Pallets on the Playa

[peacockdreams]

Greetings -

I'm wondering if anyone will have wooden shipping pallets to spare upon arrival on the Playa. We are contemplating using pallets for seating and other structures in our theme camp. I don't know if this would be a possibility or a logistical nightmare. I was thinking we could bring the bare minimum we need and the rest would be donations from other camps. Do you guys think this would work? Are there enough pallets coming to the playa for this to work? (Our theme camp's first event happens on Tuesday day if that makes a difference). I'd like to see what we could rustle up ahead of time and get some commitments from other participants so we can plan.

Any suggestions, advice or help would be much appreciated!

We are looking for pallets that have been used to get other camps' stuff on site for a few reasons:

1) We want to use what your camp may want to get rid of. Just bein' eco-consicous here.
2) We don't have a lot of room for pallets in our vehicles and we want to travel as light as possible.
3) We don't want to drive something from Seattle to BRC if we can find it on site. Again, the hippy in me wants to be as eco-minded as possible.

We plan on burning our pallets at the end of the festival to avoid having to drive them back to Seattle plus pallet bonfires are just plain awesome. I suppose that an alternative would be to give pallets to those that want them at the end of the week, but I'm a little leery of the logistics of such a thing. (We all know Burners NEVER flake. /sarcasm) Our last event for our camp will be over on Wednesday night so folks would have to clam them by Thursday or they'd be burned.

Tell me what you're thinking! Am I nuts for hoping this might work?

- Monica

[Jackass]

I think you may have to bring your own pallets. If someone paid for and then hauled them out there, they might want them back. (They're worth money)

[peacockdreams]

Around here (in Seattle) people are itching to get rid of them. You can hardly give them away.

[theCryptofishist]

I'm not convinced of the "eco"-ness of burning something that might have insecticides or paint or other chemical nastiness on or in it.

[Bob]

Bullshit.

Back to the original topic -- please don't pester DPW about this unless you have a contact in DPW. Pallets get saved and used for all kinds of infrastructure crap, and the only ones they might give away would be pretty broken and splintery.

[motskyroonmatick]

Maybe make something reusable and then use it again next year.

[Eric]

We are contemplating using pallets for seating and other structures in our theme camp.

No one has seemed to address this part. Pallets for seating? Some might be fine, but that can be some real crap wood (splinters, knot-holes, rough edges). You couldn't pay me to plan on using those for anything I would actually need in camp without seeing them. Actually, from the ones we used to get daily in my old companies shipping department, you couldn't pay me to use them at all.

YMMV.

[peacockdreams]

Bob - No one said anything about bugging DPW.

theCryptofishist - You make a good point. Didn't think about that. I bet they are treated. If so, burning them isn't a good idea. I'll have to do some research. Thanks for bringing that up!

Some of the pallets you can pick up for free around here are quite nice - new, un-weathered wood. Splinters may be an issue for some, but with all the ones to choose from here, we can afford to get the nicest ones and bring those ourselves. We might even sand them a bit. For the pallets we hoped to acquire on site we were thinking of using some old 'playa carpets' to cover the ones that would be problematic. Either that or we were thinking sheets of plywood nailed over the tops would suffice. Some of the seating projects we're thinking of doing involve stacking pallets so the crappiest ones could be put on the bottom. Of course we'd have to hope we got a lot of the same size which we thought might be an issue.

[tamarakay]

Check out http://www.playatech.com/index.php
Easy to follow plans. Payment is a donation to black rock arts so everyone is a winner.

[tamarakay]

Plus they come apart, go together so easily. The love seats fit in the trunk of my malibu.

[Drawingablank]

Getting the same size shouldn't be an issue. I've been out of the trucking industry for quite a while but if I recall correctly a standard pallet is 48 x 40 inches. That size is optimal for filling trucks to capacity and most palletized warehouses are devoted to the standard size.

The smoothness will likely be more of an issue. Oak pallets are generally poorly planed and very splintery. Southern yellow pine pallets tend to be smoother, but have a resiny feel unless varnished. Poplar pallets are sometimes very smooth, but none too common.

Generally pallets are not normally chemically treated, however that does not take into account anything that may have spilled on them.

Try to choose pallets that have been nailed as they are nore sturdy than those which have been stapled together.

There is another type which may be of interest although harder to come by - - They are one piece molded in a particle board type material. Having no nails they are pretty rigid and if in good shape will be rough to the touch, but not splintery.

The main drawback to using pallets is probably going to be the transporting all that weight - a well made pallet weighs approximately 50 pounds.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Check out http://www.playatech.com/index.php
Easy to follow plans. Payment is a donation to black rock arts so everyone is a winner.

That's brilliant, TK! Thanks for the link...

[Bob]

On top of Eric's and Drawing's suggestions, because pallets are generally made using wanes and other low-grade lumber, the wood tends to warp, split, and come loose all the more in the desert climate compared to standard lumber, which has its own warping problems. And as Jackass implies, if you take the better ones from your local warehouse district, you're taking money out of somebody's pocket.

I'd go with painter's plank sitting on makeshift frames, just because they're already designed for the average ass. Curious whether there really are as many orphan pallets on the playa as you imagine, though.

[peacockdreams]

Good info, you guys. Thank you!

It's beginning to look to me like other options might be better for what we want to do. I'll continue to do some research and see how it goes. If I stumble across anything brilliant I'll let you know.

I'll definitely be checking out the Playatech link so graciously provided. Looks interesting.

[Jackass]

If you're looking to make seating and tables then you're probably better off building it from real lumber, unless you already had a surplus of pallets in the desert waiting for you. Four pallets stacked up to make a table will be alot of weight vs. a regular table or even a heavy duty one you build yourself (think dancing on table). You won't be able to sit on a pallet very long either unless you put upholstery or plywood over it, at this point you will be better off to just bring a couch or build bench seating out of virgin material without the splinters, knots, splitting and nails/staples, inhibiting your creativity. The wood on the pallets can be hard as a rock, have fun trying to drive nails into some of those boards. Just my.02

[Savannah]

Hi Peacockdreams. A word about bonfires: you will need a burn platform. There are public ones, or apparently you can build one.

Never burn directly on the playa! Fires built on the playa surface create a burn scar or patch of discolored, hardened playa sediment that, unaided, take years to fully recover. The process of manually restoring them requires many hours of picking out residue by hand (mainly shattered bottles, nails and screws), breaking up the fire-hardened layer and returning the following year (after the rainy season) for further treatment. There are many dozens of these from past years events that we are still working on; it is our goal to not make any new ones!

The ash and soot, which may be dispersed by the wind or leached by water, will contain toxic contaminants. These toxins will then be leached from any ash remaining at the site. This could lead to the contamination of surface water or ground water, and unquestionably to soil contamination. To burn without leaving ashes or a burn scar, fires must be elevated, staked down, attended and cleaned up.

More here, including a link about Burn platforms.
http://www.burningman.com/environment/r ... rning.html

[SaintTemple]

I am with Eric on the pallets are a bad idea unless you can afford check pallets ( the blue heavy duty things). Otherwise you got splinters , rusty nails and they fall apart.

Try 5 gallon buckets upside down about 3 feet apart with 2x8 on top they work pretty good for bench seating and are pretty cheap and stored take up a lot less space.