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ABOUT THIS VIDEO
There are lots of videos on KZhead where a person takes a pallet and turns it into a desk, or a coffee table, and sells it for a lot of money. Well...I put that to the test in this video to see if it's actually possible...and if it's actually worth it!
#palletfurniture #palletproject #woodworking
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0:00 Intro
2:03 Pallet Breakdown
4:27 First Problem
5:19 Are Pallet Wood Projects a Scam?
7:38 Second Problem
8:15 An Unfortunate Story
9:21 Money - all the costs
10:32 Time - keeping track of everything
12:22 A weird thing to say
15:42 Auctioning off the pieces
19:47 The Results
I'd never thought to see somebody build a table top with one side walnut and the other side pallet wood and then putting the walnut on the underside
I would never have thought I'd do this...but desperate times call for desperate measures.
that part was painful to watch but the content was great
What if you had used melamine or MDF instead. Then it wouldn't hurt my feelings so bad
@@Foureyes.Furniturehonestly I thought the walnut underside was beautiful
Great video, with lots of information to think about.
Worked in a warehouse, spent a few months setting aside the best pallets that came through. That stack of pallets now exists as the desk I use everyday. Material was free, but working with pallets is a true pain and time sink.
Between the nail removal, the thicknessing, and trying to get a decent surface finish, it barely works out vs spending another hour at work to make the money to buy some more readily usable wood.
@@Jonathan_Doe_ you are not wrong, but I always understood part of the appeal was the randomness of pallet wood and other kinds of "trash" wood. The life of it and the roughness. You don't get that with just buying wood in neat pieces. Personally I think the best use is my neighbor burning pallet wood in his wood burner to heat his house.
Work in a warehouse. We don't throw out our bad pallets anymore, we give them to a different company to refurbish into new pallets (I believe, anyways).
@@BenoHourglassby refurbish you mean drive at least half a box of nails into it right?
@@GrumpyIan Probably, in addition to adding planks and replacing others.
What I think is that the pallet furniture movement started as a way to upcycle old wood, which would be otherwise burned, but nowadays you find brand new pallets sold in hobby markets specifically as pallets for furniture building. That's like the opposite to how it should be. That's like using brand new paper to maked recycled paper just so you can say you use recycled paper.
No. Pallet furniture came before upcycling anything. That wasn't even a word. Nobody cares about pallets (because they're so widespread and necessary and cost little to make) so they're easy to get, tthey're sturdy and thus make good base for CHEAP furniture. The base is FREE TO GET so the cost of the furniture is whatever else you can add to it.
I came from poverty with 8 brothers, 2 sisters. We didn't have much money and I remember my father making furniture and stuff from pallets in the 80's. He didn't make it because it was some kind of movement, he made it because that is what he at the time instead of buying expensive wood. I make stuff now from pallet wood because it's free and keeps the cost down. It's funny because now people will pay a arm and a leg to get that country farmhouse rustic stuff. If I was going to make something really professional I would buy wood to save myself the pain of ripping a pallet apart. Now stuff I make for around the house is mainly from pallet boards.
The pallet furniture I remember from my childhood was just staking them to create an outdoor seating area and a table. Now you can not only buy new pallets for that purpose, they also sell cushions that have the perfect size to put on these pallet couches. There is outdoor furniture that is a lot cheaper ...
Reminds me of the idea of making tiny homes out of shipping containers, the idea was to reuse old containers as foundation for a house, reusing material for free or very cheap, but then people started buying new shipping containers to build tiny homes, which meant it was more expensive to build the house than usual, and you weren’t recycling/reusing any materials lmao
Some of you including OP of this comment really are pressed over some pallet wood. Don't buy it new then? Be a responsible buyer when looking for supplies and steer clear of sellers who are selling new pallets for that purpose? It's all up to you. I swear everyone these days act like everything they do someones pressing a gun to them. You have freewill, be a responsible buyer, don't buy into things that bother you? It's your responsibility to monitor that. Suddenly upcylcing pallets is pressing everyone because merchants at trade shows and online shops selling to buiness are selling it new and the occasional idiot buys it for one project. Now suddenly Karen and Cidny think every new pallet being sold in 100ft of them is being marketed for upcylcers. Clowns like the creator of the video, go suck his Jordan's and get a better perspective. Pallets did not create upcycling, and the pallets you see online and at shows are not just marketed to upcylcers. That's insane.
I think the reason the pallet table sold for more is just because it's a very interesting looking and beautiful table with a variety of colour in it, the lines going through the middle very much helped it with the colours not just jumbling together.
I appreciate that the pallet you used clearly looked old and used. My big problem with the other video creators is that many times their pallets look brand new, which to me goes against the idea of finding free wood to turn into something sellable. I used to work in shops and warehouses and the pallets I was around were usually ugly.
i used to heat my house with pallet wood.... i asked a builders merch to drop off what they had whenever they could, at the time i lived on a small farm so had space for it the pallets that i got where mostly really good condition it shames me to see the work that people make out of it while there me cutting 5 pallets a night to keep warm but it did heat up a 4 bed bungalow
I find new looking pallets all the time, they are used once for delivery and then discarded
There's a place nearby that drops mountains of pallets on the side of the road for people to pick up. I'd say at least half of em are "brand new" looking. Many places just dont bother trying to reuse the palettes themselves since shipping em out would cause extra fees. Some places will resent the empty palettes to their shippers, but they wont do it if one of the panels broke since that one is now a risk factor. For this reason, the lifespan of untreated wood palettes is actually pretty short. However this is only for places that get untreated wood palettes. Treated wood palettes are usually resent to their shippers most of the time even if damaged. It might even be illegal to dump treated wood palettes, I'm not sure though, I'm just guessing on this one. So if the palettes you think of look really old or are green/blue they are probably treated wood ones while the ones used in projects like this video are untreated.
You should check out danier made or rag n bone brown. Danier uses nothing but pallets and he's genuine. Rag n bone brown uses all sorts of reclaimed material and does it in a really easy to follow ways. Yes got sponsors now but still uses reclaimed wood, sometimes steel.
I used to collect all the scrap pallets from a local homebase, before it closed down. Basically everything that wasn't a blue chep pallet. There were some (I think from tiles made in the far east) that were very dense exotic hardwood. The trick to getting nice pallet wood is to get a good supplier, not just grab the first thing you see.
Another big advantage of pallet furniture is, that if you do not sell it, but make something for yourself as a beginner, you don't need to have such high standards. When I moved into my first own apartment, I built my own custom bed with very very basic tools out of fairly mediocre old wood. Not typical pallet wood, but rather wooden shipping crate wood (so much longer pieces). I was able to save a ton of money this way, since getting a bed with 1,4mx2,4m would be fairly difficult and expensive and I used mostly scraps.
Aren't shipping crates usually fumigated as required under import regulations (ISPM 15)? I would be careful, they can spray some pretty nasty stuff on those things.
@@kovonadon't worry, he only got 17 types of cancers
You can get most furniture for free, because it's bulky and people want to get rid of it. Why the effort to build your own crappy stuff?
Having already survived a fire, one of the things I don't like about poplar, is that it's highly flammable. I use poplar logs for outdoor projects (retaining walls for holding soil as an anti-flood barrier, garden beds, compost bins, etc.)
@@kovona yes. dont use pallets as sleeping beds. in fact, don't use them for tables, chairs, or anything, either. ". ISPM 15 affects all wood packaging material (pallets, crates, dunnages, etc.) and requires that they be debarked and then heat treated or fumigated with methyl bromide Treatment of wood packaging requires a concentration of up to 16,000 ppm. Brief exposure to high concentrations and prolonged inhalation of lower concentrations are problematic.[22] Exposure levels leading to death vary from 1,600 to 60,000 ppm, depending on the duration of exposure (as a comparison exposure levels of 70 to 400 ppm of carbon monoxide cover the same spectrum of illness/death). Concentrations in the range of 60,000 ppm can be immediately fatal, while toxic effects can present following prolonged exposure to concentrations well under 1,000 ppm. Bromomethane, commonly known as methyl bromide Health effects Excessive exposure Expression of toxicity following exposure may involve a latent period of several hours, followed by signs such as nausea, abdominal pain, weakness, confusion, pulmonary edema, and seizures. Individuals who survive the acute phase often require a prolonged convalescence. Persistent neurological deficits such as asthenia, cognitive impairment, optical atrophy, and paresthesia are frequently present after moderate to severe poisoning. Blood or urine concentrations of inorganic bromide, a bromomethane metabolite, are useful to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in hospitalized patients or to assist in the forensic investigation of a case of fatal overdosage.[24] - Whereas the Montreal Protocol has severely restricted the use of bromomethane internationally, the United States has successfully lobbied for critical-use exemptions.[18] Critical use exemptions allow the United States to continue using MeBr until it is scheduled to be completely phased out sometime in 2017.[19] Bromomethane was still in use in the United States for cherries exported to South Korea as of 2022.[citation needed] In 2004, over 7 million pounds (3,200 t) of bromomethane were applied in California. Applications include tomato, strawberry, and ornamental shrub growers, and fumigation of ham/pork products. Also exempt is the treatment of solid wood packaging (forklift pallets, crates, bracing), and the packaged goods, being exported to ISPM 15 countries (to include Canada in 2012).[citation needed] "
We use old pallets as raised flower garden edges. It's cheap, doesn't need to look amazing and it's easily replaced when it degrades too much
yeah heat treated pallets are great for the garden. sand down anything too rough and chuck on a quick outdoor finish and that's enough most of the time. you don't even have to take all the nails out if you don't want to.
In my little town, a local sheltered workshop for adults with mental handicaps, collects wooden pallets from several factories in the area and cuts them up into kindling which is sold all winter long for people who have wood stoves. Ironically, another sheltered workshop in another town nearby, actual builds wooden pallets from scratch and sells them to various shipping companies around the province. .
I’ve pulled apart between 20 and 30 pallets. The cost of your time and frustration should definitely be considered, along with all the milling and prep work needed to have useable pieces. Pallet wood is great for projects that don’t need to be smooth, perfectly flat, etc. I use it for utility projects like garage shelves, braces, storage platforms, etc.
Or things like mud kitchens for kids. No prep is required and people are selling those for $500+ all you need is old wood and an old sink. Would take a good wood worker like 2 hours max to put together.
Once I get a process down and get into the rhythm, I can process a pallet down to usable pieces in ~15 minutes. Not bad at all if I don't care about making something beautiful.
I've ripped some pallet wood down to smaller strips to be used in custom lighting for a DIY smart home. I've also disassembled numerous laptop, tv and pc screens to get the plastic sheets inside, so they can shine as bright as daylight. Doing it this way is far, far cheaper than buying smarthome lighting from the store, even with all the labor included, but it's also about one of the only places where doing anything that requires milling and smoothing the pallet wood, is actually worth it. Most cases it is absolutely not and just a massive time sink. I've probably disassembled the same amount as yours. Best use for pallet wood inside the home is 10/10 a pallet wall. They're also fairly sturdy for hanging stuff. My desk is sitting in a corner where pallet wood is mounted to the walls. Been using it for 8 years now, so I'd say it's a pretty great use
I just used a sawsall and a demolition blade. Cut right through the nails no problem.
I've worked for a few places that would give away about 50 pallets a week. Sounded like you were saying it would be hard to find pallets, but many places just want to get rid of them for free, without paying to get rid of it as waste. Thing is, I know at the last place I worked, a guy in a truck would come and get them for free, drive them down to the local pallet making shop and they would by good ones for $25 and bad ones for $10. seems like a much easier way to make money from pallets.
Good idea. Don't get rich making Art, get rich selling Art Supplies! :D
It is a much easier way. Which is why in some countries it is a legit business model run on large scale. All it needs are industry standards for pallet sizes. Company where I work, we build research equipment, and a lot of the stuff we order comes on pallets. Standard Euro pallets are stacked and taken away for money, smaller stuff goes into a container that is provided for free, so at least the disposal is free for us.
@@VolkbrechtYep, Euro or FIN pallets get reused. The smaller and flimsier stuff either goes away as wood scrap or becomes firewood for peoples saunas.
i live near a pallet manufacturing plant, you can just get free damaged pallets from the yard, they got a sign up and everything by the dumpsters to take what you want
@@Volkbrecht what is basically thrue in the EU. Pallets are standardized and typically you get some discount returning them e.g. whem bying lager amounts of construction material thats delivered on pallets
My first job in high school involved a lot of chopping up pallets with a skilsaw to throw in the pot belly stove at a tractor repair shop. That seemed to be what it was best for.
But be careful! A coworker when I worked at the university surplus here was burning pallet wood to heat their place. They began falling ill -- well, the wood was treated, they were slowly getting poisoned. No problem, they started making sure to only pull the untreated pallets. (And, with a pot bellied stove, just make sure the draw is working so the exhaust is going outside. I suppose they were using a fireplace or something and the draw was not high enough.)
@@hwertz10 These dudes would sit around it chain smoking so I didn't hang around them, I figure wood treatment fumes didn't worry them much.
I live down the road from a pallet building company. Any time they have broken or just imperfect pallets, they dump them outside the building in the little turn-around parking lot space. Sometimes they are already broken apart, sometimes they are whole. LA few months back, they had dozens of pieces of wood that were 1.5 inches thick, 3.5 feet long, varying from 4 to 10 inches wide. I snagged all of them and will be building new raised beds for my garden.
there are a ton of furniture flipping channels and a few months ago i came across a kind of 'tell all' video from one of them. standard story, stay at home mom wants to try and do something at home that makes a bit of money, tries flipping something small and films it, slowly does more and eventually a few of her videos go viral. and finally shes explains that she doesnt sell, and doesnt even try to sell anything she makes, and only sold a few things early on for not very much. her business is making youtube videos, furniture flipping just happens to be the content.
That seems to be the only way to make money on social media.
I mean yeah, makes sense tho. Thats WHY they spend time and equipment on filming editing and publishing entertaining videos. THAT is the business model. And getting viral is REAAAALLY profitable. So it is a valid job!
Other than your eyeballs and time, she took nothing from you. She didn't force you to watch. She didn't force you to follow her "System" nor did she charge you for it.
incredibly weird comment. @@dlewis9760
I've been spending the past few months restoring furniture either passed down to me or purchased at yardsales when I was fresh on my own. There is no way this could be done profitably, it takes way too much time. And you could buy new Ikea furniture for barely more money than the materials I've used. Granted, the solid wood furniture I have is much higher quality and now looks a lot better than Ikea crap, but I don't think that'd translate very well into profit. I'd have stopped almost immediately if there wasn't something meditative about it.
I think your pallet wood looked better, just because the way you had to align the pieces to cope with the limited lengths looked more appealing than the straight planks. I'm not a woodworker, so what do I know, but you could potentially use pallet wood as a more decorative element than a structural one, if that's the case.
you don't mind the ugly black smears and spots from the repair work? He is good at making those into a 'feature' but I still think it's not very pretty
You could also get variations on god wood to end up with similar visual, middle-ground effort and way higher quality overall (so less issues to "patch")
*good
@@Blackadder75beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like both but prefer the pallet wood one specifically for the design and heat melt spots.
if you like cupric sulfate in and on everything you put on it plus any nasty stuff that was stored on it - go nuts. Its also why you really shouldn't burn it unless you know its history
That pallet table actually looks way nicer. Very interesting design and the walnut strip gives it a really unique look. Nice job
Plus giving the buyer all of your labor and its product for free was really a nice touch.
Yeah. I didn't see the bids, but perhaps the 3 day sale was not long enough for the right buyer who appreciates the 'extra' to find it.
Pallet wood is also treated with tons of toxic chemicals to protect it from rot, mold, and insects during its primary purpose of transporting goods around the world. And while I’m sure it’s safe to be around for short durations while unpacking a pallet. I personally don’t want it around my family or I permanently as a coffee table
I love watching your videos because I enjoy looking at your woodworking process while listening to your stories. It's very soothing! I'm glad that you're experimenting with your visual style, but I genuinely find the AI art very distracting and kicks me out of the meditative trance I enter when I watch your videos.
Gotta agree here. I liked the sketch-ish ones, as they fit into the video. However the McDonalds-parking-lot-stab one was weird. It also has a ton of indications that it was made by AI (weird parking space layout, cars parked extremely bad, badly drawn arrows on the concrete, "McDonalds" misspelled, roof layout making no sense etc.) That being said, great video overall!
Your anti-AI is showing.
@@UCvow2TUIH0d2Ax2vik9ILzg So? It's a valid critique. You can disagree, but I'd also say the same thing if he was punctuating things with random stock footage and stock photos only tangentially related, like how Half as Interesting tends to do. I despise that creative choice too. I think AI art has problems, but I think even if the art wasn't AI, the mismatched styles are distracting and would be better served with more pretty footage of the actual build.
@@irongears123 fair enough then
Not to mention AI art leeching of the artists, directors, companies, medical photos of unsuspecting women, children, men etc.
When I took up woodworking, the acquisition of lumber became just as fun as the building itself. I don't use pallet wood, but chancing upon sources for logs and old lumber becomes a quest. I have stories behind each batch that I got.
I am the same way. I am always looking for free old wood from unique places. Recently I drove by a massive pile of scrap wood that I think was from a Demo in an old tire store. The wood has a bunch of junk but I was able to salvage some larger sections of Timber that had some really cool old hardware on them.
Look for small manufacturing plants if you want to source shipping wood on the cheep. There is a few places local that tend to have 10 foot pallets that they discard every few months.
The quality of your videos is on a whole different level. Seriously. You do an awesome job man and it is a true gift you have on both fronts, woodworking and video making/editing. I enjoy every single one you've made.. Much appreciated!!
My words exactly 💯
You bring simping to a whole new level.
@@albertawheat6832 ok you fuckin key banger.
You can find a variety of wood in pallets. I brought one home that had some oak planks (laminated and turned into tool handles) and one BALSA plank, which I gave to an airplane modeler.
So one thing i'd say about working with salvaged materials is this: when you make a design, but then you run out of a particular material, or don't have enough, etc, etc, you often spark some creativity (after the frustration, usually) I sew costumes, and the number of times that a design has changed, and evolved, and been better for it, is basically every time, because i only use materials source from thrift stores. The packaging won't tell you that "this piece of cloth has some really weird pieces cut out of it" it just shows you a dimension. I can think of several different pieces that i unrolled when i got home and had to change a plan specifically because it had an oddly shaped cut out in the middle. The same thing happens with your pallets: you get them home, disassemble them, and in the process, some boards split, or tear out happens, or they wind up too thin, and every single time that happened, it made you add more detail. The pattern being made up of 4 quarters made for some cool designs. Being too thin added a contrasting colour to the underside, and the entire edge of the tabletop. The inlaid section to hide the joinery lines, and the various patched sections, all add detail and interest to the final piece That's probably the biggest benefit of all in working with pallets or other salvaged materials - the product will *never* turn out the same way no matter how many times you make a table from the same plan, and you will always have to get creative. 😊
I think a big part that gets overlooked is the para-social relationship between viewer/buyer and the influencer that inflates the price that someone without the existing audience wouldn't have. Great video as always, love the story telling aspect of all your videos.
Some pallets are actually tropical hard woods. Worth considering. I am not a furniture maker but started with pallets and you learn so much from boards splitting, grain orientation, alongside what cups and bows can mean for assembly. Having free material I think is invaluable for learning these lessons as the poplar, whilst the cheapest is quite pretty wood considering the colour pigment and is something that I think would be better used after knowing how to work with slightly more basic and I guess shoddy materials. I made a cabinet from Tulip Poplar and it's under my bench at work. I love it but would not have got anywhere near as good as a result had I not worked with pallet wood first. Good video and fantastic use of AI for the generated pictures!
Little tips about painted pallet color code (Americas/Europe)... painted pallets (blue, red, orange, green) are made of hardwoods like maple or oak (made/owned by large shipping companies, ment to carry very heavy loads and last longer)...these could be way more interesting to work with than rough wood (paintless) pallets who are usually made of softer cheap wood like pine, hemlock or spruce (ment to carry lighter loads, or single-use pallets). Also, in general, painted pallets are made of thicker planks too.
I like pallet wood for making little boxes and stuff. It's a cheap (often free) entry material and if you have a planer, you can make some good looking boxes. But yeah, you are spot on when it comes to making furniture with it.
I did not use pallet wood yet I used the plywood strips that came with the pallet they built for my 6 burner commerical stove when I got it a few months back. I had some cabinets in my upstairs office that were salavaged from other people that were sinks at one time and I wanted to make drawers. So I used those strips to make boxes and the rails for them to slide on. Works quite good enough for me. I built 4 drawers for the 3 cabinets that are in there. One already had drawers. The span is 12 foot 6 or something like that. There is a gap between one set of cabinets in which I have almost finished building a cabinet of 3 drawers from 2 of those corner lazy suzan cabinets. I have the frame all built and now just need to add a bit more of spacers and the rails and then make the drawers. Going to use some osb sheeting I have. Then cut and route the drawer fronts. I could just go out and buy cabinets yet its just an office and nothing special. I have old countertop pieces for the top right now. Once it finished I will go and get 2 pieces and cut and glue them. I did the desk side of the room which is the same 12 foot 6 something. The only thing I want to change is raise the desk up 3/4" and exchange the two 2x4 supports for the center with some banisters. I looked last time I was at the big box store and going to look at another one another time. I need to find the right ones as I want to put in 4 of them. 2 for the ends and the 2 for the center. The center of the desk is where the dog bed is and the cat bed is on top in the center. It looks nice and works for 2 people to work along side of one another.
Most of the "i paid 0 dollar for material and made 5000 dollar in sales" videos are pure clickbait. If they are even trying to give a kind of how to manual it's boring, generic stuff or copies just a bunch of home depot style decoration items you wouldn't need a KZhead video to show you how they look. If you think that makes for a great selling business you lack any pride in your product and desire to be original *shudder* So the actual intent is just selling the channel by accumulating watchtime. If ANY of the audience can make even 10% of the announced price is immaterial. As long as a couple ten thousand people who'll never do any of this project watch they're fine.
You should also think about what that pallets have been treated with to keep pests away. Depending on the age it could be nasty stuff. I wouldn't risc to put wood, that may outgas some harmful chemical in my living room.
The bigger concern with pallets is that ones you find thrown away has a HUGE chance of them being contaminated, and are honestly dangerous to have all the dust kicking up in the air, let alone in your home.
Contaminated from what?
@@hectorf.1798 pallet dust , wood preserver and whatever may have leaked on the pallet.
depends where you get them. Not big box stores who use them for chrmicals, but places like tile stores or schools, have them from indoors to indoors! Which saves 50% of planing and joining time!
wow, greenhouse humans really irk me, Cariociecus give me strength.
@@hectorf.1798 brainworms
I've found if you want to maximize the length of each board and the amount of usable material without splitting, take a circular saw and cut just inside the end set of nails on both sides. Then either two flat bars/cats paw or a demo fork can pull the last two nails off the center without destroying the board. Then you only have two nail holes to fill, too. Best use for this stuff is to make a decking on 1/2" melamine or mdf-type sheeting fire a flat surface using since dirty if trim material to cover the seams. Btw, I like the mullet table. That was awesome. Nice Adams Family vibe.
The cousin Itt table.
What most people might not know: Pallets vary a LOT. Pallets with the exact same footprint can be built out of different types of wood and in different designs. How useful it will be changes wildly if you find one made for carrying stacks of soup and kitty litter made of oak with stringers vs one made of pine made for carrying pillows. I've worked in recieving at a grocery store before; the pine ones were always falling apart just from regular use. The oak ones were like twice as heavy and basically tanks, rarely having damage at all even when smashing a couple together with huge loads on top of each.
Aesthetically, I personally think that the pallet wood table blows the poplar one out of the water. All of the character and colors in the pallet wood just make it look much more like a unique and interesting art piece, while the poplar table just looks "blah." With that being said, if both tables are going to sell for the same amount of money, but the poplar table takes less time to make, then it's a no-brainer on which one wins fiscally.
I wonder if there might be a niche market for pallet wood - as in a certain type of customer who is more likely to choose it and pay a bit of a premium for it due to a perceived recycled, recovered (I think it's called 'upcycling'), feel-good self-image? Second, this is using pallet wood to make what we could call fine furniture but a rougher look and feel might take much less time and be repeatable so become viable - if furniture making is ever a viable business outside of inheriting a lot of space, facilities, money to invest in the business, and going for ultra high value products
@@cuebjI'm sure there is. You just have to find it. There's a market for everything nowadays!
I was going to say the say things about the appearance - the pallet wood table look so much nicer with the varied grains and colors, on the other hand the poplar table is incredibly boring and bland. I could go off at a tangent and say that it's like so many things in life and in nature - variability is great, but everything being the same is really boring. And that also applies to people.
I will say...I actually think that the pallet table photographs better. But in real life I thought the pallet table looked better.
@@Foureyes.Furniture It says something that I can't tell if you typoed that and meant to say poplar for one of those, or if you did it on purpose as a deadpan joke.
The things to be cautious of pallet wood are that 1. not all are created equal, many have some pretty nasty chemicals to protect them from weather, bugs, etc. and that makes the sawdust even worse and 2. they are often reused and not stored in environments conducive to proper wood storage so there is going to be all kinds of stuff in them that will beat the crap out of your tools. And if I had to say a third, 3. I am certain you noticed, pallet grade wood is not exactly the best pine boards out there.
Copper chromium and Arsnic all great ways to lose hair and nerves.
Was looking for this comment, pallet wood has more chemicals impregnated into the wood to prevent rot and fire you don’t want to breathe that stuff in. So if you’re new to woodworking or a seasoned veteran it’s still not worth it.
Depends on the location. We have very very many super cheap or free trash pallets here in nearby factories or plants. The workshops usually are around those parts too, as in cities, in 10 level buildings, residential areas, there are no places for workshops. While economical wood would need to be taken from sawmills, lumberyards or 'fire and construction material' places. Which usually deliver bigger orders, which is a lot of money at the start.
I love everything about this video and I have been looking forward to finishing my current / first project building my dad's birdhouse before I start anything else but the ending with the customer demands utter respect at your humanity mate!
Never trust a price claim on KZhead. For example: I found a video claiming to build a 100 dollar CNC machine. Then they proceeded to find half of the machine in "spare parts" left over from their other videos, those parts were not priced in. But a beginner would not have them and thus would have to buy them. Pointing out that fraud made the video maker angry. They don't like it when you question their clickbait publicly. In a similar vein many videos only count part cost. Not the cost of man hours, or even the cost of tools. Though tools are reusable so I'm fine with leaving those out if they are common tools. So I'm very happy to see you explicitly take in man hour costs. This was an excellent video.
The problem with cost breakdowns Hanford hours invested, is that they’re INCREDIBLY difficult to determine. You have to calculate things like skill level and all. I’m sure if he broke down pallets on the regular and got used to working with the material, and he spent even an hour sourcing nicer pallets from an industrial park, he could probably reduce the amount of man hours invested into the table by half. Furthermore, any non-professional would’ve spent far more time building both tables than he did. I mean, 15 hours is QUICK for a hobby woodworker to produce a finished product like this. Also, he didn’t really make identical tables. If he took the times to make the poplar table the same “triangular” pattern as he did the pallet wood table, he probably would’ve had an additional 5-10 hours into the poplar wood table, but instead, he just took some poplar wood boards and stuck them side-by-side and glued them together. Not exactly a 1-to-1 comparison. I would 100% agree with you on the fraudulent KZhead price breakdowns, though. Most of them are pure BS as they don’t include things that the average person doesn’t have. And, even as this video stated, one of the big reasons that this table fetched $700 was because he built it and sold it on his site, and he has a large social media following. John Malecki sorta exposed this part when he made his pallet wood video. He listed it anonymously on Facebook (listed it on one of his employees pages) and it got zero interest. He ended up giving the table away, but I would imagine if he had listed it on his own page, it would’ve sold rather quickly for some outlandish price (considering he used purely pine pallets). So, that has to be considered as well. If both tables had sold for $100-$200 a piece (common man selling it, not a well known woodworking shop), all of a sudden you’re BARELY out of the red purely due to your material costs. But, on the pallet wood table. Sure, you’re making like $2-3 an hour, but as a hobby I don’t really care about that aspect, and I don’t have to worry about material costs outside of wood glue and machine upkeep, so to me, because the money is more of an “added bonus” of my hobby, it’s pure profit. I think most of the KZheadrs I’ve seen who try and “debunk” the pallet wood craze fail to realize that you can have a business without it being your main source of income. Sure, no one is purely living off of pallet wood furniture sales, but, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it as a side hustle and make some nice coin without the cost of materials piling up. And if you mess up or something doesn’t sell, the only thing you really have invested is time, which it’s a hobby so you had fun doing it which was the main point anyway.
This is what every green person can make on an afternoon at no cost
All brilliant points well done. We should always point out fraud. Nothing good comes from dishonesty and ignoring logic and sense.
the first thing i made out wood was a kingsize loft bed. i used industrial pallet (which was donated for free from a business that deals with windows and used only to transport PVC plastic) and it was challenging but interesting. i would say that another thing to consider is what the pallets were used for, there are health concerns because you do not know what was spilled on top and that could include dagerous chemicals like solvents
Best pallet project for me was a kid's play house. 1x2 pallets upright as "framing", fill the gaps with 2 taken apart pallets and 2 "upper sides" as base for the roof. Using six whole pallets made is really easy, biggest work was putting in an old window from the attic. Would never do that "for sale" though.
The AI garbage really lowers the quality of these videos
Was confused with the truck one like, “wow I guess this guy or someone draws for him. Neat.” then another and another pop up which quickly made me realize what he used…
I have used pallet wood a few times and have been both happy with the results and displeased with the amount of time spent. I would have liked it if you had done a similar pattern with the poplar table so the outcome was more alike. The poplar table took less time but part of that was due to a simpler design. I think a lot of people also overlook the unspoken costs in pallet wood. Glue costs money and so do rags and paper towels. It might not be much but it adds up. There is also the electrical cost of running pieces through planers and sanders over and over. Thanks for sharing!
You're totally right. I thought about factoring those in. But I would have no idea what the actual numbers were on such a small scale. And it would only have made the chasm in profit/hour even greater.
And epoxy and hot melt...
@@Foureyes.Furniture If you track your costs over a year (for example), you could divide that annual cost into whatever percent of a year these builds required. I assume a lot of businesses do this to track consumables, but I'm also just an idiot on the Internet.
I was thinking similarly
@@Foureyes.Furniture One forgotten nail and you can count the price of a new blade or two.
One of the main reasons I subscribed to this channel was that you, Chris, are a very good story teller. You are painfully honest with yourself and your art and your standards are extremely high. I look at what you make and know that you are a true artist and enjoys your work, including the video production. I have worked with pallet wood and all those reasons you listed at the end were my own justifications for working with pallet wood. You have now created doubt in my mind. Thank you for continuing to teach us plebeians artistic woodworking.
Some things to remember when using pallets for projects; 1) pallets are treated to hinder biological contamination, either chemically treated or heat treated. In the U. S. Almost all pallets are heat treated, and therefore safe to cut up, make into furniture or whatever. Chemically treated pallets are mostly used in parts of Asia. 2) pallet wood can be in relatively poor condition. After dismantling the pallet you’re frequently left with splinters. So choose your pallets well.
I think the main reason to use pallet wood is if you're making something for yourself, and you have a wabi-sabi aesthetic, and don't mind imperfections in the final piece. I haven't used pallets, per se, but I've recycled beat up wood (like an old picnic table) into new furniture. I wanted the end result to look recycled and rustic, and it did, so... yay.
You used what is called reclaimed wood. Selling and making things from reclaimed wood is a thing even at the Home Depot level. People like that rustic look especially the grey barn wood.
@@orlock20 And when I built stuff out of new wood, I found that using rottenstone as a stain gave it that old barn wood look.
At an Uni I went to, one of our main issue was the lack of cheap options for lunch break nearby (I was there the first year this uni opened) As students, we got permission to use one of the small 1 room building to make our own sandwich shop, making a quick buck while providing that cheap lunch option. For the furniture, we took a lot of Pallets from the neighbors (who were building a house so there was a bunch) and reworked them. Now this looked nothing like what you've made, they were still pallets, just now in the form of benches and tables, I doubt we could have sold them for much. But it was a very cheap and fun way of getting the furniture we needed, honesty was a really fun and useful project.
Pallets projects should look like this, fast and useful
@@luismorefI think pallet furniture benefits more from not being the main material. I have a friend that makes industrial-style furniture, the structure is all welded metal, he just uses pallets for the shelving and stuff like that, seems to be working like a charm for him
I'm a beginner hobby woodworker with limited time and though I've collected a lot of free pallet wood I haven't had time to complete any significant projects. I'd assumed that being really slow was inevitable for a novice, and no doubt that is a contributory factor, but you've absolutely demonstrated that using pallet wood is my real problem. I've hit those 'new woodworker experiencing poor slow results' motivation issues that you warned about and I also chose projects based on the wood I have stored, (typically low quality pieces). My day job will cover the cost of decent timber, so the conclusion is obvious... stop being limited and frustrated by substandard wood and start doing the higher quality work that I aspire to. Thank you for creating this video, it's just made my life a bit more rewarding! 😊
The bigger concern with pallets is that ones you find thrown away has a HUGE chance of them being contaminated, and are honestly dangerous to have all the dust kicking up in the air, let alone in your home.
Thanks for the heads up Chris about not usually doing pallet stuff .This is my first time finding your vids . 😊
Love the video! I always thought that keeping pallet wood furniture as an option in your work would keep an avenue for productivity open in processing the pallet wood. A situation such as "I have nothing much to do/would like to do something else for a moment" breaking down a pallet and cleaning up the material serves as a productive and different thing to do!
You also didn't add up the expenses of the materials used up for patching the parts breaking on the pallet wood
Pallets are often used more than once. I expect the dirt and grime embedded in the wood to seriously diminish the life of your cutting tools. My brother won't let me run pallet wood through his planner. I completely understand why.
That I can vouch for. I sometimes use palletwood for small/simple projects and before it is put through the jointer/thicknesser, it is rough sanded with a belt sander and brushed with a wire brush. That usually takes care of most crap. Final check is with a metal detector, to find nail tips and such. When processing pallet wood, I always wear a full face mask with micro filters and overpressure (air is sucked in from outside through the filters and blown over my face and escapes though all the little gaps that may face leaves in the rubber cushioning). This basically prevents anything to sneak into the mask and it keeps my glasses from condensing up by my own breathing. Pallets can be treated to endure weather and that stuff is toxic. You don't want that in your body.
I took a furniture course as part of a fine arts degree- they had dedicated planers and jointers for 'salvage' wood at home I used a cheap planer with crappy blades for the first few cuts and then a good one for the rest, too much labour
It's likely not the case for the pallets he got (besides those last 2) because often for equipment or specialty objects they explicitly give you a new or very lightly used pallet because it's out to a customer, but if you're picking it off a dumpster, you're right and it probably went through all 48 continental state and saw every warehouse and warehouse type!
@@scottbitz5222 - You're half correct, but severely overestimating the durability of pallets. These things go through a lot, getting banged around by forklifts multiple times at every stop, sometimes severely. And they're put together with nails instead of screws or glue, so they'll gradually flex apart over time. When they break, they're sometimes sent off to a business that repairs them. The boards on the top and bottom can be replaced. But the vertical boards in the middle can only be patched with a splice. Once it becomes too much of a broken pile of mismatched patches, it's not worth even sending to the refurbisher. It's hard to figure out how long the life of an average pallet is, but chatgpt estimates 5-7 trips. So, not as long as you think. However, if it was sent to a refurbisher several times, then it would probably be patched with wood from other pallets. If the pallet survived several refurbishings, then you might be lucky enough to have a pallet that has collectively seen all 48 continental states! ...and absorbed just as many hazardous chemicals.
Old pallets are pretty good for making garage shelving and outdoor planter boxes.
A friend and I ran an IT business a few years back out of an office adjacent to storage for a local furniture store. They did have real furniture, both new and used. But also were selling defunct cable reels -- the coffe table-sized ones -- for like $300-500. Not varnished, turned into furniture, or anything done to make them look nice. I was rather amazed anyone would pay that kind of money for one (... and maybe they didn't. They were after all languishing in a warehouse.)
There’s a business that has a machine that they built specifically for taking pallets apart
love your videos and your attitude and sincere content, but i preffered them without the ugly AI images
I'll also add that ChatGPT is not a knowledge base, you can't trust its output because all it does is arrange text based on statistical likelihood, basically it's a sparkling autocorrect
This, exactly.
Couldn't agree more! Either hire a real artist or just leave it out entirely.
I'd argue that the table you built wasn't pallet aesthetic, it was just a piece a furniture made from pallet wood. Where I'm from, pallet aesthetic furniture tends to not be as refined as you make it and more rough and ready which has it's own appeal and charm - and of course takes way less time to realise.
I'd say you're right about the fit and finish but, that table top pattern is a pretty common design for pallet wood tables
My thoughts exactly
Sure, but most people aren't paying $755 pallet furniture.
I came into this video thinking "damn this recent trend of people liking industrial or 'the flaws are the aestheric' and intentionally paying for it is really dumb" But 24 minutes of a calm voice and being reminded that woodworking is still a skill and takes time that "yes, charge a lot for this, you spent a lot of time on it with tools and techniques most people don't have" and if its a free material so... why not?? (well unless you're trespassing into shipping yards and stealing pallets)
I'm big on my coffee and I remember a post on a forum from an older member to a newbie wanting to know the best cheap coffee beans he should buy to practice with. The response was don't, you wouldn't learn to drive a car by putting kerosene in the tank and only after you can drive put petrol in the tank (gas for those people that drive on the wrong side of the road) and then crash because the car suddenly performs way better. I think similar can be said of pallet wood for furniture, practice with what you would end up liking to use. On another note, I can get pallets free from work and I do have a fire pit out back and you'd think free fire wood, but the effort in breaking them down and the nails (seriously 45 nails to a board in some cases, more metal than wood) make it not worth it, way easier to pay $50 to my mate who chops trees down and have him load up my wood storage with logs that burn cleaner, longer and spark way less, costs me $50, but I'm not spending several days pulling pallets apart and when I have a fire and guests I don't have to keep going down stairs every 20mins to get another handful of wood, 4 logs takes us way in to the night. Time is valuable and sometimes free isn't always cheap if you want to assign a dollar tag to your time. I do agree that if turning pallets into something is your hobby than the joy it gives you will make it worth to you.
Finally someone who is dead honest and has a straight forward approach towards this subject. I want to start woodworking myself (and eventually get to your level) and thus see a million videos a week, including the "sold this free pallet wood for 10.000 dollar" videos. And although there is obviously some craftsmanship in those videos, there is almost always a "most ideal scenario" going on. What I mean by that is, it is only sort of profitable with the right amount of (usually expensive) tools. There are of course a lot of hacks, jigs etc to make things work, but these always decrease the profit and the actual quality of the end product itself. So my conclusion is that for training purposes, pallet wood is a great starting point. Not just the low cost, which can be very low, or in some cases free. But also you learn the basic milling process with limited tools/skills at a low risk. Thank you for your research, insights, time and effort you put into this video! We as beginner woodworkers are lucky to have teachers like you! (and Shaun ofcourse ;) )
The thing about people claiming ridiculous sale prices like that is that material costs become increasingly insignificant at that point. If you're making $10000 why wouldn't you spend $100-200 on wood unless the pallet has some real aesthetic or functional advantage? Especially when there's extra labor needed to break the pallet down into usable boards first.
The AI art use in the video was kinda distracting. I'm not an anti-ai art person, but the art styles changed drastically for no real reason.
I'm anti-AI so there's that. Also, the movie you were thinking of is Highlander. Not The Santa Clause. "There can be only one!"
The thing is, AI art has that AI art look. It's fine, as far as it goes, but unless you put in a lot of work afterwards, we all know that a robot drew it.
Imagine buying beautiful pallet wood table - only to find the underside is a rich dark walnut. We have all watched so many woodwork videos - we may have forgotten how incredibly luxurious and sought after this hardwood is!
The only pallet-furniture I had seen (for real) so far, was like... either just 2-3 pallets on top of each other as seating area + one vertically in the back as backrest (everything covered with a cushioned blanket), or 4 of them together forming a bed (again with a cushion blanket), or 4 stacked on top of each other building a table (covered with one board of poplar for even surface). They were all looking like you could put them together in a couple of minutes.
Is nobody gonna mention how 🔥 the ad read was?... that 8bit animation 🎮
Hopefully people enjoy it. It was pretty fun to make :)
Loved it
Great video. I really like the breakdown and comparison to cheap timber. I've always thought the 2 main reasons to use pallet wood are, 1-cheap for simple diy home projects, 2- random opportunity of interesting or valuable timber from high quality pallets. I recently broke down a van full of long hardwood pallets. Took many hours of de-nailing, but the timbers are amazing. Timber prices here in Aus have always been expensive and have gone crazy the last few years. These pallets were likely Indonesian (or other south asia) rainforest timbers and have colours and grain we don't often get unless we pay premium prices. I now have about 100Lm of beautiful boards that I will come up with projects for. As for the shitty pine pallets on every corner, I think they are great to make something simple and move it on when it doesn't suit the need any more.
Totally agree. I am halfway through making a range of different small boxes out of exotic hard/heavy woods from pallets. Some lovely colours and grain patterns I just can't source locally, but they have been a joy to work with.
The most clutch timing ever awarded to the gentleman editing because when he was speaking on something being costly whilst a festool domino was on screen that’s what I call product placement
An unmentioned aspect of your return on the build: your woodworking skill level.
As a beginner I concur my pallet projects haven't come out the way I envisioned and are extremely time consuming due to not knowing how to make the repairs or the different tricks needed to arrive at the desired result. So much easier working with quality wood at this point. I get the result I had in mind and none of the headache along the way. The confidence boost in seeing a quality finished piece is well worth the cost!!
This is the kind of breakdown i would have needed two years ago when i thought pallets are a perfect cheap way to start woodworking - only to realise how much more enjoyable and efficient working even with something like pine or spruce from the lumberyard was. Now i have fifty pallets just sitting in my garage.
Palette wood projects feel more like personal challenges, rather than something that should be emulated as a business model.
I build myself a GORGEUS pallet table for my PC and TV screen. The worst was dismanteling it xS...
honestly I think the pallet tabke should have sold for much more than the poplar. Such a more interesting piece
5 extra bucks was all it got :/
How much more a person will pay for "interesting" is very subjective. Whether it looks "interesting" vs like trash boards glued together is very subjective.
@@keithmarlowe5569 I suppose but I feel like when you are buying high end custom furniture you want it to draw people's attention and I don't think a plain Jane poplar table will do that. But as you said it is subjective. Though he did specify the auctions weren't on for very long due to video deadlines I think there would have been a bigger than $5 gap in the pricing.
Depending where one lives, the quality and condition of pallets varies greatly. I live in SF and I've noticed that most of the pallets we get at work with stuff shipped from Asia are brand new, clean, an din perfect condition. Certainly good enough to turn into shelving or single furniture. I'm originally from NYC, where i NEVER saw a pallett good enough to even touch.
I get free oversized pallets at my job. There's an electrical company in our commercial yard, and they received a bunch of transfomers on large pallets. We cut them down to our own specs for wine barrel storage. Saved us almost 70k in lumber prices over the past two years. Pallets have a lot of 2x10 1x8 & 2x12 boards on top. We buy full pallets of 2x4s when we cut ours down to size.
I used your math to consider this as a side hustle to supplement income. *TL;DR: The pallet table is only more profitable if you consider your time worth less than $7.05/hr* Treating time as money, I used the hourly rate someone may have at a W-2 job of $30 times the hours invested plus fixed cost. The pallet table would cost $1,020 to make vs $625.50 for the poplar table. That means if I had your same level of skill and equipment (which I certainly don't), I would have lost money on the pallet table. The pallet table becomes profitable when you consider your time worth $20/hr, since it will cost $680 to make and turn a $75 profit. But the poplar table is still more profitable since it gives $294.50 in profit. The only point when the pallet table is more profitable than the poplar table is if you consider your time worth $7.05/hr or below. Really insightful video, thanks for doing the side-by-side comparison.
The main reason not to use pallet wood is you have no idea what it was used to transport, so what might have leaked on it, or what it sat in a yard in, etc. You could be making something you sell to a family that is impregnated with carcinogenic chemicals, poisons, chemicals that cause respiratory issues, etc, etc. It's such an incredibly bad idea.
The pallets used to transport chemicals are marked
Honoured to be included in this video! Super thoughtful, great points and beautiful aesthetic, as always.
Thanks Morley. And I hope people didn't think I was picking on you with any of this. But if there are any hard feelings...I'll wash your van when you come through town in a few weeks :)
No hard feelings at all! I think all of your points are valid. I can’t really speak to pallet woodworking as a business, as I’ve only sold 3 pallet projects 😂. My business is making KZhead videos, and I just happened to have some very popular pallet woodworking videos. With respect to reclaimed woodworking, I think it’s important to mention that a lot of people are buying the pieces because of the story of the wood. So a piece of furniture made from a pallet, reclaimed beam, or old hardwood flooring that has a connection to the buyer’s hometown might sell better/easier than a random pallet. And like you said - there is something inherently satisfying about turning old, gnarly wood into something finished and beautiful!
The comment about new woodworkers using better materials to build confidence is spot on. The issues you encountered with the pallet wood were more easily overcome by your years of experience whereas a newbie would wonder if maybe they lacked the talent to pursue woodworking as a hobby. IMHO, the risk of possibly not pursuing woodworking due to using substandard materials is not worth the savings. Thanks for a great video although I did a double take when I saw the title.
A big thing to consider is that different jobs require different pallets; each made of different materials with different treatments. Be sure to look up the markings and make-up to understand if you should wear breathing protection while cutting/sanding, and if the wood is safe for different uses (like planters and such.) Some treatments can make the wood toxic.
My main issue with pallet furniture is that most of the time people have no idea what the life of the pallet was or what chemicals were spilled on it. In this case machinery is usually shipped on custom single use pallets and they are probably fine. Most free pallets have been used many times. I can assure you first hand freight companies puncture chemical containers and spill stuff on pallets on a regular basis. The pallets continue to be used until no one has any idea what they were used for or what they are contaminated with. It’s not wood I’d want to work with or put in my house.
Nonsense. You do have an idea. If pallets are re-used they are re-used within the same supply chain. Just get them from a place dealing with food, furniture or electronics and you'll be fine. Same with construction materials. Stone and concrete contaminate jack shit.
nonsense. Logistics companies ship anything and everything and in no way try to keep track of what pallets are used for.
My parents build their outside furniture out of pallets. But they left it mostly as it is, meaning it was mostly stacking for the sitting space, cutting it to shape for the sides, fixing the pallets at an angle to create the back support and finally just buy some cheap pillows for the back. And it was much cheaper than buying the wood and then building it from the ground up and easier. But the downside is that as you need better pallets than you usually find outside, they had to search for them and even buy some to fit their needs. Supermarkets have a lot of them, but they also do not tend to just throw them away when they are still good and stable, but they go much cheaper than new ones.
I once watched someone using "old pallets" to make furniture, except they were actually quite new looking euro pallets which absolutely nobody would give away for free unless they were broken. And I've seen warehouses carefully use almost broken euro pallets, hoping it would break wherever they were shipping to, so they would get a better one in exchange. Nobody gives away good pallets.
I've seen plenty of pristine looking pallets thrown away, especially the really strong double-sided ones they use to transport cement bags and ceramic tiles. Construction workers don't care about them nearly as much. Also there's a local mall that often has a couple pallets thrown in the back alley I go through to get to the parking spot. If I see some that are nice I always pick them up.
@@demoniack81 But for sure not in middle europe.
I understand why you went with another layer for the pallet table. I even understand why you put the pallet wood on top in the case study. Still, my heart's bleeding at the end result. It's a table with a secret, but the secret's really sad: the beauty is hidden. I'm guessing the poplar table would've caught quite bit more if it had the same layout as the scrap table. Your honesty about stacking the favours is very nice. The fact it was so close for the 'plain' table vs the 'extraordinarily built' one says a whole lot about the financials of the endeavour.
Poplar is super soft though... And pallets are typically either oak or pine. The freest ones are usually pine, so no further ahead than poplar in softness, but probably way knottier... which is bad. Despite what character some would say it adds. But if you were scoring oak pallets for free, then that'd be a much much much better wood to go with overall, even if it does take extra stages to refine it into usable pieces. The whole pallet thing can have a time and place, so long as you aren't just some KZhead pleb faking it till you make it. Or so to say, so long as you have a clue what you're doing, and choosing wisely along the way, then any materials can make some kind of sense. PS, I know poplar is considered a "hardwood" due to species... but any wood that you can draw in with a fingernail and as minimal pressure as humanly possible, is "soft" in my book... I mean, if your kid used a matchbox car on a piece of poplar, there'll be indents. So.. it's a fkn softwood as far as I'm concerned. PPS... My gawd do you love your AI art generations... jeezus. PPPS... they make cordless hot glue guns for your hot glue sticks that you pretend aren't hot glue sticks... also, they are hot glue sticks.. they sell them in black, and other colors, as hot glue sticks, for hot glue guns. Go get a Ryobi or Ridgid cordless, and you'll have WAY more control over that whole "on fire and dripping everywhere, even when sitting off to the side and not being actively used" version you got going on now. But yeah.. that's a hot glue stick... you're filling wood with hot glue. Not totally into that idea, but you do you... and do it even better with a real tool instead of just an on fire gluestick...
Another often overlooked problem with pallet wood is that depending on how it's treated for longevity and what chemicals may have been spilled on it, the wood may be toxic. That's not a big deal once the wood is sealed IF you're not planning on using it for anything related to food. You really should not let food touch pallet wood, even if the wood is sealed. The dust can also be toxic, though, and while dust is always a health concern, toxic pallet dust could be a lot worse. I've done some work with pallets for the big reason you listed, which is that it's free and I'm just barely starting to learn. Messing up free pallet wood isn't a big deal. I've been careful to wear a mask almost all the time, though. And, people often burn the bad pieces and scraps from pallets, which is a terrible idea.
Awesome video, thank you for your insight as a furniture builder, you’ve got a new subscriber here. I am just about to start my pellet wood projects, and I’m on the side of hobby building for fun and relaxation. I thought, “if I can make a piece of small furniture out of scrap wood, it would not matter to me how long it would take, the end result would be to my benefit” I’m first going to try a pallet woodshed and go from there. Thanks again and I look forward to more of your videos.
Well i was talking to a friend irl telling them that i want to build a table w days and your channel appeared in my feed today. Great content and keep up the amazing work. I love people who are hinest and take what they do seriously.
as a big fan of your videos, I gotta say that I really didnt like all the AI art in this video. it just looks so boring and uninspired compared to the higher design, and truly thought out aesthetic of all of your work.
Wow! First an epoxy guy and now a pallet guy. You've fully embraced the KZhead woodworking zeitgeist. J/k, entertaining content as always!
I started with pallet wood and it definitely is a pain working with it but I think it’s great since I am just starting out in wood working. The only problem with working with pallet wood is the amount of space it takes up since they are not small
Pro tip for get whole boards out of pallets : saw the palet nails of between the "blocks" and the boards with a saw saw. This is how palet repair fims do when they repair refundeble EUR pallets , they actually save boards from" to broken" pallets and use them on the ones that are being fixed , they dont remove the nail heads doe. Imagen the irritation when someone has done diy repairs with hardened screws on the pallets and they try to cut them with the saw... Then you use a flat punch and drive the short head part of nails out . These can be saved and used as "decor " . The shorter nails can *often be taken out whole. If you find nice hardwood palets with nice boards and want to be really sure to not crack them cut the bottom boards between the palet floor boards, then you crack and remove "the stumps " . then drive the nails out of the floorboards. * some hard wood can hold the nails so hard that the board cracks instead of the nails letting go.
Another great build along with lessons on how to correct flaws and mistakes in your work. I was especially pleased with how you showed how beautiful poplar can be in furniture considering it has a reputation as a paint grade material.
Look up “rainbow poplar”. It’s even more dazzling.
Question is this really a fair test when the design on the tables tops are different? How many hours would it have added if you made the poplar the same as the pallet one??
Yes! I agree! And I also think that the pallet one looks better because of the design, the different colors of the wood... It's more special in a way
That has gotta be the best shape a pallet has ever been in, every one ive seen has been breaking in some way or even partially rotting out. Pallets are incredibly prone to splintering and its suprising that you had that little problems. Great build, and you could also probably contact any local warehouse and just arrange to take their used pallets since in my experience they are just about always thrown into a dumpster anyways.
Pallets vary wildly. There are some very nice pallets used for shipping heavy machinery. But I agree. Most are crap.
Yeah, If you get a new pallet then its probably in good condition for this type of thing. Most of the ones thrown out are gonna be crap though. Completely forgot about some wooden pallets being treated with anti fungal chems, so its probably not good to work with those.
“Finding” pallets depends entirely on where you’re located. I happen to live by several warehouses that either put pallets out to trash or I ask if I can take them. I have used pallet wood quite often but solely because of the availability and ease of acquiring it. Occasionally there’s are some nice boards on them which is nice. I would not recommend it though. Anything I’ve made from pallets have been for my own use or for friends/family.
Very honest look at the topic although something I never hear anybody mention is that a lot of pallets are treated with some pretty serious chemicals. It isn’t that pallets should be avoided because of that but that responsible influencers need to be open about this and show people what codes/stamps to look for so they can determine if they should be used for a specific project, if at all, especially if the end product will be even tangentially used around food or small children. I think it’s good for people to use pallets if they want to, it’s definitely more ecologically responsible than assembling something flatpacked.
Even if your pallet wasn't pressure treated, it could have been exposed to all kinds of nastiness. It could have sat outside in the rain for months, it could have sat in a warehouse next to solvents, it could have been used to transport chemicals, or been placed on top of a puddle of rotten milk for a transcontinental road trip.
@@tyrannosaurusimperator Yep, meant to include that as well.
I would have found the cost comparison more compelling if you included the material cost for the things like; epoxy, glue, finish, and similar woodworking consumables. Always enjoy the videos! Thanks for making them.
Great point!
That's what I was wondering. The pallet table requires a whole lot more gluing, etc. Were those costs negligible?
I think the glue is pretty negligable. I would be suprised if I used $3.00 of glue total between the two pieces.
New woodworker here and also started with a pallet project. It's kind of OK, looks nice until you try to finish the project. Then it becomes a pain in the ass because that wood is thirsty. You oil it once, and then sand, and oil it again, and sand. And it always finds a way for some moisture to enter the wood and make it uneven. I realized there is a reason cheap wood is used for pallets. It deforms, has weak grain, and a lot of knots. It's just soft wood that warps and you can invest a lot of hours but it will require a good seal to finish it. Otherwise, all your work is ruined. I find it much cheaper and faster to buy some wood, glue it together then to deconstruct pallets, remove all nails, remove all hidden metal parts, cut uneven sides, use a plainer... it's just too much time.
The amount of tools and woodworking knowledge needed to get that pallet wood to an acceptable level is insane.
I understand the time, work and skill that goes in to these projects but I could still never imagine paying $750 for a coffee table. Especially one made from the cheapest wood out there.
$750 for a coffee table made of the cheapest wood , wtf are you saying...
People who pay 750$ for a coffee table do it BECAUSE they like to have something that took time, work and skill to make and is a unique piece. A factory made 50$ table isn't even in the same category to do a comparison.
Also that is like what a jacket or a pair of shoes or two costs
@@sunnohh I don't think I've ever spent more than $150 on a jacket or pair of shoes...
@@balladur8 that’s what the guy said in the video. I couldn’t believe it.
Thank you for creating this. Very informative and inspiring while creative. It looks like you've put a lot of time and money and space into perfecting and honing your craft while offering insight into some of these emerging"trends" of pallet stuff.
i used to work in a retail store selling tv's and we always had pallet problem, we sold many tv's per day and getting rid of the pallets was always a problem, we had to dedicate a quarter of our warehouse for just storing the pallets. I think if you have pallets readily available it should be much easier to create furniture out of it. Also you should find a way to process the boards in a more streamlined fashion, invest time in exploring ways to save time. Thats what you would have to do if you would try to make a business out of it.
They're both very clean. The pallet wood one has more character and the poplar looks more minimalist. I dunno, but the fact that you surprised the bid winner by giving it to him for free... You just got yourself another subscriber!!
You are spot on on this video! The only one thing I would add is your woodworking is crisp and clean, a lot of pallet furniture is quick and just thrown together. Which would make the time to build it much less. To build pallet furniture that’s supper nice, takes lots of time.
not a huge fan of the AI art, love the content, but not the pictures
One thing which annoys me about "get income by building high value objects using trash" videos is that they don't tell you about the startup & tool usage costs. Besides material cost and hourly wage, you have to factor in tool damage, shop rent, electricity cost, maybe even loans for expensive tools. Also, my local lumber mill lets customers use their giant planer and saw tables for free, but somehow I doubt that includes pallets you bring to their warehouse.
The shit they treat pallet wood with can be way worse than PT lumber. Milling the wood can release not just wood preservatives, but insecticides and mechanical oils and such. Probably just use them for pallets