A Better Pallet Coaster

I can’t leave anything alone… :roll_eyes:
I redesigned the pallet coaster and ran it in some cherry PG ply.

(Much nicer looking, a lifetime quicker to print cause there’s no engraving needed, and easier to glue than the popsicle sticks.)

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Those are SLICK!

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Now you just need to make a small forklift to bring your drinks from one place to another.

They look awesome!

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If you’d like to make it look a bit more like a pallet, you could only put three cross-slats on the ‘bottom’ side, like this:

Pallets will pretty much always have a more open bottom side to allow for various pallet jack ratcheting-lift mechanisms to reach the floor.

Otherwise they look awesome, and I can’t wait until the day I can make some myself. =)

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Huh! I looked at a few from the Houston warehouse that hubs had home for something or other and sitting in the driveway. I could have sworn those things had full slats top and bottom.

They might have left a couple of slats off the bottom though - didn’t look that closely. (I know it had more than 3 underneath though.

It’s an easy enough fix in the design. :smile:

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Oh, totally. And in the end it’d save you time and material, too. =)

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Cute, cute, cute! I just love miniature things.

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There are actually different styles of Pallets. There are some that DO have full slats on top and bottom. But the more common ones only have the three slats on the bottom.

Btw, Frugal tip: If you want a bunch of decent wood and are willing to work a little bit to get it, Pallets are perfect to cut apart (circular saw on either side of the main support beams and you’ve got a bunch of 4"x1" pieces of wood), I’ve gotten oak, mahogany, maple, cherry, but mostly pine from pallets.

If you want decent pieces of exotic wood for free, go to the lumber liquidators or other flooring company (large company) and ask for scraps. Their “drying sticks” are typically made out of the same wood as the flooring that they sell (matching density with the stock) and when the flooring is gone, the sticks are usually just tossed out. If you are lucky, sometimes they will even give you scrap flooring cutoffs that can be 4+ feet in length.

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Some do some don’t. Some are metal, some are plastic.

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Those are really nice looking. I agree, they look nicer. How much longer would the print take if you left a little connection between the slats that matches up with the perpendicular pieces? This would make it where you only glue the perpendicular pieces (3 of them) to the two large pieces. Did that make sense at all?

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Chuckle! Okay, great…I’m not losing my mind. (The things that generally get moved around in our warehouses tend to be extremely heavy (galvanized pipe, porcelain, boxes of fittings, appliances, etc.) - maybe they have to have the extra stability of the full slats.

Ours are all cheapo pressure treated pine though - and very splinter loaded. Not worth messing with.

Great tip on the flooring stores though…will have to check that out. :grinning:

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That’s how it works. Each of those slats sits in a little slot in the cross beams. (Makes it easy to align them and glue them up.) :slightly_smiling_face:

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Forklift destined ones tend to be full bottoms to support extra weight (that requires the forklift). Pallet jack destined ones have the reduced bottom slat design so the lifting mechanism under the tongues can descend through the pallet onto the floor to do the lift.

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Well that’s the answer then - we do use forklifts in the warehouses. (Learning something new every day.) :grin:

So I can easily create the other style too, if someone prefers that kind. Literally a couple of clicks to take out some slots and remove a slat or two.

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Beautiful! Bad time to be out of likes. :heart::heartbeat::heart_eyes::sparkling_heart:

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I love these! As usual, your work is pretty amazing!

Question though. I get the novelty of the pallet coaster, but doesn’t the condensation from the cup drip down to the table through the slats?

Maybe if you offset the slats on the opposite side it would catch some of the condensation?

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we were once referbing an old building into a restaurant and a shipment of kitchen stuff came in on what looked like purple heart wood! We used it as inlay in the hardwood floor, looks sharp!

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Glowforge - it’s the new Google.

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Oh well, if you’re looking for logic:rofl:

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If the slats are close enough together I expect there wouldn’t be room for a drop to form and it would soak into the wood instead. Unless, of course, the wood is sealed.