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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