Author Topic: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?  (Read 3644 times)

MgoSam

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Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« on: April 01, 2016, 02:25:22 PM »
Has anyone here ever made pallet furniture?

I've seen beautiful designs online for a coffee table, end table, bench and shoe rack, and living wall, and want all of them. I've showed them to the guys in my warehouse and they are willing to help me (translation, do nearly all the work) to make them. There's plenty of idle time in the warehouse where they do busy work to help pass the time and they were almost giddy at the chance to create something instead. We have plenty of pallets, and after showing them a few pictures of what I was looking for in designs, they said that they would look for pallets that would well for them. One of the guys knows a few places that discards pallets and he'll snag them for our use, and now he'll look for certain styles of them for these things.

Today was insanely slow at the office, so he spent a good part of his-post lunch afternoon looking up designs. He said that after this, we should consider making towel racks, wine holders, and pot holders, and I have no objections, all of these are things that I could use.

Anyone ever made anything from used pallets?

jba302

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2016, 02:43:33 PM »
Negative, due to the fact that all the pallet pieces I've seen friends make are of the "why did you subject your tools to this wood" variety. I imagine you have access to the decent, not full of nails/staples/rocks/dirt/fumigated variety, so given that opportunity there I'd gladly jump on it!

humbleMouse

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2016, 02:52:03 PM »
I helped my friend make a pallet bedframe the other day, its super cool

celticmyst08

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2016, 02:54:13 PM »
One thing to watch for is some pallets are fumigated with methyl bromide, which isn't really something you want to have sitting around your house (and you especially don't want to use it for firewood). The amount of methyl bromide that actually absorbs into the wood is probably negligible, but meh. There are plenty of other options that aren't potentially dangerous. Pallets have codes on them that tell you how they were treated. The codes that I know of are HT (Heat Treated), MB (Methyl Bromide), DB (Debarked), and KD (Kiln Dried). All but MB are fine. I'm sure your husband is aware of these codes already but I thought I'd point it out just in case.

Other than that, go nuts. Personally I don't care for the look of pallet furniture, but if you can find good quality pallets without the MB stamp, doesn't hurt to mess around with them and see what you can come up with. We used pallet wood to make signs for our wedding and it worked out fine.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2016, 02:55:55 PM by celticmyst08 »

MgoSam

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2016, 11:38:08 AM »
One of the guy's in my warehouse that finds us our pallets just brought in two beautiful pallets that would look perfect for my coffee table. They are heat treated ones. In addition, my warehouse manager found a set of wheels that will comfortably hold the weight and a good wood plank that can make the height.

Next up, sanding it down and then I'll need to stain it.

Does anyone have any experience staining it? I would like to add a Block M to it, but am trying to see if this would be difficult to do, or if it would look tacky. 

Proud Foot

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2016, 01:17:45 PM »
While I have not finished making anything for indoors using pallets I made some benches for our patio out of pallets.  It was really simple and they work great.  Topped them off with some DIY cushions.  I am currently in the process of making a TV stand for some friends out of a pallet but am about halfway through.

JZinCO

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2016, 03:11:39 PM »
I've made a couple compost bins from pallets. One turned out beautifully (as in sell at farmer's markets to yuppies beautiful) and the other looked like a 12 year old made it :)
They were fun but took a hell of a lot of work to disassemble.
A big pro is that they can be had for the price of gas to pick them up but a big con is that you have to look at a lot of pallets before you find quality ones.

It's pretty hilarious what finished pallet furniture costs example: https://fortcollins.craigslist.org/fuo/5502199646.html

edit: Here's one of my favorites http://101pallets.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pallet-coffee-table-1.jpg
« Last Edit: April 06, 2016, 03:13:56 PM by JZinCO »

MgoSam

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2016, 03:17:05 PM »
I've made a couple compost bins from pallets. One turned out beautifully (as in sell at farmer's markets to yuppies beautiful) and the other looked like a 12 year old made it :)
They were fun but took a hell of a lot of work to disassemble.
A big pro is that they can be had for the price of gas to pick them up but a big con is that you have to look at a lot of pallets before you find quality ones.

It's pretty hilarious what finished pallet furniture costs example: https://fortcollins.craigslist.org/fuo/5502199646.html

edit: Here's one of my favorites http://101pallets.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pallet-coffee-table-1.jpg

THe second imagine is close to the coffee table I want. For staining it, I'm thinking of going with a lighter color.

And that wine holder is a cool idea, I will need to consider it.

JZinCO

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Re: Anyone ever made pallet furniture?
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2016, 04:19:11 PM »
Oh I will recommend a quality reciprocating saw. Not only is it faster than a crowbar but you will end up with more usable material.