Advice needed for woodworking project

[glennbad]

A coworker of mine asked me for help with a project. Mainly cause I've got a bunch of tools. Surely not for woodworking knowledge, haha.

Anyway, he wants to build a unit so his kids have a place to hang backpacks, put shoes, hang jackets, etc. when they come inside. Almost like an open locker with a place for a bin underneath, similar to this...

We'll use reclaimed pallet wood for the rear panels.

He is planning on painting the unit, so the wood does not have to be anything amazing. I was thinking of using furniture grade plywood like they sell at Lowes or Home Depot for the large parts, and regular wood like pine or maple for the trims. Any ideas, thoughts, concerns?

Thanks in advance!

[Jeffinn]

Furniture grade plywood is a really great option! I’ve used it many times for larger products. I personally like the birch furniture grade plywood.
For the trim and such you could go with pine but my choice would be poplar. Poplar is a decent hardwood, has a really tight grain and is competitively priced. And it’s readily available at the big box stores.
Hope this helps!
Jeff

[Colonel26]

Glenn that would be a great project, and fairly simple too! I agree with the plywood. I would use 3/4” Baltic birch if you could get it just like Jeffin said. It’ll be smooth and no knots and should paint very well. If you have a pocket hole jig like a Kreg jig you could use pocket holes and titebond wood glue and make very good tight joints.

Then you could make face frames to cover the exposed edges out of solid wood. Pine is cheap (relatively these days) and if you have a table saw you can buy the wide boards and cut them down to your desired size which is sometimes much cheaper. But if it’s going to be painted anyway, as Jeff has already said it’s hard to beat poplar.

As to the reclaimed pallet wood.....I’ve done some stuff with it and it ain’t near as fun and easy as some make it out to be. You’ll definitely need to plane it because it will not be uniform in thickness at all. it’s hard to disassemble the pallets and not split or crack the boards either. For small projects it’s fine, but for something this large I’d avoid it.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video. This is Anna White and she and her husband do a lot of these kind of projects. You can get some ideas and tips here and can even get plans from her website. https://youtu.be/mKw1CJLt6Fk

[jerryd6818]

Some years back I made a wine rack for my daughter out of a pallet. What a pain. If you enjoy punishing yourself, go ahead & use it.

[Tony_Wood]

Good advice above^^^^
But I could help but think of this meme that I saw:

9949CBAE-7A48-450B-A1D3-EDABAA25335C.jpeg (37.35 KiB) Viewed 2670 times

Hilarious.

[glennbad]

Haha, good one Tony!

As to the pallet woes, I've been down that road. A couple years back, a few of us guys from work got together and made a bunch of American flag wallhangers from pallet wood. It was brutal taking them apart.

[Colonel26]

Good advice above^^^^
But I could help but think of this meme that I saw:


9949CBAE-7A48-450B-A1D3-EDABAA25335C.jpeg

Hilarious.

That’s funny!

Haha, good one Tony!

As to the pallet woes, I've been down that road. A couple years back, a few of us guys from work got together and made a bunch of American flag wallhangers from pallet wood. It was brutal taking them apart.

One of these helps, but it’s still a royal pain in the posterior!

D9BE6943-9D5C-4FA4-83D3-BBDFD14BB8E7.jpeg (11.49 KiB) Viewed 2656 times

[Unk]

Here you go....

[glennbad]

Here you go....

Awesome!

[Unk]

I would echo the difficulty of working with pallets. My daughter wanted some wooden signs made from pallet wood to use at her wedding a couple of years ago. She is an artist and painted them. It was hard to find good usable wood - lots of cracks and knots and soft spots. I wound up having to glue everything as the wood was so soft it wouldn't hold screws. Lots of planing to get the correct thickness (I have a Delta 12 inch planer.) And I was picking splinters out of my hands for weeks afterward.

While the signs did eventually turn out really nice, and were inexpensive, working with the pallet wood was a big PITA.

I saw one video on Youtube on "Woodworking tips" showing how to easily remove nails from pallet wood. He threw the pallets in a pile, set them on fire and burned them up. And then said, "There, all the nails are out!"

[Unk]

I wasn't too happy with the results, but then my daughter did her magic on them and made them look nice. She was on a budget for her wedding, as her dad is a tightwad.

[btrwtr]

Veneered plywood is a good option but it isn't cheap by any means. I recently made this trash can cabinet for a friend using maple veneered plywood. Was easy enough to paint over without much sanding at all.

[jerryd6818]

Wowser, Very nice professional job Wayne.

[keithlong]

Great advice on this project, only thing that I would add is to buy 9 ply plywood and not 7 ply, reason being is because 9 ply has less pocket holes in it. Also basswood is a great wood for face framing, easy to stain or paint.

[glennbad]

Great advice on this project, only thing that I would add is to buy 9 ply plywood and not 7 ply, reason being is because 9 ply has less pocket holes in it. Also basswood is a great wood for face framing, easy to stain or paint.

Nice info, thanks!

[thankgod4rkids]

I would agree with Jeff on the poplar. I edged my counter tops with it 20 yrs ago. It can take a beating and still look good.
Bill

[glennbad]

Well, we finally got started on this project. My co-worker opted to go with the blondewood plywood. I wasn't too keen on it, as the veneer seemed a little thin and fragile, but he will be painting everything, so whatever. Anyway, we got about 5 hours into it so far, this is what we have done on it.

We got the poplar hardwood for the edging/molding. I'll get that all ripped and ready once we are ready to install it. We'll install the palletwood backing last.

[jmh58]

Looks Good Glenn!!
John

[Dan In MI]

I would agree with Jeff on the poplar. I edged my counter tops with it 20 yrs ago. It can take a beating and still look good.

I guess if I do any woodworking, I'll go with poplar and almost certainly avoid pallets. I've seen way too many awful-looking pallets; they tend to get treated pretty poorly. For those who have worked with reclaimed pallets, how many would be required to to complete a medium to large project?

[FRJ]

Looks good, Glenn. It looks accurate which puts you miles ahead as you must know.
I agree with Dan, working with reclaimed anything can cause you a lot of work you would rather not be doing.
By the way, that red gas can on the left looks like it could use a venting.

[Colonel26]

Looks great Glen!

[glennbad]

Looks good, Glenn. It looks accurate which puts you miles ahead as you must know.
I agree with Dan, working with reclaimed anything can cause you a lot of work you would rather not be doing.
By the way, that red gas can on the left looks like it could use a venting.

I think that's an optical illusion (but I'll check it to be sure, thanks!)

[dlr110]

I'm seeing a great job in progress Glenn. Be sure to show us the finished project!

[FRJ]

Looks good, Glenn. It looks accurate which puts you miles ahead as you must know.
I agree with Dan, working with reclaimed anything can cause you a lot of work you would rather not be doing.
By the way, that red gas can on the left looks like it could use a venting.

I think that's an optical illusion (but I'll check it to be sure, thanks!)

Are you speaking of the accuracy of the project or the gas can?

[glennbad]

Looks good, Glenn. It looks accurate which puts you miles ahead as you must know.
I agree with Dan, working with reclaimed anything can cause you a lot of work you would rather not be doing.
By the way, that red gas can on the left looks like it could use a venting.

I think that's an optical illusion (but I'll check it to be sure, thanks!)

Are you speaking of the accuracy of the project or the gas can?

Both!