Pallet Mallet

by ivan_stephens

23K27216

Intro: Pallet Mallet

I needed a wood mallet and kept forgetting to grab one at the store, so I made one. My buddy casey gave me some red oak pallets and they had been sitting in my woodshop (garage) for several months now. I figured I would try to make one from that wood.

STEP 1: Preparing the Wood

Remove any nails and thickness plane the boards. The board started at 1" thick by the time I was done the final thickness was 3/4 of an inch.

STEP 2: Lay Out

I took the wood to my chop saw and started cutting. No real plan here just cut the boards how I thought they should be cut.The head of the mallet will be three boards wide. The outside boards will be one peace 9 inches long. the the center boards will be cut in two each 3.5 inches leaving a gap for the handle.

STEP 3: Glue Up

I glued the boards together and left a 1.75 inch opening in the middle of the block for the handle. So this is the time if you are a friend or family member or a clamp supplier to realize a good Christmas gift this year is wood clamps. I made it work with what I had. After the glue set up I drilled some 3/8 holes for some walnut dowels. I do not think they are necessary it just looks cool. i then cut a 5 deg bevel to the head of the mallet. this also squared up the mallet face.

STEP 4:

The handle I ripped a peace of the same pallet wood 1.5 inches wide for the handle. I then when went over to my Shopsmith and started turning the handle. I wanted the handle to stick out of the top of the hammer because it looks cool. So I just started turning. I finish sanded the handle to 600 grit.

STEP 5: Finishing

I inserted the handle in to the head of the mallet and drove two more dowels in to the mallet head to secure the handle. After this I hand sanded the dowels and passed the complete mallet through the planer to trim the dowels perfectly smooth.  I did about 5 min of hand sanding to 600 grit. I finished the handle with three coats of Watco Danish oil.

I am going to make several more for friends of mine for Christmas who do wood working.  I even made a mallet with a round head.

Thanks for reading please vote. I want a Instructables t-shirt in a bad way.

16 Comments

nancyjohns 10 years ago

It all started when somebody needed a mallet to pound pallets

The Valiant 11 years ago

Great looking Hammer! I have some oak pallets sitting in my garage just waiting for a project like this - Thanks for the idea.

djokimaki 11 years ago

I bet that would look really slick if you turned it dowels and all! Nice work Ivan!

perryb 11 years ago

The only thing I disagree with is how useful those dowels are. I just made my mallet, and once you see it "live" you'll see that without the dowels, if you strike something hard, there is a lot of force trying to knock off the two outer layers of the mallet head. But yep, those dowels sure do add a lot of "cool" to the project. If I figure out how, I'll post pictures of my attempt at this project. Thanks!

The Rambler 11 years ago

Nice work. Those dowels are definitely a great touch.

Morte_Moya 11 years ago

I work with aluminum all day at work. Skinning monument signs. This would help a lot! Thanks for the idea!!!

l8nite 11 years ago

that's a good looking hammer, here's one I made several years ago https://www.instructables.com/id/A-wooden-persuader-hammer/ in about 10 minutes, it gets left all over the place but it comes so in handy that I made 2 more this year using a broken fiberglass shovel handle for one and a scrap of closet pole for the other

yoyology 11 years ago

If anyone ever asks, the answer to the question, "How many clamps do you need?" is always, "Just one more."

Tupulov 11 years ago

AAAAAAHA-HA-HA-HA! How true. No matter how many I accumulate in my Cave I always seem to be just one short!

Tupulov 11 years ago

Well done! This will be my project this coming weekend!

kz1 11 years ago

Very nice and simple. I think I might include the handle in the glue up, making sure to eliminate any play between handle and head bits. Great job on the one you built.

esemjay 11 years ago

You know if you added "cringe" paint... you could make this look like thor's hammer. Kid's would love it...

pfred2 11 years ago

I gave up trying to win a Tee shirt. Nice mallet you made. I've made a beetle myself out of pallet wood. Mine isn't nearly as fancy as yours is. I suppose I should try to make a bit nicer one someday. I like making tools and hammers are definitely one kind of tool that anyone can make.

I've posted an article to this site about a hammer I made:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Brass-Hammer-Build/

Next I want to make a hammer with a phenolic head. Here is a picture of my crude wooden hammer made out of pallet wood.

http://i.imgur.com/oTCjy.jpg

Nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I use it when I am gluing projects up, sometimes when I am chiseling.