Shopsmith Forums

As a new guy I would be interested to hear where some of you guys have been able to find wood. I know from reading post after post that the are some very resourceful folks lurking about. If your like me you spend so much on the tools you cant afford to buy the twisted junk they call lumber at the big box stores so lets hear it guys.

I use a good amount of pallet wood. Most of it is hardwood although not always the that great of cuts of wood. The big downside is pulling nails, which is time consuming. The nails tend to stain the wood too, but I think that looks cool myself.

If you do go the pallet route,

- get a cheap hand wand style metal detector
- a longer pry-bar with a nail hole
- adjustable pliers with a curve head (for the nails the pry-bar pops the heads off of)
-a rubber mallet and 1 foot section of 2x4 (for hammering off the lateral planks, do this before using the pry-bar)
-and the last resort for getting really stuck nails/brads out, is a drill and small drill bit (make a relief hole next to the stuck nail, and then use the pliers)

A word of warning tho, be weary of the dust and what was shipped on the pallets. For example don't use pallets from a rat poison factory, or overseas harbor freight pallet (non heat treated, instead chemical treated). Instead use pallets from a machine shop, or pretzel factory. Nothing poisonous is going to spill on the pallets from those places