[Idaho]

Anyone have any imaginative uses for the wood pallets you can usually get for free? I've noticed that they were made mostly of hardwood. I made a garbage can corral i'll have to take a pic of tomorrow. I was tired of the wind blowing my cans across the property:

 

[Brother Buck]

Compost bin.
Cheap temporary animal pens(chicken wire helps here)
Improvised fence material.
Shelving wood.
The cross slats are about the right size for boarding up windows and doors.
Improvised gate.

 

[Festes]

Hardwood=Good Fires

 

[Aphrodite]

I used them as a floor for my aluminium shed, but the white ants ate them up eventually. but they worked for a few years.

you can use them for building chicken pens etc here is a link with a few ideas

http://summerville-novascotia.com/PalletWoodShed/

if you dont have white ants (termites) they can be good building material.

 

[Big Eye]

Wood pallets are used in every type of business.

They are also exchanged when deliveries are made. If the costs of the pallets are not passed on in the freight charge or cost of the product, many companies require replacement of the pallets. If an order is picked up that is placed on three pallets policy usually dictates three pallets to exchange.

Pallets are a business. There are those who pick up and recycle pallets just like cans and newspaper.

The part you need to be careful is this :

New pallets may start out new in a food warehouse or paper goods warehouse but through the life of exchanges, the pallets may very well end up servicing chemical companies or businesses that deal with hazardous materials.

Remember this when placing the wood next to animal feed, handling the wood bare handed , splinters in the skin, and especially burning the wood. Fire will release toxic chemicals.

Something to think about. Hope this helps.

 

[KrytteR]

pallets can also be used to make deco items for sale...like bird houses, doll houses, bird feeders etc etc

 

[mangyhyena]

You could use them for making wood gas in a gasifier and then running an engine with the wood gas. It would be a way to run a generator for free if you can get the pallets for free.

Just a thought.

 

[SteveW]

Wood stove fuel, of course - especially kindling.

Also, shelving. Got the idea here:

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/feature/featuredetail/2008-04/simpleshelvingsolution.aspx

I took a couple pictures of mine to post here, but my PC isn't recognizing my camera. I cut the pallets in half to make shelves about 2' deep. Two pallets, four 2x4s, 32 bolts = lots of sturdy shelving for about $10.00.

 

[richtaber]

they are good for stacking wood but be careful and don't drive over them with a vehicle or tractor due to the nails and splintering wood

 

[wildjo]

slightly different angle...anyone have a suggestion for all the nails I've collected from recycling pallets? They have blunt ends, so aren't the best for general construction, but I've got a ton from taking apart pallets. Melt them down? Sharpen the ends? Recycle them for metal value?

You get about 54 nails from each pallet.

 

[Skeeter_Killer]

Thanks for sparking my imagination. I've been wanting to build a compost heap and haven't yet b/c I'm cheap, but b/c of your post I remember that my boss has about 30 sitting behind the main garage

 

[Highlander]

A sacrifical altar.
Burning witches.
Boarding up things
Boarding in things
Burning books.
A BDSM platform or something kinky
Bedframes for the homeless.
Low cost decks.

 

[test]

A friend up the road collected pallets and made a large wood shed. It breaths , dry and holds over 8 cords.
He's also know for great bond-fire parties, everybody just brings a couple of pallets for the fire......................Alaskan ........Dennis

 

[Dwind]

similar, but a friend of mine from down south creates large wooden chairs out of those giant spools used to wind power cable. He gets them free, cuts and carves, sands and varnishes them, adds upholstery- and sells them for about 300 bucks a piece. Comfy as hell and lasts for decades even in outside in coastal Texas.

Pallets arent build to exacting standards, and are usually used and in various stages of disrepair. Ive gotten my fair share of splinters, and I wouldnt trust them much more than as firewood.

 

[compboy]

I tear them down get all the nails out I can use them for burning if too small the larger boards I use for rough no one looks at construction. If i had a forge and an anvil or a place for one damn city ordinance and busy bodies living next door. I'd use the longer nails to make arrow heads out of heated up and pounded flat that would be an interesting project. A place I use to work at let me have them for free. I made several thing out of them. then moved and couldn't have any of it any more I hate the city.

 

[Cryptophylaxis]

I used to work at a car/big-truck parts warehouse where most things came in on pallets. Some things like the brake drums for garbage trucks had an additional board on the top of the pallet to add strength and stability.

I took as many of those as I could get and went up into the attic of a former house and screwed them into place. It made a very sturdy floor that multiplied my storage space (read as prep space). I really don't know why more people don't put down a floor or more than a slim walkway in their attics, its so much wasted space by not laying a floor down.

 

[ecilop]

If you are in to woodworking and have access to a planer, you can get some nice hardwood lumber out of pallets to build small pieces of furniture. You have to work around the nail holes but you can make some nice tables, boxes, etc. with the lumber.

 

[Scruggs]

Prop one up as a temporary target holder
As said before, compost bins (I use many for this purpose)
Use the better ones to hold supplies off the basement floor
They may also come in handy to move a very large wife:

 

[gunslingerpc]

I have made a bench out of one that was made of pine...
made several small crates out of them to carry things for the garden
bunkers for paintball
walk ways around our trailers here in Iraq
targets, again here in Iraq
and of course firewood, to do burn really hot... very dry hardwood.

 

[AncientBrit]

here they may have cyanid[spelling]in them,because of the mixture they were treated with,i think they have banned it know,not too sure.