Glueing pallet wood

[stenik]

Morning all,
So I have a question about glueing strips together to be able to make a larger blank. As I'm a complete beginner where turning wood is concerned I've sourced some new pallet wood strips, so no holes or nails left in. I want to cut and glue some strips together to be able to make some cheap blanks for me to practice my turning with so I hopefully don't ruin some decent timber when I get some

So do I need to sand the pallet wood smooth or can it just be glued up.
I know this is so basic for most of you out there but please be gentle with me as I have no idea and YouTube just shows them glueing and clamping.
Thanks in advance
Steve

 

[Terry - Somerset]

If the new pallet wood is simply sawn and not planed, you may get a reasonably secure blank if glued and clamped, but as you turn it the glue lines will show very clearly.

Sanding - the surface may appear smooth but not flat as the edges will tend to round over.

The best way is to plane the pallet wood before cutting to length - it will then be smooth and flat. A thicknesser makes the task easier!

 

[Yojevol]

Good Morning to you Sir,
Firstly the glue type. A PVA would be my choice. It'll be kind to your turning tools and it's cheap. I expect this is what you will have seen on the videos.
PVA works at a microscopic level so, ideally, the surface should be as smooth as possible, ie, it is not a recognised gap filler. However in your case the pallet material is probably sufficiently flat to give an acceptable bond, particularly as it's for practice purposes.
Brian

 

[stenik]

If the new pallet wood is simply sawn and not planed, you may get a reasonably secure blank if glued and clamped, but as you turn it the glue lines will show very clearly.

Sanding - the surface may appear smooth but not flat as the edges will tend to round over.

The best way is to plane the pallet wood before cutting to length - it will then be smooth and flat. A thicknesser makes the task easier!

Terry,
Thanks you for that. I don't have a thicknesser but as it's for practice I might just run the belt sander over it

 

[stenik]

Good Morning to you Sir,
Firstly the glue type. A PVA would be my choice. It'll be kind to your turning tools and it's cheap. I expect this is what you will have seen on the videos.
PVA works at a microscopic level so, ideally, the surface should be as smooth as possible, ie, it is not a recognised gap filler. However in your case the pallet material is probably sufficiently flat to give an acceptable bond, particularly as it's for practice purposes.
Brian

Yojevol,
Thanks for that. I'm going to be using gorilla wood glue so I'm hoping that will work

 

[Yojevol]

Yojevol,
Thanks for that. I'm going to be using gorilla wood glue so I'm hoping that will work

No need to hope, it will work. I presume it's Gorrila PVA. Their PU glue would also be good but it's messy stuff and doesn't have a long shelf life.
I've just had a delivery on a new pallet and I'd be happy gluing that up with no further preparation apart from de-nailing.
Good Luck
Brian

 

[Jacob]

Morning all,
So I have a question about glueing strips together to be able to make a larger blank. As I'm a complete beginner where turning wood is concerned I've sourced some new pallet wood strips, so no holes or nails left in. I want to cut and glue some strips together to be able to make some cheap blanks for me to practice my turning with so I hopefully don't ruin some decent timber when I get some

So do I need to sand the pallet wood smooth or can it just be glued up.
I know this is so basic for most of you out there but please be gentle with me as I have no idea and YouTube just shows them glueing and clamping.
Thanks in advance
Steve

Sounds like a lot of bother.
Any old wood will do for practice as long as it's in one piece, no splits, nails etc. Bits of old joist, softwood perfectly good, etc etc Watch out for skips!

 

[Tris]

It'll work, but softwood can be pretty horrible to begin turning on. The annual growth rings are alternately hard and soft, meaning it is difficult to get a good surface finish as a beginner.
I'd ask around and see if you can source some hardwood offcuts, old furniture or old garden trees as that will be more forgiving.
Just my ha'porth

 

[sawtooth-9]

With softwood pallet wood - the best thing to use is 4 inch nails.
Don't use the wood lathe - an angle grinder will do the job
Agree, try and get a little hardwood - it's easier to turn and gives a better result

 

[Richard_C]

By all means give it a go but take care. I found a piece of offcut beech worktop in the garage, about 65mn thick glued up beech staves, so thought I would make a shallow 10 inch platter. Going well until I got a catch towards the end by which time some of the glue joints were much narrower than when I started. Took ages to find all the bits, one was on top of a joist in the garage roof. Got some useful kindling for the fire.

A piece of 50x50 softwood between centres will give you some tool practice, softwood is 'forgiving' of mistakes but very difficult to get a decent finish so you will want to turn hardwood soon.

As you move on, some suppliers do mixed bags of decent small hardwood blanks, Snainton Woodworking do a £25 beginners sack, World of Wood do a mixed bag of bowl and spindles for a bit more. Snainton had some offers on Ash recently. I got a Snainton beginners one, I think delivery was £5 or so, by the time I had turned them all I had improved no end.

One of the difficult bits of turning, and time consuming, is the finishing: sand, seal, wax, oil or whatever. The better you get with the tools the less time you spend with the abrasives. That was what happened as I worked through the beginner blanks. #1 took ages to sand out the tooling marks, by #6 it was lots better. The only way to practise that to real world standards is with hardwood.

Main thing, whatever you do, is enjoy.

 

[jcassidy]

I use a lot (a LOT!) of pallet wood for various things of various levels of finesse, and I find most of it is pretty poor quality softwood, either very fibrous, very brittle, lots of pockets of resin, or all of the above. I can't imagine bothering to try turning it. I reluctantly dig into my small supply of decent wood the few times a I'm doing something that needs proper finesse.

 

[stenik]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/33420300...yieDRmOTs6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPYThis is what I bought and turned up this morning. I've split it open and separated the boards. Looks ok but not sure if it's hard or soft I'll need to look into the types of wood as I've said complete beginner and to me at the moment if its come from a tree then it's wood . Thanks to everyone who's commented and for the advise it's very much appreciated

 

[stenik]

Ok so glued the pallet wood together with some slats from an old garden seat and turned into a tealight holder. First time of doing this . Not perfect by any means but being a complete beginner I very pleased.
Steve

 

[Jonzjob]

I get a lot of my wood from my local joiner/cabinet maker. They are only too pleased to see the offcuts being used instead of burned. It's surprising just what I have managed to get and it's free, so mastikes are not expensive.

I have taken a couple of small bits made from their wood as a token of thanks and they are only too pleased not only to let me have the wood, but the type I'm looking for. Bits like oak, 4 X 4 inch newel posts 3 foot long.

 

[stenik]

I get a lot of my wood from my local joiner/cabinet maker. They are only too pleased to see the offcuts being used instead of burned. It's surprising just what I have managed to get and it's free, so mastikes are not expensive.

I have taken a couple of small bits made from their wood as a token of thanks and they are only too pleased not only to let me have the wood, but the type I'm looking for. Bits like oak, 4 X 4 inch newel posts 3 foot long.

We have a bespoke cabinet/ Kitchen joiner just up the road so perhaps a visit it in order to see if they have any off cuts they don't need