i love the way you think. I also often go out with a friend to walk around the entire village and look for materials or small finishing items. I'm still amazed when I see what people just throw away. You can often help a poor animal survive the winter through small adjustments or a few hours of work. Or create the most beautiful works of art with what others throw away as worthless junk.
I like that you don't only talk about the process but take us with you on a hunt. Giving just the clear and concise info is often nice, but sometimes it's cool to see, that not every hunt is entirely successfull and you often encounter more pine than anything else.^^
Many different designs for each type of project are also included. For example, there are hundreds of designs ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxb2mhCug-GkCWrq69Ce2I0nM0D4QpxAqu for outdoor buildings, from small sheds all the way up to a complete stable. Choose whatever type of shed or storage house is right for you. Pick from fancy ones or more utilitarian designs.
Near where i used to live there was an engineering works, they were a great source for plywood packing boxes of various sizes, some up to four foot long. I asked if I could take them an d they said they were happy for me to take what I wanted as they had to pay to have it taken away. I made several tool boxes, workshop cupboards and garden planters from that wood.
Great vid! I make a lot of stuff from reclaimed materials and am constantly amazed by what people chuck in the bin. Might have been mentioned but if your local DIY shop (e.g. B&Q) has a cutting service, check their clearance racks. Can often find quite big off-cuts of expensive ply etc. for pennies.
I find that skips near office refurbishments are great for recycled materials. I recently built a shed from the rafters of a house refurbishment where the builders were grateful for me removing the wood from the skip as it enabled them to put more stuff in it and out of courtesy I took the guys on the site a nice Costa coffee each and they were over the moon. The shed was then clad in pallet wood from industrial estates, roofed with ply wood from the tops of pallets and once painted looks as good as a bought one and cost the price of the nails, screws and new roofing felt. I really enjoy all of your videos, a big thumbs up.
THAT'S THE SPIRIT, JOIN THE EVER GROWING ARMY OF SKIP DIVING AND KNOCKING ON DOORS, I WORK FULL TIME AT A HOSPITAL AND IT IS AMAZING WHAT GETS THROWN AWAY AND END UP IN MY 20'X12' HOME BUILT WORKSHOP. PLEASE KEEP ON POSTING THE GREAT VIDS.
Forgive me, but I must, ... When one collects pallets from.. whell, anywhere, take what you can use from the stack, and then RE-STACK the pallets in a way that will be convenient for your benefactor. How many times I have been told that I could not have (gorgeous 2x6x12) boards because some idiot before me left with the good stuff and left the junk scattered around the yard or thrown into an unstable/unmanageable pile! Have some respect.
Agree Dave. I recently facetubed about 40 pallets free to collectors. Most came and took a few but some pulled the stacks to bits, took some and left the rest in a right mess. Not happy.
doveoo5 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 some people act as if they can get whatever they want, and take it however they want.. and that’s why we all get limited, because of the lack of respect
Very cool video. One thing I think I would have grabbed was that piece of tinted glass that was in that bin. I understand that the glass with it's perfectly flat surface is excellent for sharpening chisels. All you need is wet/dry sandpaper, water, and lots of elbow grease. You probably already have a great method for sharpening your chisels. Not me, so I just thought "man I could really use that glass."
I always check our big box hardware stores and get what I call banding boards. To keep from damaging lumber bundles they will use 2x4s with a groove cut for the metal banding that surrounds the load. They are thrown away but can be ripped to smaller sizes and used for numerous projects.
A thickness planer and bandsaw is really helpful to get the most out of reclaimed wood, because they make processing reclaimed wood/ rough lumbers feasible.
I work a grocery store, most of the pallets we get have to go back to the distribution center but we get some of the small pallets or oversized ones that are fine to take and a bunch of the small and larger ones are made of hardwood. I just got a black walnut slat, 2 maple slats and a white oak slat. Another pallet that the bandsaw for our meat department was delivered on was made of a few 4x4s that were cherry, elm, white oak and what i believe to be white ash. So don't forget to really look at pallets because some are made of really beautiful wood that may just get put in a landfill or be burned and that's just a shame! I also found one that was made of ambrosia maple , i didn't see the grey bug holes until i took my number 7 Stanley to them! My lucky day!
great watch as i am just starting working with wood as a hobby and need to keep the cost down on materials whilst i hone my skills i cant wait to watch more now ive subscribed
I think it is awesome that you salvage items for various projects! People can be so wasteful, it's a shame how some think or simply don't care. You have given me plenty of ideas! Cheers!
Sonny, I like all of it and go along with it. Think and ask and find a use for it. Somebodys problem can not be just a tip job. If You find a small use for it than good for You! I like it!
I just viewed this video for the first time today. Love what I saw and sorely wished you lived here in the US. I have a small woodworking business that only makes projects from reclaimed wood. Living in the middle of the country I am fortunate that reclaimed, old growth hardwoods are cheaper than lumber stores. As another FYI, there is a palette company in my hometown. They put out second cuts/scraps for the community to burn in the winter. Not a staples worth of metal in any of it. Just picked up over 100 lb ft of 5/4 red oak for free. The wife will love the new end tables. Thank's, Bill
That microwave has magnets in the magnetron, and has a large transformer. With two of those transformers, and some wire, you can rewind them to build a stick welder, which you could use to transform the metal items in the alley into a robot army.
OK but seriously, you need to know what you're doing with old microwave ovens. The capacitors hold a fearsome charge that can KILL, long after they are disconnected. You need a proper discharge circuit to discharge these safely. PLEASE don't tamper with old microwaves if you don't know what you're doing.
Storage (which almost no one addresses in videos like this) is my nemesis. Every surface in my too-small shop is cluttered with various sizes of wood scraps. I usually have to move clutter from one surface to another before I can begin any project - and some of those piles are getting dangerously tall. Did I say clutter? I meant treasure, yeah, treasure.
This is lovely - I've been a recycler all my life .. it just seemed instinctive. Absolutely adored your "tour of the alleys" - not done that myself but did recently haggle some old grotty looking oak boards from behind piles of softwood at my local reclaimer, which will plane down to some lovely looking wood when I get round to unpacking my planer!!
luv this ;-) I'm a welder fabricator, n I get sooooo much wood from work for free, sheet and pallets, but big long pallets to, so try any local fabrication shops, they should have a lot, n want rid of it for free :-D
I'm in New Zealand and find it easy to collect unwanted pallets from work or other places. The timber quality is extremely variable to say the least but it's free and still quite useful! Thanks for the video.
Will Halliday Sure but it is the woodworking process (dust) that puts you at risk. (And harms the ozone too). NZ uses the ISPM 5 standard for labelling wood packaging. In theory any pallet imported must have the ISPM 5 stamp on it or have a phytosanitary certificate. The problem with the certificate is that doesn't help you when it comes to recycling the pallet. So it should have a stamp such as NZ - XXXX YY Where NZ is country code, XXXX is the registered organisation number and YY is treatment code. If YY is 'HT' then it is safe If YY is 'MB' then it means it has been fumigated with methyl bromide. You do not want to do woodwork with this. DB - means debarked and it should not make it into NZ if it hasn't been debarked. The issue is what happens when customs open up containers full of pallets that do not conform to ISPM 5 standard? Do they seal the container and pump it full of methyl bromide for 24 hours? They used to back in the day. Maybe these days they have a gamma ray machine at every port and use ionising radiation for everything. Perhaps ring up customs and find out if they stamp all the pallets of things that have been chemically treated at the border. I doubt it, because they can issue a certificate instead. If the pallet has been made in NZ, Australia or Europe I would assume it was OK. But how would you know? Maybe just avoid anything that lacks the ISPM 5 stamp. This is less of an issue in Australia I hope. Methyl bromide was supposed to be phased out from 2005 in Australia except for the transport of strawberry runners. Plus although there are some interstate fumigations, the Australian standard pallet is not exported/imported and thus not treated with methyl bromide and they are something like 75% of pallets. I suspect a pallet in NZ is much more likely to have been originally for import regardless of where you find it.
Great video. I have old white oak flooring, antique pine and oak from old doors, solid cherry from an old tv unit. Old dried wood is better than big box stores and you can get it for cheap or free.
thank you this was very helpful I'm German hobby woodworker and espacially the things they build on the reclamation yard are the stuff I usually do and I defenetly will try do get some materials like this in my nearby region in nothern Germany.
I had been on the lookout for some wood to make a pedal board. Didn't see anything for a while then one day coming home from work, outside a house that builders were doing some work on, I found a pile of wood off cuts that they were throwing out. I took them and when I got home I found that there was just enough bits to put together a nice little slatted pedal board. In fact it was almost as if they had been cut perfectly for the job. :0)
with the rise in popularity of those big lawn mowers there's been an increase in waste wood from the shipping crates they come in. The crates are big, so the wood is often a mixed bag of size, thickness, and lengths. It's untreated wood, so great for many projects. The stores that sell the mowers have to pay BY THE POUND to have this wood disposed of. The stores are often happy to have people pick through the wood. The one I go to actually removed the waste bin and left it all for us scavengers
Thanks for the ideas, One thing about the town where I live in California is they have laws prohibiting salvaging salvageable materials as do a lot of the towns around here. One day my brother and his friend was collecting some scrap wood that was laying next to the railroad tracks! My brother said it Looked like someone just dumped the wood there when the Sheriff pulled and arrested my brother and his friend for salvaging salvageable materials, my brothers friends truck was impounded and then they were both fined by the court. All this just for picking some scrap wood someone else dumped along the railroad track.
If you've a civil engineering project nearby, its worth contacting them about timber. Both softwood and hardwood, but softwood in particular, the concrete shuttering for bespoke structures uses timber that is discarded after use. I've seen so much good timber sent to recycling, if only i had somewhere to keep it!
I assume what you call "shuttering" is the forming boards that hold the concrete in place as it cures? Around my area, much of that is re-used. In any event, it has concrete and sand particles all over it, probably enough to destroy most saw blade edges.
Speaking of the bin, I found these thick (almost 2 inches) painted boards, some kind of really hard wood in the trash. I had to cut around some rot and remove some old nails, but I would say I easily got enough wood to make a few tool handles or a tool tote. Definitely worth the embarrassment once the projects are complete
If you use a lathe, ask local tree surgeons if they have wood or their next job for wood, I've often gone to their new sites and got wood cut to size for me, they've never asked for money but I've always given them beer money as a thank you...
I found this maintenance guy off of Craigslist that sells his cut-offs and even unused lumber. I probably give him about 10% of what it would cost retail. He'll text with with pics when he's got another load before he puts it on Craigslist. I got some purple heart last time - for next to nothing. He is officially my lumber guy.
nice neighborhood. those doors were really nice, especially if they were solid wood and not veneered. oh well tis a bit too far for my to drive/swim to pick them up. i use a lot fo reclaimed and purposed stuff as well. i consider it more challenging and my shop is not filled with high end tools so its all good. enjoy.
Enjoyed your video, nothing wrong with recycling wood! I knew an old joiner who would get his wood from the local auction sales for old furniture, etc. He would take the stuff no-one else wanted at a very cheap price, and then make things like rocking horses for kids, which he had no trouble selling. Might be a source for cheap hardwood if you know what you are looking for.
I was looking for pallets at a cheap tool store and found a very nice folding ladder that needed a bolt to fix it. Im not to proud to look and grab what they think is trash if I can use it.
I live in the city, and there is a designated day every month for throwing furniture that is picked up by the city garbage collection. So I would be usually scavenging the neighborhood on a night before the collection. People usually will put them out, put the "GRATIS" sticker, just in case somebody want to take it. But even without a sticker (but it was obviously to be thrown away), a scored many good sources of wood, especially beds are good, because the frame is made out of solid wood beams. But I also found few good shelving pieces, some usable book cases, two big desks, some antiques even, and a lot of particle board stuff, and on that last part I am rather selective, and only take the one that is not damaged in anyway, and is of bigger size. Pallets are also very useful, but you need to be careful and really ask if you can take it, and make sure you understand what chemicals are used in the pallet wood.
I have a source of free scrap lumber @ a local cabinet shop- I just go to their scrap area and take all I want. Good hardwood- mahogany, maple, oak, etc. Only drawback is the size- mostly shorter pieces.
This was the first time I have seen any of your videos and I must say you have a lot of great tips for getting free or cheap wood. I would just like to share an idea with you about the part where you passed on the head board and foot board and there was that nice decorative tall pieces next to them that looked like doors or something. I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw those things next to each other. What we like to do is make some nice benches for the back yard out of stuff like that. People pay a lot of money for benches and they also use them for planters too. Good hunting !
I take a drive in back of local shopping centers in search of materials every week or so. There's a flooring store that almost always has stacks of pallets and open framed wooden crates for the taking. I only bother with the better ones. And a lot of times I'll find decent sheet goods (which used to be the crate lids or bottoms) that they've already separated from the crate.
wow it's nice to see someone else is from Norwich on UA-cam lol. I'm always trying to pick up stuff for free I also know a few good places in Norwich to get some real nice wood.
I do the same thing all the time. Hey free is free and better then spending any hard earned money. I look like the pellet hoarder but i break them down very fast before the city or neighbor get mad and call code enforcement on me. It is nice to use reclaimed wood for your projects as i experiment on projects i make as i am new to wood working.
Hi Keith what about designing and making a chisel , plane blade honing guide that runs either side of the sharpening block instead of on the top, which would be cleaner and more accurate.
Every couple of weeks in my town is bulk throw out day. I drive around and grab old furniture and building materials. I hardly ever buy lumber. I've built over a hundred pieces from used wood from bookcases transformed into planters, to old doors turned into tables/desktops/workbenches (doors are my favorite). I even found a beautiful bed (queen size, disassembled with ebony finish) with a cracked leg that I easily repaired and ordered new hardware for $20 to reassemble it. I checked online and it's a $1200 piece from Ethan Allen.
Do you sell the stuff ??... A good friend of mine was telling about this JUNK To TREASURE RESTORATION business he and his cousin currently have going on. It is SMALL SCALE.. If they watch the EXPENSES $$$$ keep down COSTS they can make a GOOD profit...
Check all those electricals. If they have their power cords on then cut them off and keep. You can cash the 'household cables' in for money at your local scap metal merchants. I collect cables, copper pipe and brass (taps etc)
Roy Well, an ex-colleague of mine has two children with his wife. After having the second child she went back to work. But, now they have to pay for day care for the children who are too young for school. They pay more than her salary in fact. I wouldn't blame somebody who decided not to work under those conditions.
That's funny. I met a fellow once who was part of a crew who worked on a remodel job in an office I worked in. I told him what a cool job he had, because he got to take home all kinds of stuff from work. He laughed and said, he was no longer allowed to "bring his work home." When his yard and his garage got so full of wood and metal material that his wife and kids could no longer move in these spaces, she told him all if it had to go or he would be sorry. So not wanting to lose his wife, he chucked everything out in a bin.
I've been following your videos for a while now, didn't realise you were only a few miles down the road from us. (Not meaning to sound creepy stalker, lol)
Hiya Keith. Not sure if the same all over the UK, but in Scotland BnQ have a huge bay near the exit where you can uplift pieces for a charity donation. I was amazed at the material that was in the bay on my last visit, I picked up a very clean piece of 1/2 inch ply approx 5x3 feet! Not sure why that is not for sale in a dedicated part of the store?? Been in there regularly for a while and there are a lot of great off cuts that apparently “would be binned” Check it out
I started visiting a wood working shop and they allow me to take all I want from the bin in the middle of the shop. Mahogany, Maple, Cherry, and a few other species. All free- various lengths to 2 ft.
Each to his own I guess: You are only really after wood, and I also collect wood for projects. However, I also am interested in electrical stuff so that microwave would be a good find for me, Contractors throw lots of old wiring out which I nab because you can sell that at the scrappy. And the chipboard T&G sheets I have used for cheap flooring in various locations.
I have nice wood working tools like plainers and jointers. I never use old wood. I have lots of trees on my property that just fall over. I cut them up and make things for the lathe. This is how I get my walnut wood. If I don't harvest my own wood, I buy new wood. It is cheap in America.
A bit of a coincidence for me here, I was out driving when I thought that I could possibly get some free wood, discarded at construction sites. And one more thing, I was cleaning up my garage today and came across a small section of a metallic curtain rod. And I thought that by cutting off the 90° ends, it looks like it might be usable as T-track.
Nothing wrong with mine-sweeping the back lanes and skips. My other half can't't understand it! Occasionally I have to smuggle things into the flat as I know she'll get annoyed! haha
just been watching this video believe it or not i do the same thing look for free wood there is a fence gardening centre where i live i get the broken fence panels and repair one or 2 and replace the old fence panel with also used old panels to repair my shed when needed things like old pine doors and cupboards i take cut down got nice pieces to rout or make things i puts it down to recycling cheap most times i dont break the bank balance
I am here in Maine (US) and find that the Re-Stores here, (by Habitat) sell the donated materials only slightly off-price. If one finds EXACTLY what one is looking for one would save, otherwise ...keep looking.
Last time I was in the local Habitat store, they had a chunk of beat-up walnut about 1"x4"x5" - 0.14 board feet - for $8. Not unusual & why they never hardly sell much of anything like this. =(
In the Heart of the Beast: We don't know what big box stores you have in the UK, so this comment maybe directed to your North American Cousins, but, we introduce ourselves to the managers of the big box stores in our area. They tend to recycle some of their palettes but some are discarded or are odd sizes. Try to get the brake down schedules for the stores, both big box and furniture stores. The furniture store generally don't want to waste their time in their recycling or repackaging. So they can offer up a package or even give a cart-away for their own installations. We don't attempt to under cut their installations so you have insure there is no threat from your work or requests. Pallets have become all the rage here so persistence pays off. At 72 when we first started working with pallet construction no one cared, all that was wanted was, "get rid of it quickly, okay."
Hi, I use a lot of pallets and I was salivating over some of the wood you were not interested in. While I am on the subject what is wrong with pine I use lots of it although I am also happy to find any other type of wood. I have not tried reclamation yards as I live in the country and they are probably a long way away, although I am going to check my area now just in case.
+John Fithian-Franks Hi John, I would have taken more of it if I had space to store it, the problem is my workshop is very small and quite full. There's nothing wrong with pine, but it feels like I've used nothing but pine for years because it's easy to find in my area, so I enjoy using other woods more because the novelty hasn't worn off haha
Go to your local woodworker or furniture maker. I have one in my area and he has a load of scrap hard wood of all different species. He just lets me have it for free. Otherwise it would have been thrown away and/or burned. Try your local furniture maker or woodworker to see if you can score some free wood like I did
Nice video, any idea what material the euro pallets are normally made from i would assume its a hard wood because those things take a hell of a beating?
i love the way you think. I also often go out with a friend to walk around the entire village and look for materials or small finishing items. I'm still amazed when I see what people just throw away. You can often help a poor animal survive the winter through small adjustments or a few hours of work. Or create the most beautiful works of art with what others throw away as worthless junk.
I like that you don't only talk about the process but take us with you on a hunt. Giving just the clear and concise info is often nice, but sometimes it's cool to see, that not every hunt is entirely successfull and you often encounter more pine than anything else.^^
Finally a UK wood working channel. There may be more but i am still get more US and AUS channels.
There's a list of UK channels on my website
Many different designs for each type of project are also included. For example, there are hundreds of designs ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxb2mhCug-GkCWrq69Ce2I0nM0D4QpxAqu for outdoor buildings, from small sheds all the way up to a complete stable. Choose whatever type of shed or storage house is right for you. Pick from fancy ones or more utilitarian designs.
Near where i used to live there was an engineering works, they were a great source for plywood packing boxes of various sizes, some up to four foot long. I asked if I could take them an d they said they were happy for me to take what I wanted as they had to pay to have it taken away.
I made several tool boxes, workshop cupboards and garden planters from that wood.
Life Lesson: If you find a woman that doesn't mind storing scrap wood behind the sofa, she's a KEEPER!!
Someday, IMA marry a girl like that.. I hope
Or maybe she is an ugly whale that doesn't even take care of the house she lives in.
Hahahahhaahaha....that's cold.
Indeed she is!
I've got myself one of those and I cannot agree more! :)
(she'll moan occasionally, but you can only take so much! :-D)
I’m a child so idk wat ur talkin about
"Not sure what kind of wood that is, but it's not pine so I'll take it." LOL!
Great vid! I make a lot of stuff from reclaimed materials and am constantly amazed by what people chuck in the bin. Might have been mentioned but if your local DIY shop (e.g. B&Q) has a cutting service, check their clearance racks. Can often find quite big off-cuts of expensive ply etc. for pennies.
I find that skips near office refurbishments are great for recycled materials. I recently built a shed from the rafters of a house refurbishment where the builders were grateful for me removing the wood from the skip as it enabled them to put more stuff in it and out of courtesy I took the guys on the site a nice Costa coffee each and they were over the moon. The shed was then clad in pallet wood from industrial estates, roofed with ply wood from the tops of pallets and once painted looks as good as a bought one and cost the price of the nails, screws and new roofing felt. I really enjoy all of your videos, a big thumbs up.
Got any photographs?
Paul Sengupta j
.
THAT'S THE SPIRIT, JOIN THE EVER GROWING ARMY OF SKIP DIVING AND KNOCKING ON DOORS, I WORK FULL TIME AT A HOSPITAL AND IT IS AMAZING WHAT GETS THROWN AWAY AND END UP IN MY 20'X12' HOME BUILT WORKSHOP.
PLEASE KEEP ON POSTING THE GREAT VIDS.
+rich kellow thank you!
Forgive me, but I must, ... When one collects pallets from.. whell, anywhere, take what you can use from the stack, and then RE-STACK the pallets in a way that will be convenient for your benefactor. How many times I have been told that I could not have (gorgeous 2x6x12) boards because some idiot before me left with the good stuff and left the junk scattered around the yard or thrown into an unstable/unmanageable pile! Have some respect.
Michael Reyes FUCK off
Agree Dave. I recently facetubed about 40 pallets free to collectors. Most came and took a few but some pulled the stacks to bits, took some and left the rest in a right mess. Not happy.
.
Dave Patrick 7
doveoo5 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 some people act as if they can get whatever they want, and take it however they want.. and that’s why we all get limited, because of the lack of respect
Old worn out furniture are also a source. Frames are often made of maple, some odd shapes but usable.
Very cool video. One thing I think I would have grabbed was that piece of tinted glass that was in that bin. I understand that the glass with it's perfectly flat surface is excellent for sharpening chisels. All you need is wet/dry sandpaper, water, and lots of elbow grease. You probably already have a great method for sharpening your chisels. Not me, so I just thought "man I could really use that glass."
I always check our big box hardware stores and get what I call banding boards. To keep from damaging lumber bundles they will use 2x4s with a groove cut for the metal banding that surrounds the load. They are thrown away but can be ripped to smaller sizes and used for numerous projects.
John Tuten, I always ask for the banding boards too. I use them s lot in my projects.
A thickness planer and bandsaw is really helpful to get the most out of reclaimed wood, because they make processing reclaimed wood/ rough lumbers feasible.
Little late but a hand plane and a jigsaw does the same thing for much cheaper..I have a planer and bandsaw but not everyone does
I work a grocery store, most of the pallets we get have to go back to the distribution center but we get some of the small pallets or oversized ones that are fine to take and a bunch of the small and larger ones are made of hardwood. I just got a black walnut slat, 2 maple slats and a white oak slat. Another pallet that the bandsaw for our meat department was delivered on was made of a few 4x4s that were cherry, elm, white oak and what i believe to be white ash. So don't forget to really look at pallets because some are made of really beautiful wood that may just get put in a landfill or be burned and that's just a shame! I also found one that was made of ambrosia maple , i didn't see the grey bug holes until i took my number 7 Stanley to them! My lucky day!
great watch as i am just starting working with wood as a hobby and need to keep the cost down on materials whilst i hone my skills i cant wait to watch more now ive subscribed
I think it is awesome that you salvage items for various projects! People can be so wasteful, it's a shame how some think or simply don't care. You have given me plenty of ideas! Cheers!
+Shawn Gilbert I agree. Thanks Shawn
Sonny, I like all of it and go along with it. Think and ask and find a use for it. Somebodys problem can not be just a tip job. If You find a small use for it than good for You! I like it!
I just viewed this video for the first time today. Love what I saw and sorely wished you lived here in the US. I have a small woodworking business that only makes projects from reclaimed wood. Living in the middle of the country I am fortunate that reclaimed, old growth hardwoods are cheaper than lumber stores. As another FYI, there is a palette company in my hometown. They put out second cuts/scraps for the community to burn in the winter. Not a staples worth of metal in any of it. Just picked up over 100 lb ft of 5/4 red oak for free. The wife will love the new end tables. Thank's, Bill
That microwave has magnets in the magnetron, and has a large transformer. With two of those transformers, and some wire, you can rewind them to build a stick welder, which you could use to transform the metal items in the alley into a robot army.
OK but seriously, you need to know what you're doing with old microwave ovens. The capacitors hold a fearsome charge that can KILL, long after they are disconnected. You need a proper discharge circuit to discharge these safely. PLEASE don't tamper with old microwaves if you don't know what you're doing.
please make more videos like this, i love how you list every item you see, it is very funny.
Storage (which almost no one addresses in videos like this) is my nemesis. Every surface in my too-small shop is cluttered with various sizes of wood scraps. I usually have to move clutter from one surface to another before I can begin any project - and some of those piles are getting dangerously tall.
Did I say clutter? I meant treasure, yeah, treasure.
This is lovely - I've been a recycler all my life .. it just
seemed instinctive. Absolutely adored your "tour of the alleys" - not
done that myself but did recently haggle some old grotty looking oak boards
from behind piles of softwood at my local reclaimer, which will plane down to some
lovely looking wood when I get round to unpacking my planer!!
luv this ;-) I'm a welder fabricator, n I get sooooo much wood from work for free, sheet and pallets, but big long pallets to, so try any local fabrication shops, they should have a lot, n want rid of it for free :-D
I'm in New Zealand and find it easy to collect unwanted pallets from work or other places. The timber quality is extremely variable to say the least but it's free and still quite useful! Thanks for the video.
In NZ be careful, because a pallet used to import something might have been treated with methyl bromide at the border.
Dave XB good call! I use it generally for garden projects like seed trays, or beer totes and the like
Will Halliday Sure but it is the woodworking process (dust) that puts you at risk.
(And harms the ozone too).
NZ uses the ISPM 5 standard for labelling wood packaging. In theory any pallet imported must have the ISPM 5 stamp on it or have a phytosanitary certificate.
The problem with the certificate is that doesn't help you when it comes to recycling the pallet.
So it should have a stamp such as NZ - XXXX YY
Where NZ is country code, XXXX is the registered organisation number and YY is treatment code.
If YY is 'HT' then it is safe
If YY is 'MB' then it means it has been fumigated with methyl bromide. You do not want to do woodwork with this.
DB - means debarked and it should not make it into NZ if it hasn't been debarked.
The issue is what happens when customs open up containers full of pallets that do not conform to ISPM 5 standard? Do they seal the container and pump it full of methyl bromide for 24 hours? They used to back in the day.
Maybe these days they have a gamma ray machine at every port and use ionising radiation for everything.
Perhaps ring up customs and find out if they stamp all the pallets of things that have been chemically treated at the border. I doubt it, because they can issue a certificate instead.
If the pallet has been made in NZ, Australia or Europe I would assume it was OK. But how would you know?
Maybe just avoid anything that lacks the ISPM 5 stamp.
This is less of an issue in Australia I hope.
Methyl bromide was supposed to be phased out from 2005 in Australia except for the transport of strawberry runners. Plus although there are some interstate fumigations, the Australian standard pallet is not exported/imported and thus not treated with methyl bromide and they are something like 75% of pallets.
I suspect a pallet in NZ is much more likely to have been originally for import regardless of where you find it.
Dave XB more likely MPI than customs but your information is very helpful, thanks.
"... and it looks like a dog has laid something on top of that carpet..." 😅😂🤣😂😅
Great video. I have old white oak flooring, antique pine and oak from old doors, solid cherry from an old tv unit. Old dried wood is better than big box stores and you can get it for cheap or free.
thank you this was very helpful I'm German hobby woodworker and espacially the things they build on the reclamation yard are the stuff I usually do and I defenetly will try do get some materials like this in my nearby region in nothern Germany.
I had been on the lookout for some wood to make a pedal board. Didn't see anything for a while then one day coming home from work, outside a house that builders were doing some work on, I found a pile of wood off cuts that they were throwing out. I took them and when I got home I found that there was just enough bits to put together a nice little slatted pedal board. In fact it was almost as if they had been cut perfectly for the job. :0)
with the rise in popularity of those big lawn mowers there's been an increase in waste wood from the shipping crates they come in. The crates are big, so the wood is often a mixed bag of size, thickness, and lengths. It's untreated wood, so great for many projects. The stores that sell the mowers have to pay BY THE POUND to have this wood disposed of. The stores are often happy to have people pick through the wood. The one I go to actually removed the waste bin and left it all for us scavengers
Thanks for the ideas, One thing about the town where I live in California is they have laws prohibiting salvaging salvageable materials as do a lot of the towns around here. One day my brother and his friend was collecting some scrap wood that was laying next to the railroad tracks! My brother said it Looked like someone just dumped the wood there when the Sheriff pulled and arrested my brother and his friend for salvaging salvageable materials, my brothers friends truck was impounded and then they were both fined by the court. All this just for picking some scrap wood someone else dumped along the railroad track.
Love this video! But I totally would have been dragging those doors home with me.
If you've a civil engineering project nearby, its worth contacting them about timber. Both softwood and hardwood, but softwood in particular, the concrete shuttering for bespoke structures uses timber that is discarded after use. I've seen so much good timber sent to recycling, if only i had somewhere to keep it!
I assume what you call "shuttering" is the forming boards that hold the concrete in place as it cures? Around my area, much of that is re-used. In any event, it has concrete and sand particles all over it, probably enough to destroy most saw blade edges.
Speaking of the bin, I found these thick (almost 2 inches) painted boards, some kind of really hard wood in the trash. I had to cut around some rot and remove some old nails, but I would say I easily got enough wood to make a few tool handles or a tool tote. Definitely worth the embarrassment once the projects are complete
If you use a lathe, ask local tree surgeons if they have wood or their next job for wood, I've often gone to their new sites and got wood cut to size for me, they've never asked for money but I've always given them beer money as a thank you...
+Marc great tip!!
I found this maintenance guy off of Craigslist that sells his cut-offs and even unused lumber. I probably give him about 10% of what it would cost retail. He'll text with with pics when he's got another load before he puts it on Craigslist. I got some purple heart last time - for next to nothing. He is officially my lumber guy.
The former scrapper in me is a bit jealous of all the metal people throw away there
nice neighborhood. those doors were really nice, especially if they were solid wood and not veneered. oh well tis a bit too far for my to drive/swim to pick them up. i use a lot fo reclaimed and purposed stuff as well. i consider it more challenging and my shop is not filled with high end tools so its all good. enjoy.
Some of the pallets I have come across have been absolute swines to disassemble. Honestly, you'd think they had been put together by NASA.
Industrial estates are a great resource for pallets and planks etc..
Enjoyed your video, nothing wrong with recycling wood! I knew an old joiner who would get his wood from the local auction sales for old furniture, etc. He would take the stuff no-one else wanted at a very cheap price, and then make things like rocking horses for kids, which he had no trouble selling. Might be a source for cheap hardwood if you know what you are looking for.
I visit the small cabinet making firms in the industrial site and normally get something worthwhile. Cheers.
I was looking for pallets at a cheap tool store and found a very nice folding ladder that needed a bolt to fix it. Im not to proud to look and grab what they think is trash if I can use it.
I live in the city, and there is a designated day every month for throwing furniture that is picked up by the city garbage collection. So I would be usually scavenging the neighborhood on a night before the collection. People usually will put them out, put the "GRATIS" sticker, just in case somebody want to take it. But even without a sticker (but it was obviously to be thrown away), a scored many good sources of wood, especially beds are good, because the frame is made out of solid wood beams. But I also found few good shelving pieces, some usable book cases, two big desks, some antiques even, and a lot of particle board stuff, and on that last part I am rather selective, and only take the one that is not damaged in anyway, and is of bigger size. Pallets are also very useful, but you need to be careful and really ask if you can take it, and make sure you understand what chemicals are used in the pallet wood.
i do the same
one mans junk is another man gold good on you bro
I always check out my local industrial estates for pallets and other wood
I have a source of free scrap lumber @ a local cabinet shop- I just go to their scrap area and take all I want. Good hardwood- mahogany, maple, oak, etc. Only drawback is the size- mostly shorter pieces.
This was the first time I have seen any of your videos and I must say you have a lot of great tips for getting free or cheap wood. I would just like to share an idea with you about the part where you passed on the head board and foot board and there was that nice decorative tall pieces next to them that looked like doors or something. I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw those things next to each other. What we like to do is make some nice benches for the back yard out of stuff like that. People pay a lot of money for benches and they also use them for planters too. Good hunting !
I do much the same and also use Freecycle for unwanted furniture. The wood is usually better quality than purchasing and bone dry.
Since I heat with a woodstove, I'm always keeping a lookout for pallets as they are often made of OAK!
I take a drive in back of local shopping centers in search of materials every week or so. There's a flooring store that almost always has stacks of pallets and open framed wooden crates for the taking. I only bother with the better ones. And a lot of times I'll find decent sheet goods (which used to be the crate lids or bottoms) that they've already separated from the crate.
+Wood 'n' Stuff w/ Steve French great tip!
Wood 'n' Stuff w/ Steve Fren
Great try and make some raised beds for the garden defo have a look out for some pallets
wow it's nice to see someone else is from Norwich on UA-cam lol. I'm always trying to pick up stuff for free I also know a few good places in Norwich to get some real nice wood.
top tip, find a your local howden joinery shop and look in their skip.
I do the same thing all the time. Hey free is free and better then spending any hard earned money. I look like the pellet hoarder but i break them down very fast before the city or neighbor get mad and call code enforcement on me. It is nice to use reclaimed wood for your projects as i experiment on projects i make as i am new to wood working.
Funny to see that the method is international. In Spain and Netherlands DIY'ers go out in the night to "hunt" too
That rec yard looks awesome !!
Hi Keith what about designing and making a chisel , plane blade honing guide that runs either side of the sharpening block instead of on the top, which would be cleaner and more accurate.
Every couple of weeks in my town is bulk throw out day. I drive around and grab old furniture and building materials. I hardly ever buy lumber. I've built over a hundred pieces from used wood from bookcases transformed into planters, to old doors turned into tables/desktops/workbenches (doors are my favorite). I even found a beautiful bed (queen size, disassembled with ebony finish) with a cracked leg that I easily repaired and ordered new hardware for $20 to reassemble it. I checked online and it's a $1200 piece from Ethan Allen.
Do you sell the stuff ??... A good friend of mine was telling about this JUNK To TREASURE RESTORATION business he and his cousin currently have going on. It is SMALL SCALE.. If they watch the EXPENSES $$$$ keep down COSTS they can make a GOOD profit...
the beauty is most of this stuff is a lot easier to clean up than pallet wood
this video was great. some real goof info thx bruv
Check all those electricals. If they have their power cords on then cut them off and keep. You can cash the 'household cables' in for money at your local scap metal merchants. I collect cables, copper pipe and brass (taps etc)
Brilliant good man. Really appreciated you saying this. Same ethics I follow.
Fun, i look in every bin. My wife hates it, but I do not care. I pay my bills. As long as nobody else pays my bills, I do what i want.....
Kees Kees hahaha I understand you. Same thing here, but she got used to. And as long as I don't do it while she's with me, it's okay.
Roy Well, an ex-colleague of mine has two children with his wife. After having the second child she went back to work. But, now they have to pay for day care for the children who are too young for school. They pay more than her salary in fact. I wouldn't blame somebody who decided not to work under those conditions.
But look after your Cook! If it goes too far stop and think on your future!
That's funny. I met a fellow once who was part of a crew who worked on a remodel job in an office I worked in. I told him what a cool job he had, because he got to take home all kinds of stuff from work. He laughed and said, he was no longer allowed to "bring his work home." When his yard and his garage got so full of wood and metal material that his wife and kids could no longer move in these spaces, she told him all if it had to go or he would be sorry. So not wanting to lose his wife, he chucked everything out in a bin.
Subbed!
I'm much the same (although my wife objects to storing wood behind the sofa!)
I've been following your videos for a while now, didn't realise you were only a few miles down the road from us. (Not meaning to sound creepy stalker, lol)
Hiya Keith. Not sure if the same all over the UK, but in Scotland BnQ have a huge bay near the exit where you can uplift pieces for a charity donation.
I was amazed at the material that was in the bay on my last visit, I picked up a very clean piece of 1/2 inch ply approx 5x3 feet! Not sure why that is not for sale in a dedicated part of the store??
Been in there regularly for a while and there are a lot of great off cuts that apparently “would be binned”
Check it out
They also do this at b and q in chesterfield derbyshire.
I started visiting a wood working shop and they allow me to take all I want from the bin in the middle of the shop. Mahogany, Maple, Cherry, and a few other species. All free- various lengths to 2 ft.
Each to his own I guess: You are only really after wood, and I also collect wood for projects. However, I also am interested in electrical stuff so that microwave would be a good find for me, Contractors throw lots of old wiring out which I nab because you can sell that at the scrappy. And the chipboard T&G sheets I have used for cheap flooring in various locations.
Great stuff!
I have nice wood working tools like plainers and jointers. I never use old wood. I have lots of trees on my property that just fall over. I cut them up and make things for the lathe. This is how I get my walnut wood. If I don't harvest my own wood, I buy new wood. It is cheap in America.
Excellent video.
A bit of a coincidence for me here, I was out driving when I thought that I could possibly get some free wood, discarded at construction sites. And one more thing, I was cleaning up my garage today and came across a small section of a metallic curtain rod. And I thought that by cutting off the 90° ends, it looks like it might be usable as T-track.
You seem to live in salvage heaven, sir
Excellent video, so exciting watching you "skip dip" I do the same lol
Glad i'm not the only skip diver :-)
Great video!!!
Nice one Keith, that Reclamation Yard you go to has some really good stuff, pity there's not one like that near me.
TC, Barry (West Kirby, Wirral)
Nothing wrong with mine-sweeping the back lanes and skips. My other half can't't understand it! Occasionally I have to smuggle things into the flat as I know she'll get annoyed! haha
just been watching this video believe it or not i do the same thing look for free wood there is a fence gardening centre where i live i get the broken fence panels and repair one or 2 and replace the old fence panel with also used old panels to repair my shed when needed
things like old pine doors and cupboards i take cut down got nice pieces to rout or make things i puts it down to recycling cheap most times i dont break the bank balance
In the states we have resale stores that sell used things for charity. I have been able find allot items at a very very low cost.
+Larry Lauger great tip Larry. We have charity shops here too
I am here in Maine (US) and find that the Re-Stores here, (by Habitat) sell the donated materials only slightly off-price. If one finds EXACTLY what one is looking for one would save, otherwise ...keep looking.
doveoo5 The local Habitat store here wants a king's ransom for any and all building materials.
Last time I was in the local Habitat store, they had a chunk of beat-up walnut about 1"x4"x5" - 0.14 board feet - for $8. Not unusual & why they never hardly sell much of anything like this. =(
There was one or two bits you could have collected and trimmed like those bed posts that could be usefull later.
GREAT INFORMATION THANKS.
In the Heart of the Beast: We don't know what big box stores you have in the UK, so this comment maybe directed to your North American Cousins, but, we introduce ourselves to the managers of the big box stores in our area. They tend to recycle some of their palettes but some are discarded or are odd sizes. Try to get the brake down schedules for the stores, both big box and furniture stores. The furniture store generally don't want to waste their time in their recycling or repackaging. So they can offer up a package or even give a cart-away for their own installations. We don't attempt to under cut their installations so you have insure there is no threat from your work or requests. Pallets have become all the rage here so persistence pays off. At 72 when we first started working with pallet construction no one cared, all that was wanted was, "get rid of it quickly, okay."
I realize this is an older video, but most of my projects are all from salvaged material too.
Great tips! Thank you :-)
I have a stack of wood behind my couch too!
that door looked pretty good
Thanks for the ideas!
Hello, I really enjoy your videos. Cheers. Which reclamation yard do you use? I live in Suffolk and but I don’t know a yard around here?
Great job
Congratulations
Can't believe you didn't grab those pine bed posts! Stock that size isn't cheap by the ft!
+ROOKTABULA I would if I had more space but I'm swimming in pine right now
Rag 'n' Bone Brown Sounds painful. Try to avoid getting slivers in your willie
Hi, I use a lot of pallets and I was salivating over some of the wood you were not interested in. While I am on the subject what is wrong with pine I use lots of it although I am also happy to find any other type of wood. I have not tried reclamation yards as I live in the country and they are probably a long way away, although I am going to check my area now just in case.
+John Fithian-Franks Hi John, I would have taken more of it if I had space to store it, the problem is my workshop is very small and quite full. There's nothing wrong with pine, but it feels like I've used nothing but pine for years because it's easy to find in my area, so I enjoy using other woods more because the novelty hasn't worn off haha
nice video - information!
Facebook pages(xxx Town for sale) are also very good! often times there are people giving away free wood.
Go to your local woodworker or furniture maker. I have one in my area and he has a load of scrap hard wood of all different species. He just lets me have it for free. Otherwise it would have been thrown away and/or burned. Try your local furniture maker or woodworker to see if you can score some free wood like I did
Great video
Nice town!
Nice video, any idea what material the euro pallets are normally made from i would assume its a hard wood because those things take a hell of a beating?