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Want a fun project that won't cost much? Got kids and a decent amount of time on your hands?
Try using shipping pallets and reclaimed wood to build your kids a funky playhouse. Or use it as a shed.
Not only was this project fun, I also traveled a lot and met a great many very nice people who were giving perfectly good materials for little or no money.
I spent $200 dollars on this project in 2008-2009. Over a hundred dollars went to paint, the rest to any building materials I couldn't get for free.
Take a look at the pictures. Spend a lot of time on your ideas and then start collecting those pallets!
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Signing UpStep 1Break down the pallets
I got about 80 pallets, five at a time, from my work.
I got a chance to know the facilities people and they were very happy to let me take them. It saved them a trip to the dumpster and saved them from having to pay to have the dumpster emptied.
That's right. Almost all of these pallets go directly to a landfill. The rest are picked up by pallet salvage guys (they get $1 or so a pallet) and people like me. Many people burn pallets for heat.
I got a great deal of exercise carting the pallets out to my Jeep. I could fit about eight at a time, but I rarely found more than five good ones on any given trip.
A few words about pallets:
There are all sorts of them. Some are oak, some are pine or spruce. Some of them are even mahogany or cherry or cedar.
Stay away from the hardwood pallets. They"re almost impossible to deal with in large numbers. They are just too darn tough. Unless you're doing something small or you want them for fire wood (They are awesome for that), stick with the pine or other softwood pallets.
About one in ten of the ones I found were high enough quality. Most were garbage. I tried to find ones that were brand-new, roughly 48" x 34", and were constructed of (3) notched 2'x4's connected by 3/4" inch nominal boards (commonly called "one by" lumber.) All of them were heat treated (marked "HT") and held together by nearly indestructible spiral nails.
Many people assume that pallets are pressure-treated. In my experience, very few, if any, have had any sort of treatment besides kiln-drying. I'm told that years ago they were also treated with pesticides, but this is no longer the case.
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I'd guess at least 80 pallets, plus a lot of salvaged lumber,
Best of luck with your project. Drop me a line if I can help.
--John
Check it out here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Pallet-Adirondack-Chair/
The house is nicel but the chair is neat.
As a Pallet user most pallets are from Asia be careful,
onChina Products Contain Toxic Chemicals (News/Latest) ... white lauan, almon,
bagtikan, and mayapis of the Philippine mahogany group, apitong and the yakae asian tree called apitong is mahogony density
Apitong has a nice look and building a computer desk but be carefull
with the dust protect yourself .
Long Live Palleteer's !!!
If you're looking for longer framing stock, you could try a window manufacturer, as they get glass on big long pallets. Motor sports places usually have long crates from things like snowmobiles and ATVs. The woodshed at my house is made from (I believe) ski-doo crates. It came with the house and is kinda ugly, so I won't show anyone a picture of it.
You could try a household hazardous waste depot, for free paint. At the one in my municipality, one often sees almost unused cans of paint, often dropped off by rich people that are overly picky about colour choices...
I know a guy who worked in a grocery warehouse who pricked a finger on a pallet shard, and the bacterial infection cost him that finger (and the doctors even considered amputating his arm at the elbow).
Here's one box I made out of salvaged pallet wood. I picked this one because you can see some good nail damage on it:
Because I feel I've demonstrated my personal experience regarding pallet salvage in this thread to some extent.
You'll forgive me if I didn't readd ALL the comments that have been posted on this project(waiting for my 50 lashes with a wet noodle) yet I thought to post what I had, and will continue to, as a show of respect for hard work.
BTW recycled (clipped nail) pallets are worthless to me. I cannot machine them.
I'm still not seeing this whole recycling angle. No one recycles trees that fall in forests do they? Sometimes I'll use a fallen tree from my woods, but for the most part I just let them all rot.
Hard work may be its own reward but call me crazy I like to get a little more out of it sometimes.
Yeah, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Any money you save salvaging wood you pay for in time and bruised knuckles. But I still like it.
I really wanted to post a picture of a shed wall I made out of pallet boards but I couldn't find it. 2 days cutting and nailing the stuff up to save $6 hardly seemed worth it to me by the end! I used wood that I couldn't use on other projects, I figured you know, just use up the junk. I should have just burned it.
Hindsight is 20/20.
I've busted up a lot of pallets. I just don't want anyone reading this Instructable to think pallet wood is free is all. It may be free to pick up, but that is just the beginning of trying to use the stuff.
Anyhow if anyone really feels the need to use pallets I suggest you only pick up one or two to start out with. On a good day going to town I may rip apart 5 myself. Hopefully after working on two most will come to their senses!
This isn't one of those places where standard economic arguments aren't applicable. This is a simple T&M job.
Savvy?
I don't think we should get hung up on economics; he's not trying to sell this project.
Anyway, it was educational and it sounds like he enjoyed the process. That's good enough for me.
1080P and 5.1 sounds about right now too.