# Good wood from pallets? Really?



## MichaelT77

I posted this in a member's blog, but perhaps this is a better location.

Do you really get decent wood from pallets? It's not like they're made of cherry or birdseye maple, right?

There has been an ad on my local Craigslist for a while. A local company has a pile of pallets behind the building that are free for the taking.

After reading the comments in an LJ blog, I'm wondering what I might find. It might be worth the effort.


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## GaryC

If those things came from overseas, there is no telling what type of wood you'll find


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## JollyGreen67

A number of months ago I answered/suggested pallet wood not be used - UNLESS - it is known without a doubt, that the wood has not been infused with insect repellent, or some kind of anti-rot presertive. The pallet builders, and the users, want the pallets to last a long time before they become trash. True, some companies have stacks of them, because they do not belong to them and want to get rid of the pile. How do I know? I was a shipping/recieving manager at a local retail/wholesale distributor for all kinds of hand/power tools, woodworking machines, compressors, etc. Everything came in on pallets infused with something. True, some of them were not, but which ones ? Difficult to tell. From that experience, I will NOT use pallet wood for anything, Somebody else wants to, go ahead. BUT, be forwarned.


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## WDHLT15

It will be a Dog's Breakfast as they say in Australia. Some of everything. Some will be good, some will be junk. You roll your dice. Pallets are made from the lowest grade hardwood logs in the business. However, some of those low grade hardwood logs have a lot of interesting character. I saw logs and dry lumber. For me, I would not do it as it is a lot of work, and there are a lot of nasty nails, but I guess if you had a small project, it would be fine to break down a few pallets.

I have decided after many years of woodworking, that given the time and investment that one places in making a project or piece of furniture, why use low quality wood? That does not make sense to me. That is not to say that there is not some good wood in pallets if you want to spend the time to dig it out.


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## bandit571

One of two such tables, both used to be old Oak pallets. legs were turned from the 2x runners. Yes I pulled a bunch of nails, but, saved a bunch of cash. Figure the amount saved in the legs. Quarter sawn white oak in 6/4 stock. Tops were glue ups of more of the runners. Nail holes? Nope. I resawed the runners right down the middle. yields 2 boards just under 3/4" thick, by about 3" wide. Aprons were more of the same. The slats of those pallets? Well these tables were made during the winter, and at the time they were made, I heated the shop with a wood burner.

Another source of "Free" lumber? Maybe an old barn in your area has fallen down, or needs to be taken down? Or, in my case, an old garage/carriage house fell down. I found a joist of Black Cherry, loads of white oak rafters, beams of Sycamore…..









There was even enough to build a few things with it…









Or, IF there was an old school house that was demolished? Maybe the flooring was usable?









Of course, if one just doesn't have the time to process some old boards, and has enough cash to blow on NEW wood, by all means, spend the cash. I'm cheap, er, frugal, as in BROKE, so, IF I see a source of Pallet wood, Crate wood, Barn wood, etc… i will grab it. Been doing it from about the 80s…..


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## knotscott

Pallets can be made from some pretty wood, but it's often from parts of the tree that aren't overly suitable for furniture grade lumber….more twist, warp, wane, cupping, cracking, bowing, etc….


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## derosa

Varies a lot. Place local to me gets in giant sheets of metal resulting in a large number of hardwood pallets. Runners have been white and red oak, cherry, maple and hickory. I prefer to take a circular saw and slice all the cross pieces out which usually nets me a bunch of 31-34" boards that are always over an inch and most are a minimum of 6" wide, I've gotten up to a foot wide. I then use a large crow bar to pull off the remainder of the slats from the runners which almost always pulls all the nails out at the same time. I burn these in the summer or trash them in the winter. With the runners pay attention to the grain, if it looks close to the center of the tree and it's oak then just thrown it out, always seems to crack all the way through. Maple and hickory have all produced good pieces for turning or short legs. I've had a very poor return rate on the oak runners so now I just pick based on the slats. Check out my rocking dino project, the rockers and base were all pallet wood, the three I'm making this year will be cherry pallet wood.


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## rance

I have used pallet wood in the past. I've also figured out a way to break them down without as much work involved. However, I've brought home my last pallet. From the hit and miss quality coupled with the unknown chemical content, I can find other FREE wood without those problems.

Try wood flooring that has been ripped up from a flooring installation. No chemicals, and fewer(and easier to pull) fasteners. And lots nicer wood too. I frequent the dumpster at a local flooring installation company and come home with a variety of great hardwoods. Brazillian cherry, hickory, oak(although I'm not to fond of oak anymore), beech, and many others. Even got some bubinga one day.


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## bigike

I just got wood from tha pallets at my job and this time I got some curly maple and cherry I always get oak and other types of hard wood if u look at some of my projects there made from pallet wood if it's free it's for me.Go get that wood it's worth it theres a Company next to mine here in Boston an they do the same with the pallets too just give em away if I had a truck I would be there all the time.


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## rockindavan

I wouldn't bother with any pallets that are less then 30 or so years old. The wood they use is inferior. I worked at a semi shop for a few years and occasionally repaired pallets…they are all junk wood and are not worth your time. Pallets for the food industry are always maintained better then the others, but are still probably not worth your time.

Now old pallets on the other hand can be well worth you time. My dad came across some old walnut pallets some 30 or 40 years ago. The wood sat in a shed until my wandering eyes found it. He let me use it, but all the pieces were 3' or under and 3-6" wide, but 5/4. I came up with this table http://lumberjocks.com/projects/64745
Turned out to be well worth my time.


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## starringemma

I love pallet wood! I have an endless source for getting pallets from a grainery that would just burn them. My uncle made me a 4' long pry fork that goes between the rails and under the boards and pops them up pretty easy. I plane most of them but some are pretty twisted. I've thought about cutting the top off of a 55 gallon drum, filling it with water for soaking the boards in for a few days and then stick stacking them to dry. There is some really beautiful hard pallet wood.

I need one of those hand held metal detectors though.


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## oldnovice

When I lived in Illinois there was a local pallet maker that would sell cut offs ... by the dump truck full for free! If you wanted this wood, typically oak, a dump truck backed into your driveway and dump away five foot high an 8 foot diameter pile in your driveway … no words exchanged except "where do you want it".

I picked out all of the useable pieces, more than I would need for a long time, and then along with my neighbor we had enough fire wood for two winters .. in Northern Illinois!

I made a LOT of projects, typically small like plaques, breadboards, knock-knacks, and the like; that was 22 years ago and I still have one or two small pieces. Very good wood at a decent price!


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## arun

Yeah ! Pallet wood might be very helpful for reusing or recycling to decorate our home and gardens. Some wooden pallets may be less stronger and it may be made with light wood for shipping goods. So be aware while you taking Pallets from those industries.


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## TCCcabinetmaker

Yes you can, sometimes you can find culled lumbers that had a warp or milled too thin for re-sale as better grades of wood. Sometimes mahogany and so on, jut not what they would sell to me as a grade lumber, or 1, or 2 lumber.


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## b2rtch

My main source for wood is pallets and crates from work.
My minivan is again full of 6×4x1 that I loaded yesterday not yet unloaded. ( no nail in them)
I keep the best part to make what every I want to make and I feed everything else in my wood stove.
I have a lot of wood coming from Japan, a cedar like wood , tender but extremely pretty.
I did not buy a piece of wood in several years.
A friend of mine, a carpenter gives me a lot of wood also, he gave me 6×12 beams, old but never used (no nail) and he frequently brings me scrap wood for my stove.


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## Tennessee

It really depends on where you live, what the industries are, etc. 
I worked for a mechanical contractor, and the pallets that brought in the American made HVAC units were great. Big, long pieces of oak, usually somewhat green, but there was no expectation of return so the pallet was not insect treated.
There are two pallet manufacturers close to me, and one uses #2 or #3 white oak to do specialty pallets. Sometimes they throw in #1 if they run low, so they produce some really nice pallets. None of these are insect treated.
All pallets from overseas have to be insect treated by federal law, so look for a pallet that carried locally made things, like food. (Grocery stores sometimes have pallets in the back)
There is also a pallet rebuilding facility not too far from me. They take the wood that they don't think can be reused and put it in bins for the public to take. I've found some nice small pieces in that bin, but usually am not fast enough. I have better luck to go where my city dumps all their wood they pick up.
Currently the only pallet wood I have is large, weathered white oak 4X4 pieces that came off HVAC pallets, about 5' long apiece.


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## bigblockyeti

I worked in at a lumberyard in the millwork shop and we had a lot of stuff coming in on pallets, mostly from within the US so they were predominantly made from species only found within the US. This greatly reduced the chance of them being treated, but some of the wood actually looked great. At the time, one of the guys there burned wood to heat his house, between the two of us we could break down pallets pretty fast, he got the good burning wood, I got the wood better suited for woodworking. Usually the stringers yielded the best wood for me, even if the treads were of something interested, they were usually beat all to heck. Bottom line, if you can get them for free and have a way of disposing of ~85% - 90% of the crap wood, go for it. You have to put a value on your time too. For me 2 hours of work for 4 bdft. of red oak isn't worth it.


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## dhazelton

The hardwood pallets in my area are mostly ash and I have a woodstove, so I pick them up and they get used….BUT I have pulled a few boards that were like a mahogany that came from a place that sold hot tubs. I also have a few sticks of oak that have a nice flame figuring like you would see in a Craftsman piece of furniture.


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## CudaDude

I've got better things to do than try to pull those dang spiral shank pallet nails!!!


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## TheWoodenBoxes

The company I work for hires foriegn contractors to install machinery from all over the world. I have seen pallets made from all species of wood. I was told in other parts of the world, hardwood that we would consider beautiful are more available in their country.

I have seen pallets made entirely from solid walnut.


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## b2rtch

I do not pull the nails anymore, I just cut what I can use with an electric chain saw and use everything else in my wood stove.
Last year we had some big air handlers coming on pallets entirely made of white oak. 
I saved a lot of it , the larger pieces are probably 8×12x8" to 10" long.
I did not use any of it yet.


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## oldnovice

My source of pallet cut offs were oak and I like oak.
I didn't need to worry about any nails, screws, or staples as these were cut offs only.


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## alohafromberkeley

Good wood? Some white oak, maple I could identify, but most pallets are some mystery white wood. I don't worry about chemicals because I volunteer at a food pantry and all our food is brought to us by the county Food Bank on pallets. They have to be food safe. That said, we are incredibly lucky to have a volunteer who has turned pallets into a bench for clients to wait on and a huge container to stack cardboard in.Also built playhouses for the preschool next door.


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## sixstring

I've found that pallets used for landscaping rock and often bricks or any other concrete/stone are more likely to have oak runners. Gotten some pretty cool oak with tons of industrial character. Check your local landscaping suppliers to see what they've got.


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## mojapitt

The main cabinet shop locally told me that they ordered a large shipment of mahogany. It came in on pallets made of mahogany. What is exotic in one area may be trash wood to another. We have gotten pallets in here of maple and cherry.


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## BigDaddyO

Pallets are a lot of work but so far i have found

Maple
Sycamore
Oak
Mahogany
Walnut
eucalyptus
lots of junk pine

i haven't gotten pallets in about a year since i now have a compact car but one thing i started doing is testing the weight of the pallets. if they are heavy, then it's going to be good wood. if they are lite then they are junk pine and I passed on those.


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## Finn

In the last century I worked in the HVAC trade and had access to a lot of pallets that we got the 10' x 4' sheets on so the pallets were made of three 4×4's ten feet long and about five of them five feet long. The steel came from Asia so the wood included Gum, oak, walnut,appitong,eucalyptus, mahogany and mystery woods. I learned a lot of woodworking using this free wood. I also have used pallets from the USA but they were mostly pine& oak. These are a few of the items I made using mostly pallet wood:


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## palaswood

Wow Jim Flinn, those are some wonderful results with pallet wood! ^

I am seeing a lot of rubberwood in pallets (imported), along with tons of red oak (domestic), and some eucalyptus as well. I see some acacia now too, coming from vietnam. What acacia i've seen has been fumigated with methyl bromide, and thats where most people stop and say NO WAY. But after doing the research, methyl bromide is neither particularly unsafe for humans in the miniscule amounts that could possibly be lingering on the wood, nor is there any evidence to suggest that any of the chemical remains on the wood at all. The process involved actually dictates that the methyl bromide be disspiated to less than 5ppm BEFORE it even leaves the gas chamber. Aeration removes the rest. Coupled with the fact that >50ppm of methyl bromide was deemed acceptable in our FOOD as recently as the 1970s, when it was used as a pesticide in the production of grains and cereals, I am not convinced its unsafe. Its still used today when preparing strawberry fields domestically.

As for the quality, the harder wood boards are usually very thin, and after planing flat-ish, they get even thinner. Great for small boxes and the like. The thicker runners yield more usable lumber, but often have pith running down the middle accompanied by checking running the length of the misshapen, bowed and twisted wood. That being said, i find much satisfaction in "rescuing" a discarded pallet made from strong, dense wood and then working that into usable lumber, mainly with hand tools. The resulting project gets the character of the wood and the story to go with it.

In my circumstance, since I dont drive and ride a bicycle, its far easier for me to find some pallet wood near my work on my lunch break, break it down and bring the wood home than it would be to make the MUCH further trip to a home center and pay crazy prices for milled lumber. Thats me though.


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## Ingjr

I picked up a bunch of pallet wood from a South American flooring company. The wood used in the pallets generally puts to shame most commercial lumber available here. The only problem is the size of the pieces. Beautiful jewelry box material. I'd love to find some more. Jatoba, cumaru and many other species I'm unable to identify.


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## moonie

I guess I got lucky I got my hands on some realy nice 3 1/2" by 3/4" pine.


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## oldnovice

*David Dean* that's a nice load of pine and I assume the cabinet was built from that pine. *Nice looking piece and thanks for sharing you project and load of pine!*

To me pine is fine as any wood is. The only bad wood is chip board!


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## moonie

Thanks oldnovice but I just got lucky.


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## Too_Many_Tools

Anyone else using pallet wood?

How is it working for you?


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## tomsteve

I worked in a pallet Mill quite some time ago. If I knew then what I know now I could have had thousands of board feet of beautiful lumber at a very low price. I remember milling maple one day and all the maple had this wavy look to it. At the time I thought it was junk.then there was the maple with Weird spots all over it. I thought that was diseased junk but what the hey, it's going into pallets.
And oak that had a weird ray pattern to it.

Many years later I now have quite a bit of lumber stocked up in my shop from pallets. Nice Birdseye maple, curly maple, quarter sawn oak, even some walnut and cherry. It's not lage stock- nothing wider than 6" or longer than 48"..... At this time. I'm lookin at an add on CL for some shipping crates that 72-90" long . And they're free.
One thing,though- it can be work to break down pallets/ shipping crates and there will be scrap. I've had pallets where I ended up throwing the entire thing on the burn pile. Seems they come apart easier when they are wet.
I've also made some pretty nice pallet furniture and gotten a pretty nice price for it.


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## TheFridge

My dad got a bunch of white oak 4×4s from a railroad shipping company. They receive large bore pipe and and that's what it sat on. They'd pay a company to deal with the wood because it would pile up if no one wanted it. He got a small load of 20-30. They tried to get him to take more. Might go get me some one day.


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## Sactomike

Pallets can have some excellent wood in them. I have, in fact, picked up a birds eye maple from one that made exquisite scales for a knife. Another pallet gave me some serious black walnut. I needed a piece to replace some decorative work on an 18th Century cabinet, but wasn't able to find one that adequately matched the rest of the wood in the cabinet. That pallet yielded a piece that was indistinguishable from the rest of the cabinet.

There is a lot more junk wood in the pallets I've seen lately, but in the past I've found, in addition to the above:
- quarter sawn oak, white and red
- poplar
- 8/4 cherry
- 8/4 hickory
- 12/4 beech
- basswood
- 8/4 southern yellow pine
- Some as yet unidentified asian hardwood with really pretty grain and figure.

Pallets are worth checking out.


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## HornedWoodwork

Years ago we salvaged about 1 (literal) ton of pallets to use for projects. That was without a doubt the worst decision I ever made, and that is saying a lot. Not only are you a professional nail puller for a while but the yield is pretty skinny. I've always been a guy who said "if it's free, it's for me" and we did make some nice stuff out of that wood, but it was at maximum effort, minimal return. I put hours on my gear and about 60% of the wood was unusable. I was constantly paranoid that I'd missed a fastener and would get my head taken off or worse ruin my blade or knives. I wouldn't do it again.


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## splatman

I take pallets for firewood. Sometimes, I'll find a good board, which I save. A source of free foreign mystery wood, are places that sell stone sheets for countertops. The sheets of stone come bound in wood. I've once got what I think is mahogany, from India. Usually, it's a lauan-like wood from Brazil. Smells like it, though very faint. Also, mystery wood from Vietnam, the wood looks like poplar, but the heartwood is more brown than green. The grain is more open, and has a very faint odor, which I cannot identify. And another wood from India. Extremely susceptible to mold. So nasty, I do not even bother with most of it. Probably soft pine. If I get a mold-free piece, it will have a faint pine smell. And a few pieces of other types of wood that are equally mysterious.


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## ray514

Just to add to this old thread…...I have a friend that owns a countertop business and he gets his granite and quartz shipped on these massive 3' x 12' pallets. Just picked one up and the top runners were all 1" white oak! Granted if I didn't have a planer and a jointer I would only be able to use a few of the boards because of the cupping. I planed a few up this morning and it is beautiful wood! So go check out the local countertop shops…..he usually just pays his helpers to cut it up for the dumster.


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## dustydan

I just got some good pallet wood that came from the Goodyear plant and they used them to ship big steel tractor wheels so they have to be hardwood, and can be 4" thick. I got them from someone that worked there.


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## Ghidrah

The lumb. yds. in my area will only allow you to take the pine pallets and only if they have enough to cover deliveries and receiving. Any of the hard wood pallets they have they keep for their un/under cover storage.


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## MrUnix

I have gone through a ton of pallets… sourced from all sorts of places and have found all sorts of species of woods. Just drive through an industrial shop/warehouse area and you can fill the back of a pickup truck in no time. Around here, they are mostly oak with some exotics thrown in now and then. Get a pallet buster and it makes breaking them down a lot easier than trying to wrestle them with a crow bar or other methods. Can make one for free out of some bed frame angle iron and an old chain link fence post:










Cheers,
Brad

PS: If you don't already have one, get a handheld metal detector so you won't miss any nails or staples. This one at HF works great, and they frequently go on sale - so with a 20% off coupon can be had for about $10:










(they also make a great pinpointer if you have a regular metal detector)


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