Simple things often end up the most beloved. This was the most obvious thing in the world: Make a pallet that small parts don’t fall off.
It sounds and looks simple, and it is, but it still took about two hours to build, and required more carpentry skill than you might imagine. I had to fill in the gaps between the pallet floorboards, which was tricky because they weren’t consistent, indeed all the dimensions were too rough to measure precisely, so had to be marked without measuring. Twisted boards, not pure right angles. The usual “reality contains a surprising amount of detail” slow-downs. Cutting out all eight holes around the base for forklift tines took time. In addition to my portable 18V battery tools, I had a table saw, which made the build a lot faster and easier.
Design considerations:
-make the floor tight enough that something like a lag bolt won’t fall through.
-make the sides high and strong enough that it can be loaded on a trailer, strapped down, and driven around with heavy metal contents inside secure.
-use only lumber & pallets available in the yard
-make it tough enough to stand up to long-term forklift use. (Might add metal reinforcing brackets to the corners.)
Details:
-the sides are softwood, probably pine or spruce. About 1” thick, 10” high.
-I made the longer sides overhang a bit, to discourage splitting at the screw heads
-I pre-drilled the screw holes there also to discourage splitting
-the floorboards that fill in the gaps are red oak, from other pallet/scrap wood