Making a Key Holder With Pallet Wood and Screws
Everyone has keys and our team at Albany County Fasteners is no different. We set out to create a place to hang our keys and put our mail. After reviewing many of the different styles available, we decided on a rustic wall key holder with a built in mail slot. Then we thought how can we make this simple and add our own spin to it.
The Tools
- Circular Saw with Wood Blade
- Cordless Drill
- Vega 32 Piece Quick Release Bit Set
- Contractors Pencil
- Protective Glasses
- Safety Gloves
- Tape Measure
- Brad Point Drill Bits for Wood
- 1/8″
- 3/16″
The Supplies
- Seven Pallet Planks cut down to 1 Foot in Length
- Eight 1-1/4″ #6 Stainless Steel Phillips Flat Head Wood Screws
- Four 1-1/4″ #6 Stainless Steel Slotted Oval Head Wood Screws
- Seven 1-1/4″ #12 Stainless Steel Screws
- Forty-Two 3/4″ #6 Stainless Steel Phillips Flat Head Wood Screws
Step One: Getting the Wood and Cutting
After our last project, we decided to go ahead and remove wood from pallets so we had a supply to work with next time. So we went to our wood pile and chose 7 pieces of pallet wood at a minimum of 1 ft lengths.
We cut those boards into the following:
Two 3-1/2″ x 1 ft boards
One 3″ x 1 ft board
Two 3-1/2″ x 10″ boards
One 2″ x 10″ board
Two 2″ x 2-3/4″ Rectangles
Step Two: Basic Assembly
Now that we have all of our wood cut, we took the two 3-1/2″ x 1 ft boards and the 3″ x 1 ft board and placed them next to each other.
We then too one of the 3-1/2″ x 10″ boards and placed it across the top. This board will serve as a decorative piece for later. We can also use it to hide any uneven cuts in the wood with it.
Now we can flip this back over and place a 1-1/4″ long #6 Phillips Flat Head Wood Screw into each board to hold them to the 10″ board.
We also need to create the insert for the mail. Take the other 3-1/2″ x 10″ board and line it up on the edge of the 2″ x 10″ board. You are going to want to pre-drill holes into this as the wood is prone to splitting especially in such a tight area. We used a 3/16″ brad point drill bit for wood for this process. Then we installed two 1-1/4″ #6 Stainless Steel Slotted Oval Head Wood Screws into the holes.
Then we lined up the two 2″ x 2-3/4″ Rectangles on the two boards and repeated the drilling and screwing process further up. We now have the two pieces of our key rack ready to be assembled.
Assembly of these two parts is quite simple. After lining up the corners, we drilled 5 holes along the edge of the mail slot. Making a U shape to hold the slot to the backing.
Step Three: Key Ring Holders
Now that we have our key holder together, we need something to hang our keys from. Using Screws all with different heads is a cheap and fun way to make easily identifiable key hooks. So we had everyone in the office pick a head and drive style, found them all in 1-1/4″ #12 Stainless Steel, and pre-drilled seven holes into the lower board using a 1/8″ bit.*
*Pro-Tip: To ensure you don’t drill too far into the wood, use blue painters tape on the drill bit to identify a stopping point.
Step 4: Adding Some Character
What key rack is complete without an easily identifiable saying? No key rack in our opinion. Thus we created a template on paper for and attached it to our top board using blue tape. We then drilled semi-equidistant holes through the paper and into the wood using the 3/16″ drive.
After removing our template, we took the 3/4″ #6 Stainless Steel wood screws and drove them into the pre-drilled holes.
Final Step: Hanging (your keys)
We are still deciding on the best place to hang this for us but in the mean time, we couldn’t resist hanging our keys on it to show you the finished product. We consider this build to be simple and it took us about 3 hours from start to finish. Leave and questions or comments below. We look forward to hearing about your exciting pallet key holder ideas!
