Wooden Turkey Build // Pallet Wood Project

Adam Gabbert
by Adam Gabbert
3 Materials
$10
4 Hours
Medium
With Thanksgiving in the air, I figured it was time for an autumn woodworking project. And what's more fitting than a wooden turkey?
The finished turkey.
That's what I thought, too! Above is a picture of the finished pallet wood turkey. I've also included a video below from my YouTube woodworking channel, showing how I built this gobbler.
Above is the video I made. Don't forget to let me know if you enjoyed it or found it helpful! Also, there's a link to a 3D model / plans linked in the video description. Alright, now for the fun stuff. Let's build this bad boy.
The first thing I did was rough cut my body pieces on the table saw sled.
Then I glued up the body panels and applied clamping pressure.
While the body panels dried, I cut out all of the other pieces I needed for the glue up. The image above is the head.
This one's the flap under the wooden turkey's beak. I don't know what that's called. :)
Then I glued up the head assembly. I freehanded all the drawings.
After the glue dried, I marked out the circles I wanted for the body pieces.
Then cut them out on the band saw.
I then glued all four pieces together and attached them with screws. I pre-drilled and counter-sunk all my holes before attaching with the fasteners.
Then I did my best to free hand draw and cut out what kind of looks like a pair of turkey feet.
I ripped some legs out on the table saw.
Then I drilled holes in the feet and the bottom of the legs and glued them together with dowels.
Then I cut out the feathers and attached them to the body assembly with glue and screws.
And to wrap it up, I attached the legs and feet to the body. And that's it. Let the glue dry, and you have a pallet wood turkey!


Thanks for checking this out, and we'll see you on the next one!


Oh, and don't forget to let me know if you found this helpful.


Thanks again,


— Adam
Suggested materials:
  • Pallet wood   (I picked it up behind a supermarket.)
  • Wood Glue   (The hardware store.)
  • Drywall Screws   (The hardware store.)
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  1 question
Comments
Join the conversation
 2 comments
Next