Q&A with Roger Break

Roger Break recently stopped in during one of our video shoots. It was very interesting to talk to him about his woodworking. He’s got a typical garage shop, and lots of his woodworking entails working with pallet wood. Knowing that a lot of people are interested in including pallets in their woodworking projects, we took advantage of Roger’s experience.

Pallets to projects

One of the problems with working with pallet wood is disassembling the pallets. Extracting viable material can be challenging. Pry bar, circular saw, or jig saw; what’s the best choice? Roger was willing to share what he has learned so we can all benefit from it. We also learned about the variety of species that you get when working with pallet wood.

And then what?

Once the pallet has been taken apart, how do you process the material? Lots of woodworkers wonder about using a planer vs jointer on rough sawn wood, like pallet wood. Although the machines are similar, they’re not identical. When cleaning up your pallet wood, or any wood that you’ll use for your woodworking projects, it’s important to understand which operations you should use a jointer for, and which you should use a planer for.

Stay safe

A planer provides a great way to clean up surfaces, but can be a tricky machine to use. Make sure that you have a good understanding of planer safety before you use your planer. This will help ensure you get the most out of your machine.