# How can I quickly smooth pallet wood?



## HantsHog

I recycle pallet wood into various items for sale (bird boxes, key racks etc.). After stripping the pallets down to lengths of between 400 and 1200mm I initially sand the wood down on both sides using a hand held belt sander prior to final construction (finished goods are sanded again using a palm sander and then painted). Although the belt sander works well I need something that will do as good a job but quicker by simply feeding the wood through a machine. I thought a drum sander would do the job until I saw the price of these things (too expensive at £600+). So my question is what could I use instead? Planer thicknesser? I can only afford up to £150 second hand.

Thanks.


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## Benchwayze

I'd use a hand-power plane. By the time you have done a few lengths, you'll have the knack! The blades are consumables, so if you hit the occasional staple, no big deal. You might even be able to get these machines in cordless too. 
HTH


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## marcros

i would stick with the belt sander, or look at making a drum sander- various threads on here. that may fit into your budget.

you wont make much money of you keep dinging planer blades on hidden nails, and you wont get much for your 150 quid in the way of machine. i had the intention of wizzing salvaged wood through my planer until i saw the typical starting condition!


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## Benchwayze

Okay. Mine was a bad idea then... :mrgreen:


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## marcros

messages crossed. i do agree with your idea john. many hand planers have been used once or twice on a door and then sold, so are not a bad used buy. run the set of blades until they are completely shot. i meant that i wouldn't put salvaged wood through my big planer.


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## Hudson Carpentry

Make a drum sander is about your only realistic answer here unless you want to risk planer blades and spend a lot of time with a metal detector. Unrealistically would be obtaining a helper to do the belt sanding for your for free. You could however dedicate a planer just to taking off the rough. Replacing the blades when there are really bad and belt sanding quickly just to get the chipped planer blade marks outs.


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## Benchwayze

marcros":r6r29s1f said:


> messages crossed. i do agree with your idea john. many hand planers have been used once or twice on a door and then sold, so are not a bad used buy. run the set of blades until they are completely shot. i meant that i wouldn't put salvaged wood through my big planer.



Cheers Mark.

And I have a barely used Bosch planer too. Needs a home!


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## Jacob

HantsHog":39p09hkh said:


> I recycle pallet wood into various items for sale (bird boxes, key racks etc.). After stripping the pallets down to lengths of between 400 and 1200mm I initially sand the wood down on both sides using a hand held belt sander prior to final construction (finished goods are sanded again using a palm sander and then painted). Although the belt sander works well I need something that will do as good a job but quicker by simply feeding the wood through a machine. I thought a drum sander would do the job until I saw the price of these things (too expensive at £600+). So my question is what could I use instead? Planer thicknesser? I can only afford up to £150 second hand.
> 
> Thanks.


Cheap stand alone thicknessers are good. Get side 1 flat enough (doesn't have to be perfect) with belt sander or whatever. It may be flat enough already, although only sawn. 
Then plane side 2 through the machine. 
Then turn it over and plane side 1.

This sort of thing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PLANER-THICKN ... 2577aee4d0

Or this http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-erb05 ... 230v/81126


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## bodge

Several of the amateur luthiers have built thickness sanders as planers are not very good at getting stuff down to less than 2mm thick. With a little ingenuity they can be made quite cheaply.
One that Ken Timms built here which he used to build around 200 ukes with.

http://ukulele-innovation.tripod.com/sander-project.html


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## Greedo

HantsHog":3nwnl4r1 said:


> I recycle pallet wood into various items for sale (bird boxes, key racks etc.). After stripping the pallets down to lengths of between 400 and 1200mm I initially sand the wood down on both sides using a hand held belt sander prior to final construction (finished goods are sanded again using a palm sander and then painted). Although the belt sander works well I need something that will do as good a job but quicker by simply feeding the wood through a machine. I thought a drum sander would do the job until I saw the price of these things (too expensive at £600+). So my question is what could I use instead? Planer thicknesser? I can only afford up to £150 second hand.
> 
> Thanks.




Real woodworkers don't sand wood. They plane it. 

A woodworkers workshop should be full of shavings and very little sawdust as a wise man once told me. 

Invest in a decent No4 plane, learn to sharpen it so you can shave the hairs on your arm clean off with it and 2 or 3 mins will have each face smooth as a babies bum. Sanding takes for ever and is a horrible job. Belt sanders in the wrong hands can take 5 mill off a bit of timber in a split second.


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## Racers

Hi, HantsHog

If its only for bird boxes a waft over with a blowlamp and a wire brush will take the fuzz on in no time.

Pete


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## bugbear

Greedo":3ovvwwxc said:


> HantsHog":3ovvwwxc said:
> 
> 
> 
> I recycle pallet wood into various items for sale (bird boxes, key racks etc.). After stripping the pallets down to lengths of between 400 and 1200mm I initially sand the wood down on both sides using a hand held belt sander prior to final construction (finished goods are sanded again using a palm sander and then painted). Although the belt sander works well I need something that will do as good a job but quicker by simply feeding the wood through a machine. I thought a drum sander would do the job until I saw the price of these things (too expensive at £600+). So my question is what could I use instead? Planer thicknesser? I can only afford up to £150 second hand.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Real woodworkers don't sand wood. They plane it.
> 
> A woodworkers workshop should be full of shavings and very little sawdust as a wise man once told me.
> 
> Invest in a decent No4 plane, learn to sharpen it so you can shave the hairs on your arm clean off with it and 2 or 3 mins will have each face smooth as a babies bum. Sanding takes for ever and is a horrible job. Belt sanders in the wrong hands can take 5 mill off a bit of timber in a split second.
Click to expand...


Yes. But a pallet full of staples and nails can nick a plane blade into oblivion in 10 seconds...

BugBear


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## Sheffield Tony

I think Pete's suggestion is a great one; that charred finish would look great for garden items.

As for hand planing pallet wood - I've done a bit of this recently. No nails in it, but some very hard knots. It came up quite nicely, but the speed with which it ruined the edge on the blade was remarkable. Presumably embedded grit of some kind, or the knots ?


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## dickm

Recently had to thickness some reclaimed maple flooring which had a century or so of ingrained jute mill dirt on the surface and bitumen adhesive on the back. It wrecked planer blades pretty fast unless cleaned up beforehand; I found and used a rotary brush that Makita produce and it made a big difference. New, these are really pricey, and you could probabably do a similar job with a wire brush in an ordinary angle grinder. But wear respiratory protection (ditto if you are sanding the timber); heaven only knows what is on/just under the surface of pallet or floor timber.


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## AndyT

Sheffield Tony":k88z36lg said:


> I think Pete's suggestion is a great one; that charred finish would look great for garden items.
> 
> As for hand planing pallet wood - I've done a bit of this recently. No nails in it, but some very hard knots. It came up quite nicely, but the speed with which it ruined the edge on the blade was remarkable. Presumably embedded grit of some kind, or the knots ?



That sounds likely - pallets must pick up loads of grit. So if you are hand planing you first of all need to go at it with something that will cut below the surface - so taking off quite a thick shaving, not keep skimming along in the top millimetre hitting the embedded abrasive. This could be a UK style Jack plane with a heavily cambered blade, or a European / US scrub plane, or even a cheap nasty metal plane with a deep set and a good camber on the iron. Then true up with a better plane when you know you are dealing with a clean, grit and metal-free surface.

You could also (as has been suggested) use a hand held electric plane for this initial stage - I think it's the sort of work they are appropriate for.


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## andersonec

No need to hit nails, the grit embedded in one piece of pallet wood will destroy your planer blade edges on the first pass, timber goes nowhere near the floor of my garage and it is brushed vigorously before going through my p/t.

I would have thought the 'rustic' look would suit bird tables etc. therefore power sanding with 100 grit would suffice, maybe finish with 150 if a smoother finish is required.

Andy


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## HantsHog

Update to an old post. In the end I bought a DeWalt DW733 Type 2 thicknesser off eBay. After getting the blades sharpened the thing works a treat. One year of use and the blades are back in for sharpening. I make sure the wood is scrubbed with a wire brush and visually inspected for embedded nails, staples and stones although a few metal strands have been missed but did not ding the blades. The most damage has been caused by a knot!


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## kalamgish

I use a scrub plane then if necessary a smoothing plane.

Search youtube for Paul Sellers scrub plane


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## lee celtic

I use a Bosch electric hand planer , the blades are £2 a pair off ebay and last ages.. end product is hand sanded a bit.. It's a pallet and is rustic .. it's not supposed to be smooth..lol

The draw fronts on the units I made for my workshop are just sanded by hand and look pretty good..


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## adidat

Whilst this is a four year old thread be re awoken. A really good and cheap method is a 40 grit sanding disc on a angel grinder with the hard rubber backing pad. I have cleaned 100's of linear metres of flooring like this before putting them through he machines. 

And the best bit it shines all the metal work so easy to go along picking bits out with a manky chisel and pliers.

Adidat


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