Hey guy's I promised to post these a long time ago so I apologize for the wait. Bare with me I type more than I talk.
After a while back cutting my pre purchased pallets down I realized that I could make my own Pallet's of the same quality just as easy for a fraction of the cost. I hope I don't get spanked for this but don't worry Suppliers I still need to buy Mounting Brackets!
Here was my Material list: (All from Lowes)
1 Sheet of MDF
1 can of Contact Cement
One Sheet of Laminate
Tools Needed:
• Junk Brush to apply Cement with
• Table or Skill Saw (table recommended)
• Orbital Sander & some hand sand paper. 80-120 grit
• Jig Saw
• Router = optional (I sanded all my edges & was much happier with the results)
• T-Square
• Laminate cutting Knife
• Tape Measure & Pencil
• Hammer & cloth or a $20 Laminate roller
The First thing I did before I went to Lowes was figure out the size I wanted my Pallet's & figured out how to get the most out of a 8' Sheet (the smaller pre cut sheets are more expensive if you need to buy so many that a full 8' sheet will do).
So I figured the longest I wanted my pallets was 30" & with that number I could get an 8' sheet cut into Three 32" x 4' pieces with their handy station right there:
*I wanted to get 8 pallets total (4- 20"w x 30"L & 4- 16"w x 30"L) but fell one short & was only able to get 3 of the 20"w ones.
So the benefit to having this guy cut the 8' sheets into the Three 32" pieces for me was to be able to put them inside my SUV, and ultimately saved me a step!
*The Laminate you can roll it up & tape or tie it into a cylinder for easy tow.
After getting everything home here's how It went:
(Pics are taken with my iPhone so sorry for the amateur quality)
1. Using the Laminate Knife & T-Square I scored & cut my Laminate to fit my 32" x 4' pieces of MDF.
2. Brushed on the contact cement to the backs of both surfaces (MDF & Laminate):
Let everything dry & set up for the amount of time explained on the back of the can (I think it was like 2 hours because of the humidity back in the summer)
3. (No Pic) Definitely take a hand on applying the laminate to the MDF it's a one shot deal that 2 people make a lot easier than trying to be a hot shot. I only worried about flushing one side with the MDF which is why I didn't cut anything to exact sizes yet. It will be ripped on the table saw to actual size later.
4. Once your Laminate is applied to the MDF either roll it with a laminate roller or take a cloth & a hammer and lightly tap it all over to assure no air pockets are underlying the sheet. This also gets the cement on both products to really bond to one another.
5. They say to let it set up over night but I'm impatient & proceeded to work with mine & had no problem what so ever. I set the table saw for 16" and ran the edge I flushed the laminate up with along the fence giving me two good edges & repeated this process for the bigger pallets set at 20".
* You might want to wear safety glasses & a mask. MDF makes a TON of fine dust & the Laminate shoots shrapnel everywhere. I played tough guy and murdered my eyes.
6. Draw out what you want at the end of your pallet that best suites what your printing I Jig Saw that baby out with a finish blade.
7. (Sorry No Pic) I sanded all edges flat with 80 grit on the orbital sander to get any imperfections out, then switched to 120 to get a smooth feel & rounded all corners. * The benefit to sanding your edges & corners is extreme! it makes the shirts slide off & on 10x easier! Even when I bought pallets I would sand the edges with 120 grit.
8. Mounted my brackets & loaded it on the press!
Now I can print jobs from the top to the bottom of shirts for those people who think bigger is better.
- The reason I made my pallets so long @ 30" is because my 23" x 31" screens printing area is all within the square part of the pallet which ends at 26". The extra 4" was for my neck hole alignment & to assure I had a surface for my end of the screen spacer to make contact with.
Hope this helps & Hope we're still friends after I dragged this one out for so long!
Enjoy & feel free to tweet or email me any questions if you need some help.
Gabe
My 8 step home made giant pallet guide 
I had nothing to go on except a few pictures so I just made what I thought one should look like and I laughed because it actually worked on my first try. I used lexan as well but drilling those holes were a pain in the butt. (When the drill bit get's too hot it melts the lexan so you have to pace yourself and give it time to cool) I only made a small one (16x16) just to see if the concept would work and this weekend I am going to build a larger one as I want to start printing my company logo on my shipping boxes and t-shirt bags.
