Showing posts with label Pallet Star Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pallet Star Art. Show all posts

Friday, May 20, 2016

Picking Perfect Pallets

The title of the blog is a little misleading. A perfect pallet doesn't mean new wood, no splinters, or no bent nails. Perfect means a pallet that perfectly fits your vision for your pallet project.

I will walk through the building here at the Goodwill Alcott street location and spot a pallet and I will be like "Stop...wait a minute... that pallet would be perfect for a coffee table, or that pallet is just the size I need for a garden pallet creation.

I wandered through our pallets that we have for free for Makers ready to get started on their pallet creation to enter PalletPalooza.
 (Entries are due June 30, 2016 - To Enter or to see the rules click HERE. )
With over 2 billion pallets in circulation in the United States you are bound to find the perfect pallet:
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These blue pallets are monsters - they are super heavy. But maybe that blue chippy paint is exactly what you are looking for. And if your need a really solid pallet - these are it.
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This pallet has really wide boards - unusual for a pallet. And the three cross pieces, stringers, are, I am guessing 4" x 4". If you took this apart you can use them for two different projects.

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A smaller pallet with more wide boards - these are good to have in your stash.

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Yes - the rare green pallet - perfectly weathered. I will need that forklift driver to swing on over and help me uncover it! 

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I am fond of the weathered gray pallets. I think they are beautiful. That isn't strange is it? 

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If your perfect pallet is indeed a new pallet - you can still find these ready to be recycled. The standard North American pallet, or GMA pallet, has deckboards of 40 inches and stringers of 48 inches. If a pallet isn't that size, it is often discarded, or set aside. With the boards together like this one - I think this could be cut in half and made into a coffee mug holder. 

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Another pallet with the deckboards close together - this would be perfect for a sign.


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This is not showing up that great in this picture - but this pallet was so weathered and bleach by the sun - it was almost white. I am going to go pick it this afternoon and do something with it. I am not sure what... Any suggestions?

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I spotted this darker gray pallet. When I see that - I see rustic picture frames.

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Love the red. These stacks are getting ready to be reused for their intended purposes - shipping. 
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But when I found a broken one few weeks ago - it became a piece of art - now hanging in our commercial sorting department. 
I took the back off. These are typically very large and very bulky. I used a pallet buster tool to get the back boards or stringers off, then a big hammer to knock off the fat spacers. that left me with just the deck boards and they already had stringers keeping them all together. I didn't do any sanding because, one, the boards weren't that bad, two, I wanted to keep the weathered look intact, and three, I knew that it was going up high where it wasn't going to give anyone slivers. I hung a giant silver metal star in (almost) the center. Here is a close up.

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Find your perfect pallet at one of our Pallet Providers.

And these two Consumers Concrete locations:
East 3809 E. Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI
1505 Burlingame SW, Wyoming, MI
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Enter your Pallet Creation in PalletPalooza soon - the deadline is June 30th! palletswmi.com