Not really to my esthetic (or I prefer to spend my time woodworking and just buy lumber and avoid the waste, defects and nails)  but if you are into this:

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/components-sourcing/reclaimed-wood-bringing-old-back-life

 

Or if you don't want to search Craig's list for "free" pallets.

1/4 pallet https://www.homedepot.com/p/Crates-Pallet-24-in-x-24-in-x-5-in-Reclaimed-Wood-Quarter-Pallet-94716/203837915

1/2 pallet https://www.homedepot.com/p/Crates-Pallet-40-in-x-24-in-x-5-in-Reclaimed-Wood-Half-Pallet-94717/203837916

 

Funny you should mention the pallets. I just came by a local business and there was a huge pile of pallets (in various forms of deconstruction) and a big sign- FREE WOOD.

Prepping the wood so it can be prepped for use is not how I want to work. In the case of pallets, free ain't free.

I am not a fan of reclaimed wood, I was raise on a rough wooden plank floor, Bead Board walls and shiplap ceilings covered with newspaper pasted on with flour and water paste, the painted with calcimine paint.

Even the old one room school house had wood floors that were oil soaked finish and if you dropped anything on the floor it came up dirty and oil soaked.

The wood plank floors they rave about today remind me of the barn floors . My attic bedroom floor had cracks 1/4" wide and a coin would fall through it, and sure was hard on the bare feet, many a sliver my mom removed from my feet. We could lay in bed and look at the rafters and the 1X4 sheathing ,shingles with the shingle nails sticking through, and even poked my head on the nails occasionally.

Not for me.

Herb

My time is better spent on activities that don't involve pulling nails and changing nicked planer blades. Plus, I'm lazy.

We don't have cable (by choice), so when we visit family, my wife will sometimes get her fill of it.   Right now, she has HGTV Flea market Flips or something like that.   What total crap.   They're re-doing a $30 IKEA chair into something they sell for $150, taking a washtub and putting BBQ legs, painted turquoise, on it and turning it into an end table or something.   A wooden ladder cut into thirds and turned into wall knick-knack shelf.  God, I can't even watch this, to say nothing of the $300 -550 they're getting for this junk.

 

We were at the local theater for a traveling Broadway show last week.  In the lobby is an art exhibit.   "Art" is a subjective term.  The piece de resistance is a 10' stack of wooden crates, boxes, and baskets.   It looks like the corner of my grandfather's barn (a truck farmer).

I enjoy reclaiming lumber.  Pallets not so much and nothing painted unless it is special.  I built this clock with the cross ties from wire spools when a cell tower was being erected.  It was three foot pieces of 4/4 Southern Yellow pine.  No paint and no nails.  Free and there was enough that I built my parents one too.

 

Edited January 23, 20188 yr by HandyDan

the cost of a thing is how much of a man's life he has to exchange for it.  - Thoreau.

 

free isn't free if you have to expend effort before you can make cut one.  if you place a monetary value on your shop time, then just because the upfront material cost was zero, your cost is still how much time is spent before you can use your first tool.  not to mention the back end waste pile YOU have to get rid of.  there is always waste.  trees do not grow in the shape of a finished coffee table or grandfather clock.

 

i'm using some scraps to make a little bowl.  but even those scraps will have scraps, as the scraps are square (after i cut them down from rectangles), and the bowl will be round.  no market for mixed sawdust, it's just trash.

I don't do pallet wood for a couple of reasons.  First, like Gene, I value my planer blades.  Secondly, and more importantly, I don't know where the pallets have been.  I flat refused a job last year building a headboard out of pallet wood. (An HGTV inspired project for a lady)  If the pallets are used, you don't have a clue what was stored on them or where.  I suppose if you want to use a piece of wood that may have had chemicals stored on it in a rodent inhabited warehouse, then that's your choice but its not me.  IMHO.

2 hours ago, DAB said:

the cost of a thing is how much of a man's life he has to exchange for it.  - Thoreau.

 

free isn't free if you have to expend effort before you can make cut one.  if you place a monetary value on your shop time, then just because the upfront material cost was zero, your cost is still how much time is spent before you can use your first tool.  not to mention the back end waste pile YOU have to get rid of.  there is always waste.  trees do not grow in the shape of a finished coffee table or grandfather clock.

 

i'm using some scraps to make a little bowl.  but even those scraps will have scraps, as the scraps are square (after i cut them down from rectangles), and the bowl will be round.  no market for mixed sawdust, it's just trash.

I read Nancy Hiller's book on Hoosier Cabinets last year.   Nancy is a classically trained custom cabinetmaker in Indiana.   In the intro she talks about what I'd call "Cherry Pie Economics"  Her neighbor invited her over to pick some cherries off their tree.    She picked for what she thought was quite a while and asked the neighbors if they thought that was enough for pie.  Their response was something like, "Not even close."   The neighbors helped picked and she picked for what she thought was quite a while longer.    Then she went home, washed, pitted and cut them.   Then cooked in the thickening agent.   Made and rolled out a pie crust, put it in the oven, waited for it to bake and took it out.   All the time she was thinking that if she had considered if she'd been in the shop doing chargeable time, she probably had several hundred dollars worth of time in that pie.

now, if some stray person comes across this years from now, they need to go back and read my caveat:  "if you place a monetary value on your shop time".  that is the key to this.

 

there are all manner of things that you can either do yourself, or you can hire it out.  you can make your own breakfast, or you can buy a made breakfast on the way to work.  both will get you fed.

 

you can scavenge for "free" lumber, buy/borrow tools and space, and make yourself some furniture, or you can buy some IKEA project and put it together (or pay someone to do so).

 

the nice part about being retired is that i can do what i want each day, without regard to "could i be earning money now instead of doing this?"  i can choose to do something solely based on me wanting to, not having to worry about not being on the clock for 4 hours after lunch.

 

i'm going to turn a little bowl after lunch.  it'll take about 1-1/2 hours.  i'll give it away.  oh, you want to buy one that i haven't made yet?  and pay me?  we'll start talking at around $200.  how badly do you want to command my day?  because now i'm doing something YOU want done, not doing something I want done.  big difference.

 

my wife is making some apple hand pies later.  yum.  home made filling we made some time ago, fresh pastry crust that is resting in the refrigerator now.  yes, buying some from the store would be faster and likely cheaper, but it's something she wants to do for us.

 

DAB.

Edited January 23, 20188 yr by DAB

With the plethora of fresh fruit available in season and the availability of inexpensive chest freezers, I can't fathom buying a frozen pie. But, I'm married. Wife loves to bake. She'd shoot me if I brought home a boughten pie or a package of cookies. 

Prepping fruit ain't near as expensive as prepping pallets.

Edited January 23, 20188 yr by Gene Howe

long ago, i noted to someone my definition of being rich:

 

being rich is being able to say NO.

 

that's it.  think it over.  has nothing to do with how many $20s are in you pocket.  who is in charge of your time and life?  you or someone else?

5 hours ago, HandyDan said:

I built this clock

 

beautiful...

5 hours ago, Ron Dudelston said:

I suppose if you want to use a piece of wood that may have had chemicals stored on it in a rodent inhabited warehouse, then that's your choice but its not me.  IMHO.

 

ditto...

I guess that I am the odd man out on this one (not entirely unusual for me I might add).

For me, some of the pride I get is in knowing that this project was done from throw away stuff.  One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Years ago I purchased a quantity of old 2X12 rafters.  They came from the shed roof over a sawmill that had been in business over 100 years.

That stuff is old growth red oak timbers.  You cannot buy old growth stuff like this anymore unless you reclaim it.  While it is tough to machine and mill, it is so darned beautiful when it is cleaned up.  I hope to get to using the rest of it up one of these days...

I have cleaned up and made several things from pallets - not cutting boards certainly...

 

And I have rebuilt a couple of old cars - kinda the same principle to me

Edited January 23, 20188 yr by Cal

4 minutes ago, Cal said:

They came from the shed roof over a sawmill that had been in business over 100 years.

That stuff is old growth red oak timbers.  You cannot buy old growth stuff like this anymore unless you reclaim it

 

far cry from pallets w/ an unknown history/purpose...

this is a comparison of apples to oranges...

 

we watch these shows that often feature some furniture piece made of some reclaimed wood, and the owners oooh and aaahhh over whatever is made for their lovely home.  but to me, it's forced.

 

if it's worn, weathered, has gaps, checks, cracks, splits, then you likely left it out in the rain with the cake too often.  nothing wrong with outdoor furniture, but it takes a beating, and belongs outside.  if i'm going to show off my skills, i want to do it with something really nice that you want in your house, not on the front porch.  something that you will use, will care for, that adds beauty and utility to your house.  not something that gets rained on, has birds poop on it, and is cared for with a power washer once a year.

 

guess i'm sitting on a fortune of old deck boards just waiting for their next adventure.

The Orange Box near me has 1"X4"X8' weathered barn wood in stock.  Don't know how they weather it but is is not reclaimed pieces.

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-in-x-4-in-x-8-ft-Weathered-Barn-Wood-Gray-Pine-Trim-Board-243246/206748872?MERCH=REC-_-PIPHorizontal2_rr-_-207078140-_-206748872-_-N

 

 

8 hours ago, HandyDan said:

I built this clock

Beautiful piece. I like it A LOT!

8 hours ago, HandyDan said:

Free and there was enough that I built my parents one too.

Good son...I'm sure they highly valued that piece.