Building Your Own Wooden Pallets: A Guide

Wooden pallets are an integral part of the supply chain, providing a stable base that allows goods to be moved via forklift with ease.

Though pallets are traditionally a staple when it comes to shipping large items, they have also become a bit of a holy grail in the DIY up-cycled décor cult over the past decade.

If you’re looking to send some large or bulky items, but you don’t have a pallet lying around, don’t fear! We’ll talk you through building a wooden pallet that is both sturdy enough to transport goods or impressive enough to be used as the centrepiece of your next DIY project.

At ABC Crates, we are Western Australia’s most trusted supplier of high-quality shipping and packaging materials, so we know a thing or two about building wooden pallets!

Getting Started

For our example, we will use a 32-inch (81.28cm) square, 5-inch (12.7cm) tall pallet. Depending on what your end goal is for the wooden pallet, you can always make it larger or smaller.

Tools and Materials

• Three standard 8-foot framing studs (“2x4s”)
• A box of 2-inch nails
• Hammer
• A hand saw, circular saw or mitre saw that can cut 2x4s
• Band saw

Step by Step

• Cut each of the 2x4s into three equal pieces – this will give you nine pieces of wood around 32 inches each.
• To make the slats for your pallet, take six of the nine pieces of wood and use a band saw to cut them in half along the width of each piece so they aren’t as thick. Pro Tip: Use a pencil to mark the centre line to make the cut easier
• Create the middle support pieces, known as stringers, by using the left over three thick pieces of wood. Use a measuring tape to evenly space these pieces of wood.
• Fasten your first “slat” with two 2-inch nails to the far left side of the three stringers. This side of your pallet will be the bottom side.
• Fasten another two slats to the bottom of your pallet, evenly spaced, along the middle and right side.
• Flip your almost-pallet over and, facing the same way as the slats on the bottom, fasten your first slat to the top side of your pallet.
• From here, you can either evenly space the top slats out along your stringers with a gap in between each slat, or you can have the slats side-by-side along the stringers so that there is no gap in between.

Voila, now you have your very own pallet! Now you don’t have to beg your local shopping centre or delivery driver for a spare pallet – you can just build more and more.

Benefits of Pallets in Shipping

With your own wooden pallet, you can now enjoy the benefits of reduced loading and unloading time, improved safety and logistics & reduced costs, all while keeping your precious packages undamaged in the shipping process.

For all your other shipping needs, from custom-built boxes to crates in Western Australia, ABC Crates is the obvious choice. We have over 17 years of experience in creating quality products, providing personalised customer care, and delivering on our projects in a timely manner.

Contact the team at ABC Crates today to find out how we can create effective shipping and packaging solutions for you or your business.