All wooden half pallet

Abstract

A half pallet that is capable of easy assembly, functionally adequate for some situations and capable of easy disassembly in an environmentally acceptable manner. In one form of the pallet, a half pallet is provided that is made of all wood. In one embodiment, the half pallet may be comprised of a plurality of stringers with bores, a plurality of deck boards with openings, and a plurality of wooden dowels disposed in the bores and openings to connect the stringers and deck boards.

1 . A substantially all wood half pallet comprising:
 a plurality of upper and lower stringers, deck boards and single piece blocks positioned to form a half pallet with a long side and a short side, the deck boards being parallel to one another with interior deck boards and the upper stringers being spaced and parallel to one another in a horizontal plane and transverse to and adjacent an exterior or interior deck board on an upper surface and adjacent one or more of said blocks on an opposite surface, said blocks comprising first and second blocks said second blocks being on an exterior side of the half pallet, said second blocks being smaller in thickness than said first blocks, the edges of the exterior and interior deck boards and the upper and lower stringers being in the same vertical plane, the deck boards having a mounting surface and a top surface; the half pallet having through openings on both the long side and the short side to allow the insertion of pallet forks from the long side and short side;   the deck boards having pilot holes extending substantially perpendicular to the mounting surface through the deck boards and into adjacent upper stringers and blocks, the pilot hole being completely through said deck board and upper stringers, said pilot holes being spaced about 0 inch to ½ inch away from the edge of the upper stringers blocks and the deck boards;   adhesive disposed on the mounting surfaces and in the pilot holes; and   a plurality of wooden dowels disposed in the pilot holes such that the top surface of the deck boards and the top surface of the dowels are substantially co-planar,   
       wherein the dowels connect the deck boards, upper and lower stringers and blocks through a cinching action on at least the deck boards. 
     
     
         2 . A half pallet as defined in  claim 1  wherein the dowels having at least two contiguous dowel sections of successively decreasing cross-sectional size and the pilot holes having at least two contiguous pilot hole sections of successively decreasing cross-sectional diameter. 
     
     
         3 . A half pallet as defined in  claim 1  wherein the dowel is cylindrical. 
     
     
         4 . The half pallet of  claim 1  wherein the long side is forty inches long and the short side is twenty-four inches long. 
     
     
         5 . The half pallet of  claim 1  wherein the first blocks are about 4×4×4 inches and the second blocks are about ⅝×4×4 inches. 
     
     
         6 . A half pallet of substantially all wood comprising:
 a plurality of deck boards, each deck board including a longitudinal mounting surface having a plurality of vertical bores formed therethrough;   a plurality of stringers and single piece blocks, each having a plurality of vertical openings, each of said vertical openings corresponding to a vertical bore;   each of the vertical openings and vertical bores being from about 3/16 to about ½ inch from an edge of one of the stringers, one of the blocks and one of the deck boards;   said deck boards being spaced and parallel;   said stringers being spaced and transverse to said deck boards;   said half pallet having 2 long sides and 2 short sides;   said deck boards being adjacent to an upper surface of at least one of said stringers;   said blocks comprising first and second blocks, said second blocks being on the long sides, being adjacent a surface of at least two of said stringers, said first and said second blocks having a vertical grain substantially parallel with the vertical bore; said second blocks being less thick than said first blocks;   a plurality of fasteners consisting of wooden dowels, inserted through the vertical bores of the deck boards through to the plurality of respective vertical openings such that the deck boards, stringers, and blocks are connected together in a predetermined orientation to form a half pallet, said half pallet having openings sufficiently large to permit entry of fork lift tines on each of the four sides of the half pallet.