Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[samanthaoverton]

Hubby built me two planters..

 

[gtaus]

I posted a YouTube video of a DIY Paller Buster build using 3/4 inch pipe and fittings. Here is a picture of my attempt...

I say attempt, because it's still a work in progress. The problem is that I have an inexpensive Flux Core welder from Harbor Freight for my welding, and I really don't know how to weld. So, this pallet buster has been welded, and rewelded at least twice. Here is the picture of where the welds are...

OK. some of you guys might tear into me for such crappy welds, and I admit they don't look very good. Worse yet, they have not held very well. With all the downward force on the pallet buster to pry up the boards, I have managed to break the weld(s) more than once. Here is what happens when the weld breaks....

When the tongs get out of alignment, it is a lot harder to use the pallet buster to pry up the boards. It still works on the easy boards, but if I get a tough pallet, it's not so good. So, this will have to back to the garage for more grinding down and rewelding.

In my defense, each time I have rewelded this pallet buster I have done a better job. Maybe I'll get to the point where it won't break? I hope so.

Some thoughts, in general, in using the pallet buster.
1) It works great on easy pallets with boards that are solid.
2) Most pallets are not easy and the boards have cracked ends.
3) A small cracked end on the pallet board turns into the entire board cracking in half when you pry it up with the pallet buster.
4) If the end of the pallet plank is cracked, you will be better off cutting the board with a circular saw, wasting that last 1 1/2 inches, but saving the remainder of the board.
5) if you cut off the ends of the pallet planks, you can usually pry up the middle part of the pallet without breaking the board. That is because you can get both tongs of the pallet buster under the board when you pry it up.
6) If you only need shorter pieces of wood, cutting off the boards with a circular saw will typically give you 2 ~18 lengths of useable board. Since I am currently making planters with 16 inch boards, I don't need a pallet buster for that middle section. Just cut the wood with a circular saw and be done with it.
7) If you need boards that are longer than ~18 inches, you can usually use the pallet buster on the middle section and pry that up, giving you a ~36 inch useable board.

Recommendation: I found that the pallet buster was busting more wood than saving boards. Lots of the pallets I have brought home have planks that just split and crack in half using the pallet buster. The tool works great on easy pallets with good wood, but any cracked ends result in cracked boards. No sense in breaking down the pallets in a few minutes with this tool if you end up with firewood. For $20 in parts, if you can weld it yourself, it may be worth it to you. I would not recommend buying one of these tools for $50 or more online. I just don't think they work as good as shown in most videos. At least, not with the quality of pallets I get for free.

 

[gtaus]

Hubby built me two planters..View attachment 3209213

Yeah, Dear Wife has mentioned this type/size planter, too. So, I will show her these pictures and see if we can agree on what she wants. Great looking planters, easy to build, and should work great on the deck. Thanks.

 

[CrazyChicken Lady]

I built two conjoined compost piles with pallets. I’ll have to go get a picture

 

[sdm111]

Sawzall (reciprocating) saw with a bimetal blade makes easy work well easier than hand tools to separate boards

 

[ChicksnMore]

Well...all my pallet wood projects were built about ten years ago. And I have no building skills at all. So please be kind...lol. Thought you might like seeing how pallet wood holds up over time though.

Over ten year old and always in use compost bins...no repairs ever to this.

Storage area for odds and ends. This started as a fence to keep our bulldozer tortoise off the chain link...then when we replaced our garage door ..I changed it to create simple covered storage. Again...over ten years old and my first ever pallet project. No repairs ever needed on it.

The inside of the above storage

Our bulldozer tortoise house was also built from pallets. They're hard to see under all the outside layers ..but it's a u shaped box built from half pallets.

It's in need of repairs...not because the woods failed but because of tortoise digging damage. When I do repair this, I'll add a brick floor a couple feet down. Here's a pic that shows the damage. The pallet wood is holding strong and fully supporting the roof even though the surrounding brick insulation (that used to be filled with dirt) is collapsing

Last is my pallet wood coop and run. Unfortunately I already tore apart the coop because I'm converting this space for ducks. It's my current project I've been working on. But the coop looked almost the same as this one and was made from pallet wood. I'm in the desert and good air flow is an absolute must...warm sheltered sleeping space is in little demand. So my coops are built for laying and so they can sleep out of the wind.

Here's pictures of the damage to the run that was caused by dumping water against it...I don't have before repair pics...but the wooden frame under the pallets is rotting. Again...this is over ten years of dumping water in the same spot... but you can see the wood is rotting. The whole door was crooked and it was sinking down.

My "I don't know what I'm doing" solution is to lift the whole front panel and pop bricks under it to replace the rotten wood. Tentatively I think it's going to work. The first bricks are under so I can start digging and bricking. You can see the pallets used in the front and back in this pic...the low side is also made of pallets. Again, over ten years old and still strong other then the frame in just that one spot.

And believe it or not...I'm actually going to be reusing some of the ten year old pallet wood from my pulled apart coop! Only as siding to tidy up the inside of the run...not as structural wood. Here's some of the old boards I've been setting aside to reuse.

I did build a planting bed that broke years ago. It did have some wood damage but considering it was a watered garden bed...and that I tended to use the sides for leverage when turning the dirt...and I didn't design it well...it amazed me with how well it held up.
Wish I had pictures of beautiful pallet wood projects to share! But at least I can contribute with how well that wood lasts

 

[gtaus]

Sawzall (reciprocating) saw with a bimetal blade makes easy work well easier than hand tools to separate boards

Thank you for the resonse.

I have tried that method, using a sawzall to cut off the nails between the planks and the stretchers. I think it is a good method for some projects, but, here are the reasons why I don't use that method very much.

1) Although sawing off the nails between the planks and stretchers is fast, if you want to cut or process any of that wood, you will have to spend more time punching out the nail heads in the planks, and good luck digging out the nail bottoms in the stretchers.
2) If you don't remove the nails in the wood, you risk hitting them with a saw or planer blade later on and ruining your blade(s).
3) Most of my current pallet projects require me to cut down the wood to size, and I don't want to take the time to dig out cut nails in the wood.
4) I ended up with more wasted wood with that method, because I have not figured out how to dig out the bottom half of the nails in the 2X4 stretchers.

On a more positive note, this method
1) provides a fast way to break down a pallet.
2) If you don't need to saw the lumber down to size, then the planks and stretchers are ready to use.
3) Some people like the nail heads left in the planks for that rustic look.
4) If you can use the uncut pallet lumber in your project, with nails remaining in the wood, then this method is the least amount of labor required and there are no nails to remove and discard.

Thank you for the Sawzall method suggestion. I have used it in the past, and depending on how you intend to use the pallet wood, this might be the best method for some projects. It's just not the method that works best for the projects I am currently working on.

 

[gtaus]

Wish I had pictures of beautiful pallet wood projects to share! But at least I can contribute with how well that wood lasts

Are you kidding!? Your projects are amazing. 10 years and going strong! You know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I suspect many people building pallet projects will enjoy your pics. I know I did. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Yesterday I made a few pallet planters for Dear Wife...
View attachment 3209169

The first one was too big (24X24 inches), so I made a second planter (16X16 inches), and that was too small.

So, I'll be making another planter, maybe this time 12X24 inches rectangular, and hope that passes her inspection.

What I liked about the bigger 24X24 inch planter is that I was able to find some dark pallet wood and alternate that with lighter pallet wood. I did that on all 4 sides and I think it looked good. Just too big, I guess.

I then made the smaller 16X16 planter, but learned a valuable lesson. The pallet 2X4's in the smaller planter were not all the same size. So, my planter got out of square. I had to cut the final wall piece on each side on a taper, and finish it off with a planer to fit. Not a huge problem to overcome, but the top of the planter was a good 1/4" wider than the bottom. Does anybody care? Probably not. But having to cut the wood on a taper and plane it down to fit burned up extra time. Lesson learned - next time make sure the 2X4's are all the same size.

Benefits to this design is that the 2X4's inside the planter are hidden, so I was able to use the parts of the stretcher that had the cut-outs for the forklift. No waste on those 2X4's with this design. Also, on each wall side, I added the wood from the outside, left and right, and worked my way to the middle. The last piece of wall board will probably have to be cut down to size, but that was easy. Even on the smaller planter that got out of square, the last wall piece just had to be cut down on a slight taper, and planed to fit.

I topped off the planter with 45 degree cut 1X4 planks. I simply took the measurement of the side (24 inches, for example) and added 1 inch for hangover to each side = 26 inches on the long cut. Then I used my miter saw to cut 1 board with the 45 degree cuts, and used that board as a template to cut 3 more exact sized boards. That saved some time and energy as no measuring was required on subsequent cuts.

I don't plan on staining or painting these planters. But would ask for some feedback on that issue. If they only last 3-4 years, that will be good enough for me. I might line the inside of the planter with a plastic garbage bag before filling up with soil, that should help preserve the wood a bit longer.

Any feedback appreciated. Thanks.

The planters look great! I would definitely line them with something. Not only will it help with the lifespan, it will also stop the mucky water from leaking out and making a mess

 

[samanthaoverton]

Well...all my pallet wood projects were built about ten years ago. And I have no building skills at all. So please be kind...lol. Thought you might like seeing how pallet wood holds up over time though.

Over ten year old and always in use compost bins...no repairs ever to this.View attachment 3209304
Storage area for odds and ends. This started as a fence to keep our bulldozer tortoise off the chain link...then when we replaced our garage door ..I changed it to create simple covered storage. Again...over ten years old and my first ever pallet project. No repairs ever needed on it.View attachment 3209305The inside of the above storageView attachment 3209307Our bulldozer tortoise house was also built from pallets. They're hard to see under all the outside layers ..but it's a u shaped box built from half pallets.View attachment 3209312
It's in need of repairs...not because the woods failed but because of tortoise digging damage. When I do repair this, I'll add a brick floor a couple feet down. Here's a pic that shows the damage. The pallet wood is holding strong and fully supporting the roof even though the surrounding brick insulation (that used to be filled with dirt) is collapsingView attachment 3209323Last is my pallet wood coop and run. Unfortunately I already tore apart the coop because I'm converting this space for ducks. It's my current project I've been working on. But the coop looked almost the same as this one and was made from pallet wood. I'm in the desert and good air flow is an absolute must...warm sheltered sleeping space is in little demand. So my coops are built for laying and so they can sleep out of the wind.View attachment 3209324
Here's pictures of the damage to the run that was caused by dumping water against it...I don't have before repair pics...but the wooden frame under the pallets is rotting. Again...this is over ten years of dumping water in the same spot... but you can see the wood is rotting. The whole door was crooked and it was sinking down.View attachment 3209328My "I don't know what I'm doing" solution is to lift the whole front panel and pop bricks under it to replace the rotten wood. Tentatively I think it's going to work. The first bricks are under so I can start digging and bricking. You can see the pallets used in the front and back in this pic...the low side is also made of pallets. Again, over ten years old and still strong other then the frame in just that one spot.View attachment 3209343View attachment 3209346
And believe it or not...I'm actually going to be reusing some of the ten year old pallet wood from my pulled apart coop! Only as siding to tidy up the inside of the run...not as structural wood. Here's some of the old boards I've been setting aside to reuse.View attachment 3209349

I did build a planting bed that broke years ago. It did have some wood damage but considering it was a watered garden bed...and that I tended to use the sides for leverage when turning the dirt...and I didn't design it well...it amazed me with how well it held up.
Wish I had pictures of beautiful pallet wood projects to share! But at least I can contribute with how well that wood lasts

I like the door with flowers so cute it is so cool having a tortoise! I mean something that big just hanging out in the yard. I know I'm odd. It's so neat