Free Wood for Workbench

[Eddie_T]

Steel roofing is shipped banded to pallets. To protect the roofing from the banding rough cut wood strips are used. They are heavy and dense and might be good for building a workbench or something. I considered using them to make a butcher block top for a kitchen island but decided to use Formica. The strips measure about 2 1/4" x 2 3/8" x 40" with a lengthwise routed groove for the band. I don't have room for a workbench or I might give it a go. If a friend hadn't totaled my Toyota 22re I might be tempted to build a workbench for sale using the strips both for frame and top.

 

[bud16415]

I have used a bunch of the straps you talk about as I had a couple steel roof jobs done by the Amish and they do nice work but don’t have anyway to haul off the leftovers. The ones I had were nice enough chunks of wood. I wanted my air compressor up off the floor and built a heavy duty stand for it out of that stuff.



The trouble with all this shipping wood is it is cut from the hart wood when making hardwood lumber and it normally is just air-dried so not real stable.

 

[Eddie_T]

I took an interest in This End Up furniture and built several end tables from Yamaha motorcycle crates. The wood was band sawed and not perfectly square but worked fine for my purpose. I used the tables (and built a rustic coffee table) for a cabin I rented for my last job assignment in MD hunt country. I didn't joint the slats, I just pushed them together as best I could and nailed with small nails.

Here's a stool I made to sit on in the kitchen in MD and later cut down for patio use. It doesn't have the thin slats in it but has the other two sizes of crate wood. I also used crate wood for computer, scanner and printer stands back when PCs were towers with all that cable mess behind them. Oh, I found a pic from another post with what's left of an end table after deck use.

 

[Eddie_T]

I just don't know how to market trash. I found similar on Etsy from $296 to $312. Maybe if my friend ever gets her shop I can do some consignment.