Making a steel pallet.

[McMXi]

I think it was @jyoutz who gave me pallet envy and I also think he mentioned buying a steel pallet from Home Depot, and the question of how much would it cost to make one came up. My answer is very little if you have the material laying around. It took longer than I had hoped but I'm pleased with the result. My hands are really sore now after cutting, grinding, plasma, welding etc. and I guess they're not healed enough yet from surgery last month.

I had an outboard motor ship to me in a crate a couple of years ago, so I set about repurposing part of the crate this afternoon/evening. I ended up with a surprisingly light and incredibly solid pallet that I'm going to use under the 106 gallon JohnDow fuel tank once I've screwed some boards to the pallet. It's 48" wide and 33" deep as shown in the final photos. The depth was decided by Yamaha, and the wonky spacing of the three 2"x1"x.065" rectangular pieces of tubing that I added are also down to Yamaha's spacing of the two cross members.

Starting with the crate base.



Cut down to size



Using an arbor bit to drill out spot welds.

 

[McMXi]

I had some thin flat bar that I'd taken off the M-1078 that supported the canvas cover that didn't come with the truck. I used some of that on the underside of the pallet to add stiffness.

Reusing two base supports from the offcut piece once I drilled out the spots welds. The four base supports are about 14" on center.



All done, now to add some wood.



Top



Bottom

 

[jyoutz]

I had some thin flat bar that I'd taken off the M-1078 that supported the canvas cover that didn't come with the truck. I used some of that on the underside of the pallet to add stiffness.

Reusing two base supports from the offcut piece once I drilled out the spots welds. The four base supports are about 14" on center.

View attachment 172418

All done, now to add some wood.

View attachment 172415

Top

View attachment 172416

Bottom

View attachment 172417

Very nice work. Had I the materials laying around, I would have attempted making one. But it wouldn’t pay to buy steel to make one at current prices.

 

[Paul Allwood]

Looks great

 

[McMXi]

Very nice work. Had I the materials laying around, I would have attempted making one. But it wouldn’t pay to buy steel to make one at current prices.

I'm going to price up some 2"x1"x.065 rectangular tubing and see what it'd cost to make a decent pallet. It'd be a lot quicker making a pallet that way rather than all the repurposing that I had to do. There's some amount of satisfaction making something from what is basically scrap since it's "free", but it's way more work.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Very nice work sir!

I like “repurposing” as well, but in general you are correct about the “Time Vs. Money” thing.

 

[McMXi]

Very nice work. Had I the materials laying around, I would have attempted making one. But it wouldn’t pay to buy steel to make one at current prices.

I could buy enough 2"x1"x.065" tubing and some 2"x.125" flat bar to make a very nice pallet but it would be about $150 in materials per pallet. Using 1"x1" tubing and flat bar that price would be almost half. I think I'm going to make up another pallet using new stock and see how it goes. Wood pallets don't last well in my world.

 

[McMXi]

I got the pallet finished today ... maybe. I added two pieces of 3/4" pressure treated plywood to the top, attached with eight 1/4-20 machine screws through the 2"x1" cross members, and painted the worst spots with cold galvanizing. The pallet used to be easy to pick up but not so much now. Since the steel was "free" I've only spent $80 or so on a sheet of plywood, some screws and some paint.

I was trying to make the pallet generic enough to use for other things if needed, but really it'll probably stay under the 106 gallon fuel storage tank. Maybe some half chain links welded to the pallet for straps or some strips of 3/4" plywood around the "feet" to locate the tank. Perhaps I'll revisit it after I've loaded it into a trailer or the bed of my truck a few times.

 

[McMXi]

The pallet works well and it's so much easier to pick up a steel pallet without having the forks catching on pieces of wood preparing to fall off. I like the low profile of the flat bar on the underside of the pallet. Again, nothing to catch on. The fuel tank is back in the garage where it belongs.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Looks very nice sir!

The only thing I might think about, is maybe/possibly taking one of those plywood pieces and putting it on the bottom instead?

(To prevent scratching the bed/liner of your pick up)