Pallet End Table (Part I)

Those of you who know me know that I like to work with reclaimed wood. I find it very satisfying to save a discarded table or bookcase or what have you and make something usable out of it. Not only are the woodcraft projects much cheaper than if I went to Lowe's for the raw materials, the end products have a lot of character that would be difficult to achieve using store-bought lumber. Also, I like the challenge of working with the defects in the recovered wood. It forces me to be creative when I am working with it instead of just following a plan out of a book.

Sometimes the projects are quick and easy - some sanding, some wood glue, some stain, some sealant, and some paint turned a lopsided and water-stained coffee table into an awesome stand for my printer and scanner.

Sometimes the projects take a lot of time and effort, like with a dining room table I built. It weighed about 300 pounds and the recovered top (a former floor of a welding shop) had circular inlays made of 75-year-old barnwood. I sold that one on craigslist.

Most of the stuff I do falls in the middle like the palette wood endtable I am making now.

Now would be a good time for me to take a small break from the near self-congratulatory tone of this post and inject some honesty in reporting.

I am a self-taught hobbyist, nothing more. While I have a large quantity of tools I do not have a lot of high quality tools nor do I have the ability to use them to their fullest extent (or even use them properly in some cases).

I guess the most positive honest thing I could say if I were forced to list "carpenter" on a resume is that I have not yet been seriously injured while woodworking. I nearly died hiking a few years back and once embedded a rusty nail deep into my ankle while mowing the lawn, but so far my workshop shenanigans have gone largely unpunished. Perhaps the smell of sawdust generated when a board is cut a just a little too long, carefully measured, and then cut way too short is pleasing to the hobby gods.

Maybe they are busy watching me on a celestial (and possibly terminal) version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" and they are waiting for me to "get to the good part" where I "lose all the fingers on my left hand". Who knows?

You have been warned. This is not an advice column. It sure as hell is not a safety manual.

Ok. Back to the project description.

A while ago I saw two weather-beaten pallets sitting in the trash of a local business. They were very old and have clearly been used a lot. They had hundreds of rusty and bent nails securing their cracked and faded slats together.

In other words: Score (Editor's Note: I originally had the word 'Jackpot' here, but I will not use that word nor eat anything from Pizza Hut while those idiotic Jim Brewer commercials are still playing). I could definitely build something out of these or, at least, clutter up the garage trying.

(To be continued... updated pics will be posted in the sidebar as the project progresses.)