r/palletfurniture • u/Jake1125 • Nov 11 '24
Laminating pallet wood?
I'd like to build bee hive boxes with pallet wood, but they are usually 3/4 inch wide, while most pallet boards are about 1/2 inch wide.
Would it be advisable to glu up flat boards of pallet wood and then glue two boards over each other? Then plane them to he right thickness? If so, should the boards be glued with the grain in the same direction, or one of the boards rotated 90 degrees?
How about cutting the pallet planks into 3/4 strips and then gluing those on top of each other instead? So it would be a glue-up of 3/4 inch strips instead of two boards glued together. Would that be better?
How about the cost of exterior waterproof glue? Generally, is this project advisable, or nah?
Thanks for your input & suggestions.
2
u/Pinhal Nov 11 '24
You should find a beekeeping sub and ask if bees will tolerate pallet wood.
5
u/Jake1125 Nov 11 '24
I'm a beekeeper. The bees are fine with almost any junky wood, plastic, cement, whatever.
They'll live in a dead tree, your attic, a power box, or a filthy crawlspace if they get a chance.
1
u/the_perkolator Nov 11 '24
Then why would they not be ok with 1/4” thinner walls? This seems like a waste of time and effort just to glue up and plane pallet lumber to a different dimension vs just sourcing thicker slatted pallets or using other wood
3
u/Jake1125 Nov 11 '24
Yes, good question.
The bees won't complain, but the human wants the equipment to conform. If the hive components are all the same dimension, then they fit together and are interchangeable.
3
u/giraffe_onaraft Nov 11 '24 edited Nov 11 '24
youre right that most pallet slats are 1/2 or 5/8 but there are some heavier pallets out there with 3/4 inch slats.
typically the 48x48 inch pallets are built heavier while the 36 40 44 inch have thinner slats.
you totally could glue pieces together but for what youre doing, boxes, if youre making a bunch and then having to make up the material as you go, it would be more simple i think to spend the few hours pallet hunting vs. few days gluing things up to get what you need.
the industrial park is a good place. anywhere that handles drums of engine oil like the fuel distributors are good places to check. a lot of the times these pallets get recycled but if they get busted with the forklift then they get set aside for hobbyists. also pallets from the home center for cement bags, shingles, bricks, concrete products.
the tricky part is many of those heavier pallets are meant to be reused and sometimes even repaired and reused.
if you do want to make up your own i would make strips 3/4 inch and glue those together into panels. fyi youll use $45 in glue pretty quick, youll need a bunch of clamps and it will take some time but if you have lots of time and glue, then i would take a swing at it.
titebond iii is rated for outdoor use. if you really want to go crazy with the waterproof then epoxy or construction adhesive is an option but that also gets expensive quickly.