Bonsai shelf out of pallets

[Vance Wood]

I love what you did with that!!

I've built a couple tables/benches and am about to build yet another, I have a bucket of paint that I intend to tint darker to put on as a charcoal-ish color *but* I heard about this idea of burning to protect it (haven't verified if it actually protects, though it certainly looks cool!), a friend mentioned it and after going online I found it's 'shou sugi ban', am very interested in anything anyone knows about how well this preserves wood! I'm about to build my largest, nicest bench and, instead of painting everything a uniform color, I'd *much* prefer the look of it if I power-washed and then burned it (I've done a trial-section with my generic propane torch, it came out awesome the wood just takes to this treatment real well!), I'm just unsure how well it protects/preserves/'weatherizes' the wood relative to paints...

Most pallets are made of Sweet Gum, these seem to be like Doug Fir or Southern Yellow Pine.

 

[GGB]

huh sweet gum? too cool, last time I messed around with pallets I remember the wood being incredibly strong and hard to rip apart

 

[Vance Wood]

huh sweet gum? too cool, last time I messed around with pallets I remember the wood being incredibly strong and hard to rip apart

Sweet gum is hard but it rots quickly that's why the fire treatment or some sort of treatment will add years to its life.

 

[M. Frary]

Most pallets are made of Sweet Gum, these seem to be like Doug Fir or Southern Yellow Pine.

Here a lot are made of poplar. You can find some oak ones at times.

 

[mwar15]

It was less than one of those small green camping propane tanks

Yknow I didn't even consider that, wow I'm definitely over-loading myself to miss something so obvious!! Honestly, with how good I think the burnishing can come out, even if it's not as durable a finish I'd still prefer it aesthetically, now I'm in a pickle because I've already got the paint to my 3 tables/benches with but would prefer to burnish, my worry is just how much propane you needed to use? Like for your first picture in the thread, how much propane did you need to burnish that whole thing? I did a small support beam to test it out, I loved how it came out, but the tip of the torch is so small that it doesn't cover much area so I can only imagine how many cans of propane I'd need to burnish >20' of benching! FWIW I'd been using (and would continue to if it's not unwise) the generic blue-bottle propane, the type that comes with a flow nozzle (I don't know if that's something that you can get refilled or if it's disposable, disposable is how I've always treated them ;P )


Such an incredible transformation of a pallet, great job!!!

 

[BigBen]

Nice work mwar15, well done!

 

[Bonsai901]

I am so glad I found this post.
I am getting ready to build a somewhat temporary bench out of pallet wood. However, most things I do "temporarily" usually end up outstaying their usefulness. The yakisugi will hopefully keep it from collapsing in a few years because I forgot to get around to making good ones.

 

[SU2]

I am so glad I found this post.
I am getting ready to build a somewhat temporary bench out of pallet wood. However, most things I do "temporarily" usually end up outstaying their usefulness. The yakisugi will hopefully keep it from collapsing in a few years because I forgot to get around to making good ones.

I'd definitely be as mindful as possible about my joints/connections, if doing a 'temporary' build like this my guess is that, in a few years, the collapse won't come from the wood going bad all over but rather from your joints (screwed-together wood) going bad. I always make sure to sink my screws' heads ~1mm into the wood so I can go back and caulk the holes, I also caulk the upper & side edges of joints (but not the bottoms, you want somewhere it can 'breathe'!) to extend lifespan:




[gotta love that the pic I took has a screw whose head wasn't sunk lol! Ideally all screw-heads are recessed though, but whether they are or aren't it's good to caulk them and your joints, these things are constantly getting soaked!]