
I also have built a few things with the pallets from work, the ones I have are oak been sitting for years in storage in a parking garage.
My only experience with a pallet was when I had some heavy ceramic tile delivered. They told me that I could keep the pallet. I thought I could dismantle it, but found out the hard way they were put together with ring-shank nails. After about an hour and only one board removed, I finally got smart and took it back to the home store. I didn't want to chance my saws on it.
I currently use pallet wood to build a lot of different products even did two sets of stairs in my home. So if you can pick out the pallets, you can pretty much use mostly all the boards, I do the rustic stuff, I have people that want the most warn wood for planters,end tables, and benches.
Yes, Colín, it takes much longer to use pallet wood, it can damage the tools, and the finish is not the same. But there are many more factors to consider. if you have a good method to disassemble them, in the end it doesn't cost that much. In my case, to use this wood I use cheap tools. I also use it when I want a rustic finish or type of furniture. Above all, you should bear in mind that in many places in the world, such as Spain, plywood is very, very expensive. And perhaps the most important thing is that by reusing this wood we avoid cutting more trees.
Very good video. I totally agree. The savings are minimum if any. I wanted to make a nativity stable from pallet wood since there are so many ideas out there. I had to find someone local who had free pallets, spend a couple of days messaging people in Facebook, OfferUp, Craigslist. Then drive and pick them up and go through the same cleaning process you did in the video. I had to remove the center nails since I needed to put them through the planner. Too much work for $10-$15 worth of wood, and it still has all the nail holes in the middle. I picked up a few pallets since I was planning other projects, but ended up cutting them all up for firewood.
Colin is right, and if someone says that they have never broken a saw blade or a plane knife, then the truth is not.
I've used a lot of pallets in my long life and despite all caution by using magnets and metal detectors repeatedly caused things to break.
Thank you Colin for sharing this video with us.
i like your work very much.
This is a great perspective on pallet wood. I recently purchased a pallet tool and it makes disassembly very fast. About 5 minutes a pallet, then another 5-10 minutes to remove the nails. It's much faster than using a pry bar (takes me over an hour with a bar and I usually end up breaking 1/2 my boards) and can save you money over buying blades long term. Using pallets is a way to be more sustainable in your building, but you really do end up paying time instead of cash for the material.
Good information Collin.Back in the 80's I worked in a planing mill here in Ontario. I can tell you that the lumber we billed and built pallets from had already been deemed not good for any other uses. Mostof the raw and green) lumber had already been rejected by all other customers and was turned into pallets by us. Most of it was from deciduous trees that were culled to allow access to viable timber.
You should see some of the great stuff I've built using pallet wood. For example, just take a look at Kink Jarfold's Kitchen Corner Hutch.
I would like to see some of your builds... that is why we come to youtube.
My wife's ex worked at a Honda motorcycle shop in the 70s. The bikes were shipped in Mahogany crates. When his dad found out, he said get me all you can, and proceeded to make a complete set of kitchen cabinets for his home. They were beautiful! I don't ever see mahogany nowadays in pallet wood, but there is a tropical wood that they use that is darn near the same look. I've gotten quite a bit of it amassed the past couple of years. Not very large pieces, but enough for making boxes.
I recently salvaged some Austrian packing timber. Such beautiful grain and light color you could make furniture from it.
I've used pallets for years and you have to be picky with what you use .I can't afford a Planer thicknesser so i just sand the faces and use them for projects based on the quality and age of the wood ,I have two log burners to heat the house with any off cuts so nothing is wasted .
If you were in the UK you'll be paying about £40 for those 8 boards ,and some would be no better than the split pallet wood .
I have had pallets made of Oak and other hard woods ,which I couldn't afford to buy here .
So yes if i was in the states i would probably buy fresh clean wood but in the UK on a budget you learn how to pick a nice clean pallet and remove the nails .
Some of us are doing wood work as a hobby so we do what we can with the budget we have .
Yes Collin I agree. Cutting out all cracks and nails leaves virtually nothing. When you get all the nails the blades still have to contend with the rust that is left. Thanks for the opinion.
I agree with your observations for the most part. Sometimes you come across very nice boards without spiral shank nails that come apart quite nicely.
We received some supplies from South America on pallets made from various strains of mahogany & the skid sections were 3" x 4" pauduk! The colors were amazing, ranging from golds, reds, purple, greens & deep rich chocolate brown.
It would have been a sin to alter the natural colors so I used amber/orange shellac for the base coat & only clear shellac for additional coats. I would love to take credit for how the wood looked but that was God's hands at work!✌
I only kidnap fresh milled 5/8" or 1.1" oak boards from my dock when we send them back. Perk of working in receiving. Most every pallet I take is new heat treated wood. Tip; ask someone in grocery store receiving to save you pallets.
I've always had the same theory. You've just confirmed it!
Me too, and on top of it, pallet wood furniture/things are awful looking
@@ChargelessElectron I disagree, I've seen some great looking outdoor pallet furniture, depends on ones skill level I suppose.
@@tweakerkid yes, that and everyone's taste, I guess. :)
@@ChargelessElectron maybe not awful but I agree rustic seems to lack finesse.
I love watching Colin and his video's, that being said, I end up using probably 95% of my pallets. The cutout supports are fantastic when making bottle racks. The split ones can usually be tightened up with wood glue and a little saw dust and a clamp. A lot of people love the rough look, even so much that i've had to use my auger wheel to rough them up more. If you split it in half, I just charge $50 stained, that's $100 per pallet. It's a great hobby with a lot of imagination when using these projects. Just my in put.
Depending on what the pallet was used for, it could be soaked in pesticide. Think of that while you're sanding.
Right Colin was not using any dust protector. A woodworking buddy of mine stopped using them because of the smell and chemicals used on many of them.
Seems to depend on where you are from the quality of pallet wood. Here in europe the standardised road transport pallets are made of the best quality wood with no knots or a maximum of 1 small knot per meter of wood. Pallets are also taken out of circulation and rebuilt when they are battered. When you recieve goods you usually return the same number of empty pallets and the drivers are usually very particular about the quality of the pallets they take.
Excellent. It all depends of what are you using it for.
Thank you for saying what I have always thought! I simply cannot understand how anyone thinks this is good or worthwhile!
When I first started woodworking, I used a lot of pallets. I got caught up in the repurposing of used pallet wood and the whole rustic aesthetic, but as time went on pallets kind of became something I don’t really wanna mess with. The time spent was beginning to outweigh the money saved. Lots of cleaning, and breaking pallets down, sometimes a lot of effort with little yield. At this point I’d rather spend the money on fresh, nicely mulled clean lumber and just go straight to building my project.
Never mind the expense of replacing or resharpening high quality blades. I killed the fine finish of my excellent $265 tablesaw blade the other day before I got halfway done prepping the pallet wood stock. I can build two average kitchen cabinet jobs with that blade and still have it going 90%+ in feed rate and nearly 100% in quality. But I killed it trying to use pallet wood for one single $700 4-foot hallway table. Just poor economy, and several hours of extra time wasted that you don’t have to do with lumber mill stock.
All those videos about pallet wood furniture are just that: videos. I learned my lesson! Not life-changing expensive, but expensive. When I sell this piece for what it’s worth I’ll wind up with less than $9 an hour for my effort because of what that pallet wood cost me. I was stupid.
The imperfections is what we pallet crafters are looking for.
I live in Oklahoma and have challenged myself with fully furnishing my new house with all pallet furniture
Woodturners have an expression, “Life’s too short to turn crappy wood.” I have never been tempted to salvage pallets. I have better things to do.
Those turners must not make much. Used to be that if the wood were figured then it was trash. Now people poach trees with burls that make them useless for most applications. Pallets are a great material for certain people but not perfectionists.
Nice Demo Collin, yes it’s not easy to use pallet wood and many people will take without observing first - I just posted a video on how to use a circular saw with a demolition blade to dismantle a pallet with much less effort. While I’m quite sure that it won’t turn you into an instant convert of the church of pallet wood you may nonetheless find it interesting. I punch out all nails with an air punch and usually pressure wash pallets before they even come close to any tools. If you do want to cut boards on the outer rafters as you showed I recommend a home made track saw so the saw is easier to handle and doesn’t get pulled between the boards. My opinion, love your channel and videos - thanks for sharing
I broke 3 pallets down today and found it so satisfying. I used a hammer and masonry chisel as a lever. The current price of wood is crazy and I get these pallets for free. Honestly, I'd reject the pallet from this video, you can easily get better wood. Recycle, enjoy.
I live in Vietnam and right around me about 10 pallet shops making standard size and special pallets for a near by industrial area. The wood used is fast grown logs or trimming from better wood. The pallet end up all over the world so you could be using stuff from here.
I needed some quick fencing and went along and bought a pick up truck load of new timber in the three different pallet size pieces for VND 1,000,000. that's about $30. Enough for18m of fencing, plus they also lent me a nail gun and gave me the nails. Ten years later the fence is still there though I did splash some wood treatment on it with a broom.
Find a metal stamping factory that uses heavy coils of steel. The pallets they're transported on are thick and sturdy maple or oak. Usually, the company will give them to you if you ask.
I started hobby woodworking just a year ago, and I agree. The money saved is not worth time invested when it comes to pallets. Douglas fir is already dirt cheap. If you want "free" material there are other options: use your scrap pile, raid the junk pile for new construction. Even better, plan ahead and go buy only the lumber you need for the project, minimizing scrap accumulation. I like Steve Ramsey's minimalist approach.
I got 5-ply, cabinet grade plywood out of a Cisco router pallet. Cisco wastes money. They glued foam to it all, but I just scraped it off with a oscillating saw. Only took 3 years to get around to doing it. Now it's my squatty potty stool.
I remember about five years ago when pallet wood projects were the new hotness ... I think everyone came to the conclusion that the only really appropriate time to use this wood is when you are intentionally trying to make something look rustic. Otherwise the effort to clean the boards up is just not worth it.
No you are wrong I've built a camper just as good as 20k ones. Depends if u know what ur upto
There are more than a few video's i've seen where new boards are processed in order to feign a "distressed" look. pallet wood saves the time it takes to "distress" or to make a piece look Rustic. I've nicked a jointer blade with a small staple, which was a huge pain for one board but that was my own fault. The wood wizard is 30 bucks i believe, and a pair of ceramic magnets can be had for a buck at harbor frieght to find any metal. I have a couple old table saw and circular saw blades that I sacrificed until I finally bought a blade that can handle wood with embedded metal. Worth it because I reclaim wood from not only pallets but from old doors pretty often and whatever else i can find that people throw out. I went from about about hour to fully disassemble a pallet with a prybar, hammer and pliers, and now it takes me maybe 10 minutes or less. It all depends on what you want your outcome to be and what syle, as well as how you want to dedicate your time i suppose.
I enjoy using pallet wood for all my projects. As long as it's HT marked it will do for me, cracks can be glued. I would much rather recycle wood than see more trees felled.
I use pallet wood for all of my wood working and I just finished the inside of my new home. And now the big project of mine are Raised Beds for growing as much food as I can. We live on The Big Island of Hawaii and we can grow all year long, Our zone is 10 A/B
I use the skids as the corner posts and the slats as the walls of a 24 inch panel That gives me 2 foot depth bed and as long as I want.
I used pallet wood for all of the facing of all the cabinets in the house and will be making all of my outdoor furniture from pallets.Also as flooring for a Lanai and the roof as well
I do not know where you get pallets, But it has been my good fortune to find all kinds of HARD WOODS in the pallets I get here! Redwood, Cherry, White and Red Oak, Poplar, and the list goes on!
The scraps I burn and add to my compost. The hard wood scraps, I use in my BBQ, (Makes great coals for Burgers and Steaks).
AT no cost to me, I will continue to use the this most versatile material for ALL OF MY WOOD WORKING PROJECTS!
remembering a PBS show 'Square Foot Gardening' I obtained from the pallet making facility on the edge of town a few scrap or damaged (free) pallets. The wood was thin wood, but once off the frames I was able to make several footlong pieces, and made several wood frames. They lasted for years with potting soil in them. A friend of mine obtained several, left them as pallets, and made a compost bin in his back yard. Unless I am planning to cover it with clear or colored epoxy, I don't want it exposed inside the house.
I've made planters with the good chunks of old 5/4" deck boards that I replaced maybe 5 years ago. Used deck stain on them, then wrapped the inside with vapor barrier and used cheap patio bricks as a footer and they don't seem to have aged a bit. I suspect they have a decade or more life left in them.
Many years ago, myself and a friend would go around picking up pallets and selling them to a company that repaired and re-sold them. It was good money too. Could be a good way to get money for new wood.
Considering now wood is 2-3x as expensive since you made this video it became that much more worthwhile
I discovered very quickly that recycling pallet wood was not a money saving proposition. But for me it's one thing I do for the environment. There is so much wood out there already. And I heat the house with the remaining bits. In the end, nothing goes to waste and that's what does it for me.
My dad did this *once*. He made a few beautiful oak items of the thick uprighs but never did it again. It was too much work for such a small reward. It's fun to do once.
I don't use pallet wood to make fine furniture, nor do I expect to, so I don't have to discard 60% of the weight of a pallet. On the other hand, it is great when I need nondescript wood for spacers or for something where knots and old nail holes don't matter. Not everything I make goes in someone's living room. :)
And forgot I made some large planters from thick pallet wood that looks really pretty good - again saving a hundred on buying the wood. But now I want to make stuff inside the house I would be looking to get much better wood to do these jobs. Thanks for the video. You did show a better way for me to use my time 😉
I agree with you Colin, for me the time and effort spent getting usable boards out weighs the savings.
Hi Colin, I have never used, other than for firewood, for all the reasons you stated in this video. Great video Colin. Cheers, Huw
I completely agree with you on this one.I run a workshop for a charity and have had to ban the use of any machinery when pallets come into the shop.The cost of one sawblade,or one set of planer blades far outways the savings on the timber.Our stipulation is that if you want to use pallet wood ,then you use the hand tools (preferably your own).We have uses for some of it when making planters for instance,but it doesn,t last very long at all.1 nail or staple is generally enough to ruin any blade.Not to mention the danger from loose knots flying out at high speed.Some of the members of the club have really complained a lot,especially when i ask if they are willing to pay for new blades etc from their own pockets.A few have even left in anger.But after all we are a charity and money is tight at the best of times.
My job gets a lot of odd size pallets. Often only used once because of they’re not a typical size. So I frequently use pallets for projects.
I bought a pallet buster on amazon for $40 to pry the wood apart. And I also got a pneumatic nail remover to shoot the nails out. Takes about 10 minutes to bust a pallet apart and remove all nails.
The few pallets I managed to get I disassembled with a crowbar after it became clear that despite the required elbow grease, anything else would be too much hassle. I now have a decent collection of boards some I have already used for a project or two and it only cost me the price of that crowbar.
For an idea of the awesome stuff you can make with pallet wood I strongly recommend Jackman Works on RUclips 🙂
I've made a few things out of pallet wood and I've nicked a planer blade messing with it. Nowadays I use pallets as pallets, in the garden and in my wood stove.
I make many beautiful projects from pallet wood, but it never goes near a planer or joiner. I wash the wood with a scrub brush, a bucket of dish soap and water, and a garden hose, and let it dry in the sun. Instead of trying to smooth the surfaces, I do a little bit of hand sanding. This gets it ready for a finish (usually oil-based poly) while retaining the rough texture and saw marks, which is ideal for the kind of rustic furniture that I make. It is hard to know if pallet boards have been chemically treated, so I prefer not to be generate a lot of sawdust with power tools anyway. Rather than try to make the wood conform to a narrow view of what wood should be, I try to find uses for the wood as it is.
I really enjoy your videos. You’ve got a great demeanour. I wish I could have someone like you mentor me. Thanks for making these videos
I find his constantly little laughing to be annoying. Dude would be a great Santa Claus though
I use pallets to make nest boxes for wild birds, I only use pallets that are 20 mm thick and not chemically treated and paint them with mistints cheap paint, I’ve made hundreds of nest boxes and find they are very suitable for this application.
In my 20's and 30's I'd have probably loved finding some free pallets and used them for various projects, but in my mid-50's I'm much rather just get right to work on the wood that I've bought. As for the weathered look, I'm not into it, but it also seems like it would just be easier to throw some rough-cut lumber on a stand outside and let it get weathered that way. Not criticizing guys who love gathering pallets and making stuff out of them, I think it's a wonderful idea, but for me it's not worth the time and hassle and potential for damaging my tools.
Colon
I know it is so much work using pallet wood but I love the texture and appearance so much. I have made so very nice end tables with it that would have cost very much if purchased in a store. I also like to make rustic American flags with it. Thanks for the video.
Recently I’ve seen wood workers using the small sections and glue up panels. Then they dimension the panels.
I use a lot of pallet wood. I was able to hook up with a guy who collects and sells pallets. He gives me the non-standard sizes that he can't sell. One of my project was to use the wood for my living room floor. It took me 2months of taking the pallets apart, cutting to size, planing to uniform thickness, etc. But the end result was absolutely stunning. Later I used the skids to make a butcher block counter top for our new stovetop.
Was it worth the effort? Yes. Would I have started the floor project knowing I would be taking 110 pallets apart and spending 2 months preparing the wood? Not on your life.
Thanks, Colin. A very informative video. Now I need a reciprocating saw...but I’ve never used pallets before and now probably won’t, so again, thanks for the heads-up!
i get loads of once only use pallets so the wood is very good condition. Wood is dear in the UK but people buy mine so am glad it is dear!!!
Personally I’d cut the ends and use a bar to pry the middle off, then get the nails out
One thing I learned years ago. Your time is valuable.
At the end you got about $6-$8 worth of wood. How much time did it take to get to that point 15-30 minutes? Say you get paid $18 per hour at work. That free wood costed $4.50 - $9.00 in effort . It very well could have saved you money to buy the wood new.
safe space that ain’t fun.
@safe space it really depends on if he sees the whole process of tearing the pallet apart removing the nails and Trimming... Fun.
This comment comes from a position of employment. These days, it's not so certain anymore that jobs will be readily available.
Ive seen so many videos talking about it being cost that makes people use pallets. I’ve only ever used it to make very rustic pieces for the look. Yeah I can go buy lumber at the box store, but the time for me to faux age my piece takes just as long as tearing down a pallet.
you can find almost new Pallet wood .
It's still a lot of work to disassemble and clean up. I've spent a few decades in warehouses in shipping and receiving and in retail doing the same. I'm quite familiar with pallets and all of their issues, a lot more so than the average lay person.
One of the biggest problems with pallets, is you have no idea what was shipped on them. Even FDA certified pallets for for food, will get reused for other purposes. Pallets are not single use items most of the time. They are used, reused, and rebuilt, until they fall apart. You have no idea what was shipped on it, what it sat in, or what was spilled on it, or what was leaked on it, while it was in use.
I disagree with this. I’ve made several rustic tables and furniture pieces and sold them with no issues. Don’t use a circular saw to cut the wood off, your wasting wood. There is a tool called the pallet buster that takes them apart quickly and yes you have to remove the nails but it’s worth it in the long run. And why the laugh after everything???
I agree, I use pallet wood for what it is and that's rustic wood. I wouldn't ever try to make fine furniture out of pallet wood so I very seldom plane it or joint it. I also have a pallet buster and I can break down an average size pallet in 5 minutes plus it saves the ends of each piece. To each his own.
I've found pallets with nice plywood tops 4' x 4' totally useable. It also helps if you work at a place that has a lot of stuff delivered on pallets, then you get the pick of the litter. Storage boxes are a good use of pallet wood. I've gotten some nice mahogany from foreign pallets. On a farm we built shelters for mini horses from pallets. I know a guy who got not only pallets but storage crates for huge transformers, the pallets were good and the ply was great, of course he worked for an electric company. Not all pallets are equal.
Only one time in my life I came across a 5x7 pallet with 1” thick top boards and 4x4 runners, all solid oak. Had it in my truck and a carpenter on the job tried to bargain to get it from me.
Thanks Colin.
I do think pallets have some use though. First of all, recycling old wood should be encouraged - I appreciate we need to look after our tools though! I used pallets to make some rustic signage for a wedding venue, some offcuts for a bug hotel and various other small garden projects. You don't get the weathered look from new timber! Thanks for the great video 👍
Considering the price of wood now, if disagree. I broke down some larger pallets in about 30 min, drove it 2 blocks home, and sold it for $100 an hr later on FB. They were 2x4s average length of about 5 ft. Today 1 2x4 x8ft is $15.00 at Lowe's. If you want to make quick money, I recommend getting in to the free wood hustle.
Most pallets locally are either hardwood or plastic, sometimes softwood or plywood. I have a couple pallets down cellar I use as pallets for storing items on. I never use pallet wood for woodworking, but have friends who do. Outside, pallets can be used for stacking firewood on. Thanks for the economics lesson on reusing pallet wood.
picking up old weather exposed palets you OF COURSE can only expect what you have there on your workbench...I work for a transportation company and we throw away so called "one-way-palets" that look MUCH better than yours, some of them looking brand new. The lumber then looks way better and is in much better shape with less cracks in the ends and so on.
Of course nobody would want to build furniture with it ( except for rustique looking stuff, i.e. ), but you can still use it for having french cleat elements to put on your cleat wall, for example...they are accurate enough for that.
All of this wood is in any case good enough for some outdoor shelves, little arts/handcrafted deco-"bullshit", splints and so on.
or (as I do) for beginners to try out and practise cutting, sawing, assembling.
So the saved money might indeed a bit higher than the 8 USD...
The rest of the wood will take care of my room temperature or the fire place as you mentioned already.
Greeting from germany and the best wishes
Very good advice when starting out I used pallet wood for practice cuts, practice joinery etc.. practice makes permanent. The little tool shelves and mini tool sheds (like little bird houses for tools) I've made from pallet wood are still going strong after years in the Seattle elements.
Thanks Uwe!
Sometimes at work we get these beautiful hardwood pallets that are like 2.4m x 1.2m. They spend their lives indoors and on concrete. Yeah, it takes a while to pull them apart and a fair bit of elbow grease cutting the nails with a hacksaw, but hell I’m not letting them go to waste. And I can burn the offcuts in my wood heater so win win.
I worked for a sharpening service in a large metro area. We had lots of “repurposers” come in with blades. Most often multiple carbide tips missing, bent blades, and destroyed planer knifes. If you cut pallet wood, use a cheap blade. Or a jigsaw. Cutting that crap on a table saw is sketchy. ( wear safety glasses) I was always surprised at how many folks don’t. A flying carbide tip will ruin your day.