*This post contains Home Depot affiliate links. All opinions are 100%mine.
Let’s face it, some pallet wood is super rough and full of splinters. Sanding pallet wood is one of my least favorite steps when working with pallet wood.
Sanding is important when using pallet wood for a project. Unless of course, the look you desire is very rustic. I’m a huge fan of the rustic style, but I gently sand any pallet wood for projects that will ultimately be handled.
Who wants to end up with a splinter in their hand?
I recommend a palm sander. They’re lightweight, easy to control and inexpensive.
Home Depot has a wonderful selection of different sized sandpaper sheets to any palm sander.
My palm sander uses the 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 sheets in the two middle rows. As you can see, they’re reasonably priced.
The sandpaper sheets come in coarse, medium and fine grit ranging in various degrees. The higher the number, the rougher the sandpaper.
When working with rough and splintery pallet wood, I use the higher grit papers first. Then, I move on to a medium grit and then finish up with fine grit to polish the wood.
The splinters on the end of the board were left by my reciprocating saw. They’re easily removed using a palm sander.
Simply, strap in a sheet of sandpaper and sand away those imperfections.
Look, the edges are clean and splinter-free. You can see a huge difference in texture and color on both of the boards. The pallet wood cleaned up nicely in a matter of seconds.
I used the coarse grit sandpaper to remove the splinters on both boards above.
It doesn’t take a lot of sanding to get rid of the imperfections. Rough pallet wood can be turned into a smooth workable canvas.
So if you’re worried about splinters and the roughness of pallet wood, don’t be. It’s easily fixed.
In no time, you can turn free wood into something beautiful.
After today, I’m hoping you can see the beauty hiding behind the splinters.
Do you sand wood for your pallet projects? What’s your go to sanding supplies?
Thanks for stopping by today.
If you’ve missed any of the 31 Days Working with Pallets you can read them by visiting the Working with Pallets landing page.
Hope to see you tomorrow.
