Source of FREE wood

[shmalphy]

I use a lot of shipping pallets for projects in my growroom. They are free and available everywhere. I just finished making modular scrogs, I made a drying box, shelves, a worm bin and even a bed frame for myself.

I call this the Bud Casket. It is my drying room

Here are my ModScrog v2.0 complete with casters

 

[SeaMaiden]

Shmalphy! I need a storage shed and a drying & storage barn (and I do mean BARN). No one around here lets their pallets go. Think you can help me out?

 

[shmalphy]

How do you ship shipping pallets? I guess this is the benefit of living in a heavy industrial area...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my pallet fence, compost bins, and right now I am making plant tables...

 

[desert fox]

How do you ship shipping pallets?..

with good on it in a semi silly, nice work of reusing wood....free is nice.

 

[desert fox]

Shmalphy! I need a storage shed and a drying & storage barn (and I do mean BARN). No one around here lets their pallets go. Think you can help me out?

opps missed your post, generally the pallets get reused. if your building a barn your going to want good wood. I think most have a deposit system for the heavy duty blue ones (the ones for grocery store like a pallet of water). if you can find a place that uses chemicals in 55 gallon drums. Those they will part with. there isn't a lot of slat to them and its is decently strong wood. Try to think of some places that do not use them as shipping to and from a warehouse. such as I order $XXX of stuff and they dont want the hassle of logistics to reclaim and reuse the pallets. Mabee check out some places where you would pick up drop freight shipping. They will gladly give you the broken heavy duty ones, and the flimsy stuff.

 

[supermanlives]

hell ya . when i lived in pa i got all the pallets i wanted free. we would bring a pile of em for opening trout season and have a huge bonfire. stack them bitches high . dump 1 gal gas . toss match to gas trail. poof a bigass fire. when i lived in ma my buddy has a sawmill and planer. i got whatever wanted if i helped him for a few hours. now i am in city and will be looking for pallets too. i want a chicken coop for up to 3 birds . you made great use of those pallets BTW k+

 

[shmalphy]

I get mine from a furniture warehouse. I have no idea why they don't sell em, but they put out literally hundreds, and some are really heavy duty and intact. I take them apart and use them as needed. I made a nice table today.

 

[greenmatter]

if you have a printing company in your area check out their old pallets. they build them really solid to ship high quality sheet paper.

kind of amazing/sickening what ends up in the landfills these days

 

[Hammerhead]

I use to get some from HD/Lowes the blue ones where locked up the other ones that had Bags of sand or concrete they left out. Some places buy pallets from you..

 

[ClosetAdvocate]

Maybe post a wanted ad in Craigslist.

My area has plenty of free pallets. There's a few businesses I drive past that always have a stack of pallets out front with a sign that says "FREE".

I'm sure there are businesses that have them laying around. If you post a wanted ad you may be able to get some people to part with them.

 

[shmalphy]

Motorcycle, ATV, boat and jetski dealers often have pallets and leftover wood from crates.

 

[skullznroses]

YEss

YEss

This is what I do with my buddy on the weekends!!! WE get them from the local hardware store. I had to go into the store to ask about them, and they showed me the secret stash out back. After a while you get to know which ones you want.

We make boxes and I plant greens in them.

Heres the lineup down the walkway.. spinach, chard, and lettuces


Great thread.. I wondered what was being built.
Another thing I have seen made with pallets is homebrew beer cases. Peace.

 

[shmalphy]

My friend calls me and another dude the pallet boys because we are always scoring pallets and making stuff out of them. Looks like the pallet boys crew just went nationwide, welcome to the club skullznroses!

PALLET BOYS! PALLET BOYS! (you gotta sing it)

 

[Trewarin]

Pallets have saved me $100 in timber costs over the years.
You won't get working ones for free too often, you want to ask about old fucked up ones... if one of two slats are broken, they're no good for transport but GREAT for projects.

My list to date includes:
planter beds, compost heap -walls, ScRogs, tables, billy carts, a bench set etc...

 

[shmalphy]

It is addictive once you start making stuff out of them. I can get a few hundred a week if I want (most fully intact and some broken), so I am constantly trying to think of uses for them. I am in the process of working on a pallet greenhouse, I stacked my firewood on pallets, and I made it through last winter burning only pallets and scrap wood from a roof repair in my wood stove, but I also use my lights to heat my house. My neighbor spends $300 a month in heat... on OIL... LOL

 

[shmalphy]

Pallet worm bin

 

[budderfly]

Good tip, I never would've guessed used pallets could be found for free, I just figured everyone kept reusing them.

 

[shmalphy]

You would think so, buuuttt... Pallets originate up where the products originate, it doesn't make sense to have empty pallets shipped back, it's cost prohibitive. If you import more stuff than you export, there are bound to be some lying around somewhere.

 

[señorsloth]

i just recently gave up working at a cabinet shop to be a full time floraculturist...we have a big open garbage out back that we toss all kinds of stuff, and people are invited to go grab all the free firewood they want, it fills every week with cherry, alder, hickory, mahogany, ash, oak, walnut, and a million others, long stuff short stuff

when we bought units of 1/4 inch veneer it comes with a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood on top and bottom to cover the veneer...sometimes it was really nice wood too, just whatever extra they had laying around to protect the stuff underneath from sun and rain, but we threw all that away too, most of the furniture i own is made from that stuff and painted black...

i was thinking that would probably be a good place for free wood, where i worked was zoned for that sort of thing so there were 4 other cabinet shops nearby who also let people dig in their scrap bins, they like it because it's just less for them to pay to haul away...

personally i wouldn't want to use pallet wood, no offense, i've dealt with it a little and i don't know what they do to that stuff but it's some of the toughest wood to cut and nail through that i've ever seen, like the stuff railroad ties are made of! to be honest a lot can be done with 2 dollar, 10 foot 1 by 2's and 8 dollar, 4 by 8 foot sheets of 1/4 inch mdf from the local menards...

 

[shmalphy]

^Well, all the more for me lol.

I made an 8x20 greenhouse out of pallets today. The plastic I got for free by calling a greenhouse and asking when they plan to change the plastic, and if I can have the old stuff. It's used, but I should be able to get a few seasons out of it.`