Green DIY: Reuse Pallet and Shipping Crate Wood - Part 1

Are you in need of some new furniture or some other product made from wood? Are you the least bit handy and enjoy building things? If you answered yes to both of these questions then I may just have the source of wood for your next project. There are some aspects of using pallet and shipping crate wood that you should know about before getting started with this craft. I'll be going deeper into each of the topics below in future articles, but for now we will briefly discuss where to find the wood (I call wood sourcing), the types of wood you'll find, the tools needed, and designing for this type of wood.

Wood Sourcing

Many companies have sprung up over the past few years that specialize in recycling pallets. These companies take in pallets from large retailers and other companies that they have contracted with. They then repair and resell the pallets to buyers. Since they operate with such large companies I wouldn't waste your time going to these large companies looking for the wood, because you're not going to wind up with any. Other options include small retailers and Craigslist. It's actually quite easy to find the what your looking for once you get into it.

The Types of Wood You'll Find

This may come as a surprise to you, but you can find some fine hardwoods in pallets and other shipping materials. For example, the shoe rack in the image to the right, I found plenty of nice maple to make the top shoe rack. Other types of wood besides maple that you'll find include: pine, red and white oak and even poplar.

The Tools Needed

You'll need the basics: a cordless drill, hammer, prybar, square, circular saw, pencil, drill and screw bits and wood glue. Of course the more advanced the tools and skills you have the finer the product you'll be able to produce. However, you can go pretty far with the basics and as you advance along you can grow your shop. The final tool you'll need is some good "sweat equity". Let's face it, it's going to take some effort to take apart those pallets and crates, but I'll let you know some easier ways to tackle the task.

Designing For This Type Of Wood

Obviously obtaining wood from pallets and shipping crates is an unorthodox way of getting wood for your next project. This means that you may have to alter the way you work with the wood to get the desired result. For example, you may have to glue several pieces of wood together to make one larger piece. Where as before you would simply have had to glue only two or three pieces together to make your one large piece. It's things like this that you have to think about. With a little bit of creativity you can in fact make something great and beautiful.

Pallet and shipping crate wood are a great source of wood for your next project. Whether it's finding (sourcing) your wood from Craigslist or spending the time to find out what kind of wood you have you'll be happy with your green decision to use this type of wood. When you decide to put your tools and knowledge to work, whether they are basic or advanced, you'll figure out new ways to design what you want and probably in a beautiful way. Keep coming back, because this is just the first of several articles on reusing pallet and shipping crate wood. Over the next few articles I will be going into detail on the topics in this overview.