Treating, staining & sealing wooden pallet

[dybleah]

Dear all,

I've got a wood pallet that has obviously some raw wood on it. Its been pretty knocked about during deliveries etc. I would like to make some rustic shelves from the wood. I would like to pick your experienced brains about how to treat the wood, then stain and seal them.

I'm particularly concerned about: 1) reducing risk of splinters 2) any insects that might tunnel out of the woodwork!

If you could please advise as to the the treat/stain/seal and how to safely ensure no insects reside in the wood, I'd be very grateful.

Many thanks


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[Newboy]

1) Don't worry about insects

2) Sand the timber to an acceptable finish

3) Use something like http://search.diy.com/search?w=sadolin to finish the timber

The biggest challenge will be getting the pallet apart as the nails are usually ring-shanked and almost impossible to pull.

 

[foxhole]

I put the timber over a table planer and then just treat with teak oil, you can add wood dye if you want to darken the colour.
Couple of trial projects below.

Pallet chair

• foxhole
• 18 Jul 2010
• 11

Pallet chair

• foxhole
• 18 Jul 2010
• 7

 

[dybleah]

Thanks, I guess Im trying to make it look like this:

What dark dye/stain colour should I buy? and how many layers typically?
Looks kind of waxed too, so what would be best wax to use?

Thanks again[/img]

 

[foxhole]

Dark oak dye.
Matching wood wax.

 

[Norcon]

It will never look like that.

 

[dybleah]

hahaha, well near enough is probably good enough!!

Out of interest, what sort of reclaimed wood do you suggest I can use to make it look similar? I'm not using for flooring, for rustic shelves

 

[AronSearle]

Out of interest, what sort of reclaimed wood

Ehh, not a pallet.

There is a reason people use them on bonfires.

Don't understand the fashion to make furniture from them, it's a frikken pallet.

Go to your local wood reclamation yard, they are all over the place, you will find something decent there.

 

[big-all]

you will never get other than rustic usually twisted finnish with palets
as said ring shank nails = split wood you will pull the head through the wood before a ring shanks lets go
the best chance is to cut off each end reducing the nail removal by 2/3rds
you will still get pullthrough but much less
other options are hacksaw to cut the nails on the under edge
but as said reclemation yards or better still used scaffold boards very strong and full of caritor
if you value your time at 0-50p an hour then pallets
or £3-5 an hour then recycled timber or scaffold boards
or £7-10 an hour new timber

 

[EightyTwo]

Go to a garden centre in early spring and pick up some pallets and crates from teak garden furniture - they're often made of second-rate teak! Too expensive to ship pine pallets out there, apparently...