Pallet boards as stickers

[wdchuck]

Anybody try pallet boards as sticker material?

The material is plentiful, generally free, no more work than ripping anything else to size, and could be planed to uniform thickness in short order, a good 'rainy day' job, making up a bunch.

The only thing that would concern me is the potential chemicals in the pallet wood leaching into the slabs during the drying stage.

What are your thoughts?

 

[amdburner]

This is a good use for this wood I would think. I am not sure what chemicals you think would be leaching from pallet wood though. I used to work in a pallet mill and we never treated any of our wood. With the exception of some specialty pallets all of our pallets were made out of red oak.

Dave

 

[Husky137]

The only thing I would be concerned about is wrecking saw blades and planer knives with missed bits of metal from fastners.

 

[Wood Cutter]

Ditto what amdburner said, I used to work at a pallet stock mill, we never treated any wood we cut. Some of the stuff they stack on pallets might leach into the pallets???

 

[wdchuck]

When I did crate building, and shipping the international crates/pallets had to be stamped, hardwood or softwood, for bug/fungal treatments. I know that when I burn cutoffs from a local crate company the smoke and stench is pretty bad, even after three years of sitting outside, creosote and weather proofing, bug chemicals, wondered if they would leach out and possibly stain the slabs.

I never got another load from them after seeing the effect on people during a bonfire.

The pallets that I've come across seem to made of every type of wood in the country, hard and soft. Even had some nice crates from Swedish robots.

 

[woodshop]

As others have said, thing with pallet material is you have to watch for hardware as well as little stones and dirt the pallet might have picked up. After all, by their very nature, they sat in mud or dirt or nasty conditions. Almost always, they are made from junk wood, #2 or 3 common, so full of knots and some defects that are OK in a 4 inch wide pallet board, but when you rip them to 1 inch, not so good as they might twist up pretty quick as they dry. Not the least of the downsides for me would be the time put out for the return gotten. Law of diminishing returns kind of thing. Lot of work getting stickers from a pallet nailed and glued together. But hey if you have the time and can find some nicer pallets, go for it.

 

[wdchuck]

Thanks guys, clean pallets are easy to get.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I saw my "stickers" out of "shorts" or logs that i have no other use for. They are 1x1x48"

As i saw them, i sticker them on a pallet to air dry..

Once dry, i move them into my barn and bundle them, useing 3 HD "stretchy straps" around the bundle. That keeps them straight enough as they wait to be used up.

If i had pallet material the right size, i'd use it in a heart beat!

Rob

 

[flht01]

As i saw them, i sticker them on a pallet to air dry..

Rob

Those stickers look wavy to me. Is the front bunk on that (sheetmetal)sawmill bent?

 

[flht01]

...
As i saw them, i sticker them on a pallet to air dry..

...Rob

How long do you air dry them before bundling up and storing?

 

[wdchuck]

THose stickers look like a wine rack just waiting to be assembled, and filled, then emptied, repeat steps 2&3 until they look straight.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I don't have a "set" time that i dry them, but after a month or so or so they are good to go though.... Normally i saw them out waaaay ahead, so i always have dry ones around.

They do NOT always dry straight, but when i use them i just put them with the bowed side up, and the weight of the lumber flattens them, no problem... Keep in mind, these are sawn out of low grade shorts/crooked/limbs/firewood logs that i don't have another use for. So, they dry how ever they dry. I can always throw out what ever ones i don't like later on...

Rob

 

[JWO]

Those stickers don't look wavy to me as far as I can tell they are straight to me besides I wouldn’t be building furniture just using them as stickers.

Nice pictures Sawyer Rob

 

[flht01]

I don't have a "set" time that i dry them, but after a month or so or so they are good to go though.... Normally i saw them out waaaay ahead, so i always have dry ones around.

They do NOT always dry straight, but when i use them i just put them with the bowed side up, and the weight of the lumber flattens them, no problem... Keep in mind, these are sawn out of low grade shorts/crooked/limbs/firewood logs that i don't have another use for. So, they dry how ever they dry. I can always throw out what ever ones i don't like later on...

Rob

Thanks Rob. I took a good 8 foot sawlog, cut it in half, then sawed stickers. Wasted a good sawlog all just to get straight stickers, but what a pile it made. Thanks for the tip on using shorts/crooked/limbs/firewood logs. Makes sense using the weight of the stack to straighten them, thanks for the tip. I've got some big water oak limbs I'm a little reserve about cutting up for boards so I'll just use them for stickers.

Kevin

 

[flht01]

Those stickers don't look wavy to me as far as I can tell they are straight to me besides I wouldn’t be building furniture just using them as stickers.

Nice pictures Sawyer Rob

Rob knew I was just trying to agitate him about the Lumbermate, all in good fun. Point well taken about the weight of the boards straightening bowed stickers, as long as they are the same thickness end to end.

BTW. welcome to the site.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Here's a stack of lumber going up.

First there's a few rows of low grade down, then "very good" grade oak over that, then shagbark hickory going down as "seen in the picture". Later i then covered the hickory with "more oak" to keep plenty of weight on the hickory and higher grade oak that's in the lower portion of the stack.

Think about how much total weight is on those stickers in that pile, they are definitely pushed flat!

Rob