cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/65231458

Raised garden:

Kayak rack:

Work benches/storage:

(Don't judge my cluttered garage, that's why I built the benches, it's a work in progress)

And I've still got two pallets left! Plus some random bits and bobs.

Edit: removed some doxing info

all 41 comments

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[–] 31 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Did you ensure that the pallets are not treated with Methyl Bromide? That stuff is a nasty neurotoxin and you don’t want that in your garden.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    I hadn't considered this!

    How do I check?

    My assumption is that they are not. These are custom pallets made specifically for transporting a heavy machine one time, and the manufacturer doesn't ask for them back.

    I worked at a sawmill for a few years when I was younger, and this looks for all the world like untreated pine to me. Not exactly quality work to begin with, but good enough for a few years as a garden box.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    They should be stamped with “MB”

    There is an international standard for pallet labels.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    you call yourself dull. pfft. two kayaks.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    it's crazy satisfying how perfectly those pallets fit in that van or truck or whatever

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Incredible!!

    I suppose picking a pallet's dimensions with some wiggle room as a starting point for a cargo vehicle's inner width makes sense, and squaring that to the vertical dimension makes sense too

    Or its just total awesome coincidence, haha

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Nice work! It's great to be able to take relatively useless material and turn it into something useful. Reuse and recycle, I could use a kayak holder just like that, thanks for the inspo!

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 2 months ago

    Thanks!

    I built it all without planning or measuring, just kind of went with the flow as I went. The tables are pretty sturdy, I stood on them. But they could've used better bracing on the legs, and the legs could've been shorter.

    But I'm anchoring them to the walls too so they'll be more than strong enough.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Surprised they let you take them. Places buy those back

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  • [–] [S] 19 points 2 months ago

    They were destined for the dumpster.

    Ironically, the smaller crappier standard size pallets we save and stack them up to reuse or sell.

    The really junky ones go into a separate pile that we hope to sell, but usually give away free.

    These ones were huge and heavy, so because they didn't fit our normal procedures, they wanted them gone 🤷‍♂️

    I didn't argue lol

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    If that's what you consider a cluttered garage, I'd hate to see what you consider a messy one. That's the cleanest garage I've seen in possibly my entire life

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I've been converting coffee tables into pallets, in case you need more.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    Timely. I did some major yard work and ended up with a bunch of pallets. Local industry just piles them by the roadside as waste.

    So what does a pallet cost?

    According to uline, pallets cost $40-70 each, yet subsequently have no value after one use.

    any tips how to pull them apart? it took me a hour of work. Those spiral nails are hard to get out.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Nice!

    Depends on how much you care about the nails vs the wood.

    I started with a big thin crowbar and a big sledgehammer, you can sneak between the wood and cut the nails with the crowbar and sledgehammer. It's a lot of work, and less the nail heads embedded in the wood, but otherwise it's very clean.

    Then I tried beating the center 4x4s with the sledgehammer directly, this was VERY effective at getting everything apart. And it kept the wood planks looking nice. But it bent the nails such that they were very difficult to remove. You couldn't pound them out from behind because they were bent, and straightening them was a pain in the butt.

    Finally I switched to hitting the planks from behind with a normal hammer. This beat up one side of the planks, which is ugly, but if you can hide it it's fine. And the nails stay straight, so you can pound them out from behind, and then pull them the rest of the way out from the front. This is what I mostly did once I figured it out.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    They are so fucking expensive these days that I think buying raw wood is cheaper

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    I miss having access to oak pallets from work. Awesome work!

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago
    20 comments in c/loadbearingwisdom@sh.itjust.works view that post
    [–] 20 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    (Don’t judge my cluttered garage, that’s why I built the benches, it’s a work in progress)

    Says the person with a fairly well ordered garage who has their shit so we'll together they might as well be called a wastewater processing plant

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Just a random factoid of dubious provenance: but pallets treated with heat are safe for gardens and marked with HT. Chemically treated wood is marked MB and is best avoided around food.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    Oh, I had almost no doubt of that! But just in case you inspire others, probably something to keep in mind.

    Haven't done much with pallets myself, but from my experience the chemically treated pallets are kind of obvious. Does that match up with your experience? That is to say, if it looks like untreated wood, it probably is untreated wood? Not that I'd take the risk.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    Nice. My main workbenches - one for my mitre saw and another for my bandsaw and drill press are both made out of pallets. They're very versatile and pretty durable if kept dry. BTW your garage is pretty tidy compared to my workshop!

    I also made display shelving and a counter out of pallet wood for my wife's shop, back in 2019, and I've made planters, trugs and so on. We had to close the shop a couple of years back, because of energy and rent costs going up, and I then re-recycled the shop furniture into a bike shed.

    My messy workshop

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Question, did you build the whole shed first and then cut the door out?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Looking at the pic again, I guess you might have been asking about the piece above the door - that wood came from the material of the sides of the shop counter. The door height is about equal to the length of the original counter.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    That's not a cluttered garage.

    I'd LOVE a garage with that little clutter...

    I have to turn sideways and shuffle to get through the few sections of my garage that aren't stacked floor to ceiling, and I haven't seen my workbench in over a year....

    (Moved into a new house that was 20% smaller and still haven't figured out what to do with the excess furniture)

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I admire this, it's awesome. Having said that, my father drove me crazy by having me disassemble like 1000 pallets over the years. My sibling and I probably saved him thousands in lumber.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    I definitely started getting lazy towards the end. If I had to do it again I'd probably leave all the nails in and just bend them over haha

    Edit: that said, I just remembered my dad told me his dad made him do the same. Except they saved all the nails and pounded the straight again for reuse 👀

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago
    [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    You must work for a good company. All of the pallets I ever came across were disintegrating and simply a work safety hazard. You wouldn't even want to use them for kindling because just looking at them gave you tetanus.

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