First step is to find an unattended pile of pallets… Check!

Second step is to drive over enough speed bumps to disassemble the pallets… Check!

The pallets slats are first sorted out by thickness prior to running them through the thickness planner, this way I can start with the thicker slats and smooth down both sides working down to the medium and thinner slats until each side of each slat is smooth.

Got a pretty stellar load of pallets this time with lots of oak and some other cool hardwoods like ash and hickory, which I don’t find too often.

Then a second round of sorting can occur, looking for any with ends that look too chewed up to salvage which are then chopped off on the miter saw.

Then a third sorting can occur, looking for any edges that are too chewed up to salvage and these are cut off on the table saw.

Then a fourth and final sorting can occur, grouping the slats in bundles that are just over 2.5″ tall and with similar width slats.

I set up 3 pipe clamps on the bench to set the slats on for the 1st glue-up. Each bundle is marked off with a small strip of blue tape to remind myself not to apply glue to the seam between each bundle.

Lots of glue is applied… Each slat gets a liberal coating of glue with my spreader glue bottle before I move onto the next one and then all of them are clamped tightly together…

Lots of clamps!! Took 3 glue-ups so I could keep the similar width slats together and this worked out nicely.

I leave the clamps on overnight while the glue dries and then remove the clamps the next morning. The grungy edge of the glue-up is cut off first and then I cut a bunch of random width slices off of each bundle of pallet slats to create some cool striped slats.

The ends of each slat is cut square on the miter saw and then I inspect the haul, this range of species in the pallets creates some really impressive color combos!

Then it’s the same process as before, groups of slats are combined until they are all just slightly more than 2.5″ and each is designated with a strip of blue tape. Then again, 20 gallons of glue are applied to every surface before applying the clamps.

Lots. Of. Clamps.
Then one more for good measure.

This glue-up is set to dry for the night and then each one of the Pallet Sticks™ is cleaned up and cut down to a 2.5″x2.5″ square on the table saw.

Then the end of each stick is squared up on the miter saw. I applied some oil to one because I was too impatient to checkout the color… this is going to be good!

My table saw blade is tilted over to 45° so I can cut the corners off of each of the sticks and bring them down to octagon shapes so I have much less material to remove when I turn them down to a circular shape.

Now the turning blanks are ready to go! I tried turning one set from one of these large “dowels” just between centers on the lathe, but the vibrations were excessive in the middle of the stick and I found that I wasn’t really saving much time, if any. So I decided to go another route to turn them down to shape.

I decided to separate all of the sticks into separate turning blanks for each cup and attach them to the screw chuck in the lathe instead. Each one is cut down to 3″ in length to give me a 2.5″ tall shot glass with a little bit of room to hold it on the lathe.

I ended up with about 140 of these, which should be just enough once 40 of them explode or fly off the lathe… but I need a new computer wallpaper anyway 🙂

Each one of these blanks has a 3/8″ hole drilled in the center of it. This has 3 purposes really — a mounting location for the screw chuck, a starter hole for hollowing out the cups, and I drill to a specific depth so it set the depth of the cup later when I’m hollowing it out.

Now the turning can start! It all starts by mounting the screw chuck on the lathe and then I hold the blank against it with the hole lined up and carefully start the lathe to let the piece thread onto the screw.

First, I bring it down round. This is super easy since I already knocked all of the corners off so the cutting is a lot less aggressive and it shapes up quick.

You’ll see this plywood template a couple of times in this process. I first use it to mark the length of piece I need for the height of the shot glass — one edge of it is marked with this dimension so I can transfer it to the piece.

I use my parting tool to bring down the end of the piece to a roughly 3/4″ tenon where I just marked it. This tenon will later be used to mount the cup while I hollow it out after I flip it around.

You can see the template at use again here. Each side of the piece of plywood is notched out to exactly the diameter of the top of the cup and the bottom of the cup. This way I don’t have to fiddle around with calipers and they’ll sometimes lose their dimensions, so this piece of plywood stays exactly where it is for all 100 cups.

Then to finish shaping it, it’s just a matter of connecting the 2 ends together with a straight line.

They are on their pretty tight after all the force from turning them down to diameter, so I use my chuck key with the handle resting against the bed of the lathe to lock it in place while I manhandle the wood and unscrew it from the threads.

So, just rinse and repeat x140!
Only lost a couple of them in the first round of turning so we’re off to a good start.

Now I replace the jaws in my chuck with my small jaws so I can clamp each one of these in place with the small tenon that I turned down earlier. I clamp them down as tight as I can because turning into end grain to hollow these out is going to take a lot of force.

Check out that concentration! The wall thickness is achieved just by eye, and after over 100 of them you get it dialed in pretty good and save a lot of time not fussing with calipers or measuring tools.

I use a round carbide cutting tool to hollow these out because it stays nice and sharp and cuts pretty well against the hard end grain. I just work my way out from the center center hole that I drilled earlier until I have both a 1/4″ wall thickness and I reach the depth of the drilled hole.

So, just rinse and repeat x137ish!
Lost almost a dozen this round due to blowouts from weak grain or defects (knots/nail holes) in the wood.

With everything turned down to size, it’s just a matter of smoothing them down by sanding through the grits. This brings the inside and outside surfaces down smooth, but also allows me to add a slight round-over to the inside and outside of the lip of the “glass”.

If not before, it’s starting to get a little repetitive now. Not too bad when you have some help though…

With everything shaped and sanded down smooth I can now add Carolina’s logo with a branding iron. I heat it up with a MAP gas torch and reheat every few brands. Ohhhh fire 😮

These are pretty tricky, but after a few you can get things dialed in. With the rounded shape, I need to rock the branding iron back and forth to make sure all of the letters are burned into the wood visibly and consistently.

I use Waterlox Original to seal up and finish the shot glasses. This finish is both waterproof and food safe once cured, so it will seal everything up nicely and give it a slight shine while bring out the amazing natural color of the wood.

Just the wipe-on of the finish makes it all worth it, the grain is amazing!

The finish is poured into a disposable plastic cup (the bottom of a water bottle) and I use a soft rag to apply the finish to the inside and outside of the cup while the lathe is spinning on it’s lowest setting.

After all of the cups have finish on them, I let them sit for about 6 hours for the finish to cure and then hit them with some 400 grit sandpaper to knock down any fuzz left on the cups. Before applying a second coat of finish.

With 2 coats of finish applied and dry, I mount them all back on the lathe with some room between the bottom of the cup and the chuck jaws and use my parting tool to cut off the tenons.

You can see these guys all still have a slight nub left in the center of them so they need to be flattened down.

I use my bench-top belt sander to bring the surface all down flush and flat.

Now with the shaping completely done I can finish the bottom surface too. I apply 2 more coats of Waterlox to all surfaces of all of the cups.

Evolution from turning blank to finished shot glass! You couldn’t achieve that finished look with just a log, plus with the glue-up process I did each one is completely unique!