Where to get & look for “reclaimed” wood

I am looking to get into woodworking and really like the reclaimed wood look… suggestions on where to get it guys?

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I did a small project for my wife and I got some wood at Home Depot. They carry a small selection of reclaimed looking wood at our store.

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olletsocmit wrote:

12 minutes ago, olletsocmit said:

 

I am looking to get into woodworking and really like the reclaimed wood look… suggestions on where to get it guys?

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Farms barns pallets take it off your neighbours shed…lol

It depends on the project. Most people source this lumber from old pallets, but there’s a warning for this as they’re frequently exposed to hazardous chemicals. Read this if you’re considering this option and it’s something you’re going to be in contact with a lot or not properly seal. 

http://www.1001pallets.com/pallet-safety/

That said I built my coffee table out of old unidentified pallet lumber and PT 4×4’s, stained it and sealed it with multiple coats of polyurethane as added protection. 

olletsocmit wrote:

17 minutes ago, olletsocmit said:

 

I am looking to get into woodworking and really like the reclaimed wood look… suggestions on where to get it guys?

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Check you local CL. Barn wood is really super over priced but can be found occasionally. Also try doing it yourself. You can age wood with vinegar and steel wool, distress wood with a hammer and chain and use a small plumbers torch.

Depending on your project you could use pallet wood 

Logan wrote:

4 hours ago, Logan said:

Depending on your project you could use pallet wood 

Pallets are getting expensive, stupid Pinterest

You could go to home depot and lowes and ask for lumber runners (they’re the pieces of wood that they use with banding so tines can get under bunks of building material) Not sure how safe that stuff is but it’s usually treated pine or the same lumber that it was used to band with.

BMack37 wrote:

11 hours ago, BMack37 said:

 

Pallets are getting expensive, stupid Pinterest

I know people used to give them away for free and now people want $20 for a pallet 

Lol what, should I stop burning pallets and start selling them?

Best place to look imho is old onion and potato storage sheds. The air floors have tons of 3″x10″x30″ blocks of wood, and depending on when it was built, will have 2×8 rough cut wood slats all the way up the walls. Unless you know a farmer though not likely going to happen. There any old collapsed barns or grain elevators by you I bet you could work out a deal to get some of that wood.

comp56 wrote:

On 11/10/2016 at 4:54 PM, comp56 said:

Farms barns pallets take it off your neighbours shed…lol

hhhahaha.  “neighborhood memo” — hello neighbors, there have been 5 sheds this week stolen, please call with info

olletsocmit wrote:

3 hours ago, olletsocmit said:

hhhahaha.  “neighborhood memo” — hello neighbors, there have been 5 sheds this week stolen, please call with info

 

The neighborhood barns aren’t fairing very well, but Comp has really been cranking out some nice reclaimed wood projects!

Stercorarius wrote:

10 hours ago, Stercorarius said:

Lol what, should I stop burning pallets and start selling them?

 

Best place to look imho is old onion and potato storage sheds. The air floors have tons of 3″x10″x30″ blocks of wood, and depending on when it was built, will have 2×8 rough cut wood slats all the way up the walls. Unless you know a farmer though not likely going to happen. There any old collapsed barns or grain elevators by you I bet you could work out a deal to get some of that wood.

Haha yeah that’s all I like using them for, have a good bonfire of camaraderie

kruton wrote:

11 minutes ago, kruton said:

The neighborhood barns aren’t fairing very well, but Comp has really been cranking out some nice reclaimed wood projects!

I could have had a good yard sale with the old lumber from my barn when it blew down instead of burning everything!!

KnarlyCarl wrote:

2 minutes ago, KnarlyCarl said:

 

I could have had a good yard sale with the old lumber from my barn when it blew down instead of burning everything!!

We bought a new house a couple years ago and the guy that had it before us left a nice stack of barn wood in the shed.  About a year ago he called and wanted to know if he could maybe come get it.  I told him he was going to have to fight my wife since I had already used it on a project for her!

That’s great. I myself miss the point of the reclaimed/stressed look, not a fan. Dislike the whole black iron pipe construction too, not for me

KnarlyCarl wrote:

That’s great. I myself miss the point of the reclaimed/stressed look, not a fan. Dislike the whole black iron pipe construction too, not for me

kruton wrote:

9 minutes ago, kruton said:

Funny you say that, she has me making a shelf with black pipe for our coffee bar.

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Lol too funny!! I say it’s for boilers or gasline or air lines, not furniture!

KnarlyCarl wrote:

1 hour ago, KnarlyCarl said:

Lol too funny!! I say it’s for boilers or gasline or air lines, not furniture!

i think it looks sweet why not for furniture 🙂 

CATERPILLAR wrote:

i think it looks sweet why not for furniture [emoji4] 

it’s like fashion, bell bottoms and mini skirts……things change……when I was a kid the rustic/rough look of the pallet wood would have been shunned upon people would never want that stuff in their homes let alone pay someone to make it……I was recently cruisin through Sears and there was a bedroom suite with the rustic rough un-even looking theme for a whopping $3900 I swear a 5 year old boy and his 2 sisters could have built it……don’t get me wrong some things people are building with it is nice I just can’t get into it after the many years my father taught me wood working….. 

My boss has a big pile of pallets. I’m guessing its from all the materials for house builds over the years. They are hard to get rid of. For whatever reason the landfill don’t take pallets. I don’t know why they wouldn’t take them though. I would go to contractors to get pallets or maybe a warehouse type store (ie samsclub).

kruton wrote:

3 hours ago, kruton said:

I’ll have to agree, it doesn’t look bad at all. I still have to run the board through the planer then let the kids “antique” it then I’ll post some pics…maybe KnarlyCarl will change his mind then! emoji16.png

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lol can’t wait to see what it looks like 🙂 have a good one 

Found this while doing some organizing. Forgot I made this out of “reclaimed” pallet wood. Turned this out of some 4×4 pallet scraps four years ago. Never got around to finishing it. Just something you can do with palletwood.

comp56 wrote:

On 11/12/2016 at 0:19 PM, comp56 said:

it’s like fashion, bell bottoms and mini skirts……things change……when I was a kid the rustic/rough look of the pallet wood would have been shunned upon people would never want that stuff in their homes let alone pay someone to make it……I was recently cruisin through Sears and there was a bedroom suite with the rustic rough un-even looking theme for a whopping $3900 I swear a 5 year old boy and his 2 sisters could have built it……don’t get me wrong some things people are building with it is nice I just can’t get into it after the many years my father taught me wood working….. 

My thoughts as well. 

There’s a lot of well made pieces with excellent joinery and execution of the old look and I can appreciate the time and energy spent on a project like that, just a mindset I can’t ignore from being raised similar to you 

kruton wrote:

On 11/12/2016 at 11:59 AM, kruton said:

I’ll have to agree, it doesn’t look bad at all. I still have to run the board through the planer then let the kids “antique” it then I’ll post some pics…maybe KnarlyCarl will change his mind then! emoji16.png

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Haha yeah kids are great at that. It was the iron pipe I was alluding to that since working with it in my job, I don’t really want to see it in my house as well lol!!!

I get my wood from my wife…uh, wait, that sounded really weird.

I work for a warehouse but I haven’t asked about taking pallets home, all of the pallets and plywood and whatnot I get from my wife, where she works. Granted, I don’t do the kind of quality stuff you guys do, the most I’ve done is build drawers, a coffee table, etc., out of the stuff I get. However, it may be as simple as asking local warehouses, maybe Home Depot, Menard’s, etc., and see what they say. For us, we send all bad pallets out, what happens to them I don’t know. I’m sure we get some kind of money for them and they get recycled, but I would imagine some businesses would rather not have the headache and would gladly give some unwanted wood away.

I’ve built plenty of things at work with the crap wood we get from Chinese shipping crates and whatnot. Built this cart for brake lines/fuel lines recently for the pickers. Of course this is before I finished it, burned out a Milwaukee hole saw, a good one, doing the holes, had to wait for another one to finish the job. Two boards, 96 holes each (was a fun couple of days). Everything on the cart minus the 2×4 came from shipping crates or stuff that was tossed out in the returns department. Top and middle shelves are 1/4″ thick composite something-or-other. Kinda like MDF/Masonite…

Great idea! Outstanding job Sir.

KnarlyCarl wrote:

36 minutes ago, KnarlyCarl said:

Haha yeah kids are great at that. It was the iron pipe I was alluding to that since working with it in my job, I don’t really want to see it in my house as well lol!!!

so it would be the same as a mechanic having this for a bathroom sink

Just have to keep a keen out for other peoples throw away items. I found this nice little table a few day’ ago in the hallway of the apartment. It had a few minor problems, but definitely a nice wood top that can be used for building something with.  Folks in these big city apartments waste a lot of things.

comp56 wrote:

2 hours ago, comp56 said:

so it would be the same as a mechanic having this for a bathroom sink

Exactly! Lol as cool as that looks, when it comes down to it, just not for me

This is the kind of thing you can find in old onion sheds. We’re currently working on getting a corn processing operation up and running in this building and all this rough cut lumber is getting torn out.