FREE LOCAL materials!!

[mobjack68]

Still kinda green here but I have a suggestion for those folks that struggle with lack of available materials...

Many years ago I was at my local TrueValue and one of the guys was moving a pallet of Luaun plywood . He was transferring the last few sheets from the old pallet to the new one, I asked what he was going to do with the empty pallet. He looked at me and said "put it in your truck"....off we went

The pallets are made where the plywood is made. Luaun is a subspecies of MAHOGANY...the pallets are made of MAHOGHANY and measure 4'x8'
Most of the long braces are 2"x2" and 8' long.....

Mahogany/Luaun is a fairly soft wood, but it does have a grain that can be a little stubborn at times and that depends on the wood itself. I have used a bunch of pallet material for oddball projects etc... Go to your favorite box/hardware store that sells sheet goods, take a gander at the pallets under the 1/8" plywood.....most of the stores THROW THEM AWAY because they are not built very well and they are bulky...they are still Mahogany and they are FREE!! Not a whole lot better than free stuff and for those of you out there that were keeping this a secret (like me!!) sorry.....we need to help our new carving friends as much as we can...

[Irish]

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[SeaLeveler]

I have gotten some nice wood from pallets when I was working.Tony

[brian-bailey]

"ISPM-15" regulations require all wood packing materials to be either "heat treated" or "fumigated with methyl bromide" before they can either enter or leave the US. No other chemicals are allowed.

USDA - APHIS - Import and Export

[mobjack68]

Originally Posted by brian bailey

"ISPM-15" regulations require all wood packing materials to be either "heat treated" or "fumigated with methyl bromide" before they can either enter or leave the US. No other chemicals are allowed.

USDA - APHIS - Import and Export

Want to thank Brian for the warning and potential hazards, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_exp...eatmentsmb.pdf

an excerpt from the manual....

“Q Labels” and Section 18 Exemption Treatment Schedules
Methyl bromide fumigants, except those with “Q” labels, may be
subject to requirements of the FIFRA Section 18 Quarantine
Exemption. When commodities intended for food or feed are fumigated
with methyl bromide under the FIFRA Section 18 Quarantine
Exemption, one additional EPA requirement must be met: PPQ must
monitor aeration by sampling the gas

If they use methyl bromide on food???
what am I missing guys??
I've been using salvage materials for years, my second bellybutton finally got a little bit of hair around it...

[big dave]

another place to look is at local cabinet shops alot of shops use basswood to face cabinet because of grain and is easy to match stain.

[brian-bailey]

Originally Posted by mobjack68

Want to thank Brian for the warning and potential hazards, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water...

If they use methyl bromide on food???
what am I missing guys??
I've been using salvage materials for years, my second bellybutton finally got a little bit of hair around it...

My post was in reference to the international standard "ISPM-15" for treating wood packaging materials that is being adopted around the world.

All this talk about dangerous chemicals in pallets is just that, Talk.

Think about it, making pallets is a low profit / highly competitive industry. Why would you increase the costs and lower your profit by treating a pallet with a costly chemical when it is not required or in most cases illegal to use.

Untreated wooden shipping containers is one of the reasons why we are having trouble with invasive pests from distant lands.

That is why "ISPM-15" came into being. An international standard to effectively eliminate an infestation highway.

Methyl bromide is approved for use, but I believe heat treating is in more use because it is cheaper and just as effective.

[Ron T]

Hi Mobjack,

I got some small pieces of hardwood from a furniture maker but they were only good for my cane handles. Those pallets would be good for some sizeable carvings. Thanks.

[Irish]

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[brian-bailey]

Susan,

Pallets and shipping containers are made as cheaply as possible because they are design for a short life and to be competitive in a global market.

Pallets are also made from the lowest grade material that a sawmill produces.

Why would a pallet manufacturer add expense (chemical treatment) to a pallet when they were not required to do so. They certainly don't want to extend the pallet's useful life by adding a preservative to the wood.

I believe that a foreign pallet manufacture would be under the same financial constraints as his US counterpart, again why add expense (chemical treatment) to your product when not required to do so.

Treating pallets to prevent the spread of invasive pests has just come about recently and most countries that import / export have adopted "ISPM-15".

I would be more concerned in using/handling wood from some backyard hobbiest that indiscriminately uses insecticides / pesticides without any thought about the consequences of such use.

No, I wouldn't have any problem rummaging the pallet pile for wood, I've been in the lumber business for many years and have never known anyone to chemically treat any of their pallets. But, then again there are always exceptions.

I would be more concerned with embedded grit and hardware then coming across a poisoned piece of pallet wood.