by Doug Calderone
I have been a follower for many years now and wanted to take the next step and contribute. Around the same time I stumbled across your blog, I began experimenting with shipping pallets. Being a carpenter by trade, I already possessed the skills to build, but pallets are a whole different ball game. When building with pallets, one cannot just draw up plans and expect everything to work. Pallets need to be looked at as building blocks, like Legos for example. Drawing up plans is still a good idea, but the dimensions and structural integrity of pallets needs to be the main factor in design.
Before, I started building; I needed to find sources to obtain my pallets. The most common pallet can be found behind almost every store and it measures 4ft by 45 inches. It consists of 3 parallel 2x4s with 1x planks running perpendicular. These pallets are normally reused over and over and are riddled with nails. The wood is grade “d” lumber at best and is hard to drive a nail into. However, there are treasures out there; I have found many mahogany pallets and oak pallets. With some dedication, the wood can be reclaimed.