Pallets are NOT Worth It!

As I know many people have done at some point, I recently dragged some pallets home.  I was out on an errand that turned out to be a job site and there were five rather nice looking pallets in the dumpster.  With permission, I tossed the pallets into my truck for the trip home.  Today I decided I really should pull those pallets out of the truck so I hauled them into the shop.  I didn't want them just cluttering up the place so I set to breaking them down.  This is where I soon realized that they are just not worth it.

I will say that on occasion a person can snag pallets that are made from some exotic hard wood and for that I'd go the extra mile but for commonly available woods, there is no savings.  I figure it cost me $5 to $10 per pallet to get them to the place where the lumber can be used.  The problem now is two fold.  I now have probably $50 worth of effort into a pile of short, thin, scrappy lumber that has nail holes in it and I can't even run it through a saw or planer because there's so much grit and debris on it.  The only thing I can do with it is sand and glue it...I can't even cut it without incurring even more cost in blades and knives.

I guess if I were heating my shop with a wood stove, there might be some value in pallets as a heating fuel but even then, you get so little material out of a pallet that they are still a lot of work.  I would rather spend that time building things that will make me money.

For the most part, pallets are just not worth it.  Stick to patronizing your local lumber yard...they are always there when you need something and their lumber is way nicer than any old pallets will ever be.

Dominos???

While working in the shop today I was visited by a young neighbour who is taking a woodworking class in high school.  Since I have no formal education in the subject, and I am genuinely interested in what he has learned, I was asking him about his big project...he built a cabinet of sorts...I haven't seen it so I'm not certain what it is.  While asking about the details of how he constructed the cabinet I asked him what type of joinery he used.  He told me he used Dominos.  I was mortified.

I'm sure the casual reader won't know what a "Domino" is, in the woodworking context, so I'll describe it at a high level.  Basically it's a very easy and accurate way to make woodworking joints in furniture and cabinetry...the down side is, you need over $1000 worth of equipment to do it.  My objection to the use of a Domino in scholastic joinery is that it doesn't teach the student anything at all.  I asked the young man, "How long did it take you to learn how to use Dominos?" and his reply was, "About ten seconds!"  While this reply does speak well for the Festool Domino system of joinery, it also shows that the inclusion of this option in the learning process is of no value to the student whatsoever.  I asked him if he had ever chopped a mortise with a mallet and chisel or cut a tenon with a tenon saw...he had no idea how to do those things.  He chuckled at my objection to the whole Domino thing so we did have some fun with the issue.

In short, I feel that to learn anything, a person should start by looking at the foundations and fundamentals of it.  If we only know how to use the technology then we are missing 99% of the depth of the subject.

Would I ever use Dominos?  I would certainly use Dominos but only under two conditions.  1. If I were working in a production environment where time is money and 2. I could justify the $1000 or more to get into the Domino system.

Dominos...pfft!