Discerning pallets: Keepsake box

Believe it or not, I find a lot of my best figured wood in used shipping pallets. Highly figured lumber often grades low because it can be a nuisance to commercial wood shops. That’s why some of the most interesting lumber is relegated to the pallet pile. In addition to maple, I often find pallets made from oak, ash and even walnut. I worked with curly soft maple recovered from a pallet used to ship rolled steel when I made this keepsake box. The small size of this project means it is well suited for this reclaimed material, allowing me to get the most out of the limited length of usable lumber that can be gleaned from a pallet.

Download the pallet keepsake box plans here!

Materials:

Begin by jointing and planing your lumber down to 3⁄4" thick, then rip it to 33⁄8" wide. Cut out the box sides, front and back pieces with 45º mitres on all ends. 

Now it’s time to prepare a dado for the hardboard box bottom. Install a 1⁄8"-wide blade in your tablesaw and raise it 1⁄4" above the table. Cut a 1⁄8"-wide x 1⁄4"-deep dado, 3⁄16" up from the bottom edge on the inside face of each piece. The box top is held in a similar way, except it’s 1⁄4"-thick. Make the wider dado you’ll need here by overlapping two 1⁄8"-wide cuts on each piece. I bookmatched a board to make a 7" x 12"  top panel, then planed it down to 1⁄4" thick before cutting the wood to length and width.

Assembly comes next. Put a bead of glue into the dados for the bottom panel and apply more glue to the faces of the mitres. (Note: do not apply glue to the dados for the top panel, which is a solid-wood part and needs to expand and contract with seasonal changes in humidity.) Insert the top and bottom panels, then bring the mitres together and clamp everything tight until the glue is completely dry.