Pallets??

[Beekissed]

There is a short video on YouTube of a lady who used them for fencing and I would never have thought of using them in the way they put them together...this fence keeps in goats, pigs, and cattle and has done so for the last 6 years...and not one fence post planted in the ground! BIG, long fence too. Here's the video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWQ1...xt=C30893f8UDOEgsToPDskIQ-zBii1oS7MBZg9OU30cF

The other day on here someone also had an idea of placing soil in them with the aid of black mulch cloth and planting flowers, to make a vertical planter by leaning them up against a patio wall...but I'd do it one further and plant shallow rooted crops and have a whole vertical side to my garden~lettuces, radishes, spinach, etc.

They would also make really quick to put up and take down containment coops for birds on death row for the next day's processing.

 

[Denim Deb]

hwillm1977, love the pic of your chickens. The way they are, it makes me think of a group of dancers!

 

[Wannabefree]

Compost bins, cage frames, rabbit hutch materials, just about anything you can imagine. They work great for most things. I use them a lot. I have them as the floor in my greenhouse now.

Hiya Boogity I love them too...SO many uses! I get a lot of them around here too.

Wannabe, your posts are so full of ideas and great hope... do you have a digital camera? If so, how bout uploading pics of how you've used the pallets?

I'd really like to see the illustrated re-purposing thing take off here on SS!!

sorry Joel...can't find my darn camera :/ I think I finally deleted the pics I had where I had used them to frame out cages and hutches. Those cages are still going strong though after 3 years

 

[odd_duck99]

I can't remember where I saw it now... but the idea was to use 2 pallets as an outside table! You essentially use some 4x4 on each corner and two pallets, one on top and one on bottom. Once it weathers uniformly it looks really neat!

 

[KatieIrene]

new here, but have to comment on the post. Was so happy my neighbor brought me pallets yesterday. i love to use them for the goats to lay on and many other uses around here. take all I can get.

 

[2dream]

My gaot shed floor was pallets with stepping stones laying across the top. My dogs shed/house is pallets put together with metal L brackets. I said shed because its under a tin roof of another building so I did not have to build a top for it. My new duck house will be pallets as well. I have a company close by that gets thousands of pallets a week. Good pallets. The ones that ship large barrels of stuff. I call them and tell them to save me, however many I need, of the pallets with solid plywood already on them. (Its on both sides so I can insulate them easily with whatever material I have on hand. Usually empty feed sacks, old newspapers wadded up and stuffed down in them. And they are all FREE

 

[Cindlady2]

Please be aware that all pallets are not alike, they range from the light flimsy ones that are made for one trip for items like paper towels [to Wal-mart now being replaced by card board] to the ones that take four 600# drums which are recycled by industry until they fail. Nor the plastic or steel ones used for special purposes. When I worked at a Big Pharma plant stuff would be removed from wooden pallets. vacummed or blown off and placed on plastic pallets which could be sterilized or steam cleaned before being taken into the plant itself.
After my father left the farm he started a pallet repair business where he would run around and get broken pallets and repair them. Stricky a local business but he did quite well at it because he was handy and built jigs to help remove broken boards [toughtest job] and hold boards inplace while they were drilled and nail- gunned in place. [most hardwoods will split if not predrilled.
Like Railcars pallets are owned by someone and rented to users. They are marked between the two side entry 'arches' and both ends of the backbone. the type and number of pallets used in a load are marked on the shipping papers.
If you are in a port city some very nice rare hardwood boards can be found in pallets from overseas. Teak was often used until the prices went up, all his outdoor furnishings were made of reclaimed Teak.

Yes, some companies even offer a "refund" for returned pallets in good shape.
Wow, would I have loved to get some of those teak wood ones!

I've done a few small projects with the pallets DH has brought home. He mostly brought them home for fire wood and I pull "good" boards off of them to use for other things. I plan on making some breeder pens for the chickens out of some. A shelter for the meat birds is project I'm working on now. If he can get enough "good" fairly intact ones I want to rebuild the privacy fence.
He also brought home about 4 heavy plastic ones that are interesting.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Window boxes/planters, bird houses, fire wood, just about anything that can be done with wood.

 

[Joel_BC]

Okay pallet aficionados... Here's a step-by-step vid about building a garden cart from a pallet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTQ8lp_7Jzo

This cart is good - but basic. I'm sure many of us could figure out how to put on a tow rope. Better yet, a handle from some junked old D-handled shovel or kid's wagon onto this basic design - then it would be like a plant-nursery cart. Also, the designer/builder of this cart used brand-new wheels, and a lot of people might be able to scroung some wheels (giant casters) somewhere or other.

 

[suzysuvivor]

you can google 70+ diy pallet ideas or just go to pinterest...there are tons of ideas.

i intend to make a lot of the furniture for our new yurt from pallets...why pay more than you have to?? and it keeps them from the landfill/sky as smoke.