Solid wood pallet

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area_man

area_man

Burning Hunk
Feb 12, 2013
124
Oregon City, OR
I figured I'd bust it up and have some fuel for the stove. Easy peasy, right? Not so much. I used two wrecking bars to lift the rusty nails off this monstrosity and wound up with a bunch of flats with at least three sets of rusty nails on each board. It's dry, it's heavy, it's completely infected with tetanus. I'm not even going to TRY to burn this pile of garbage.

I'd spend at least another two hours pulling nails before I could load this into my truck. Into the garbage it goes.

Three of my neighbors came by while I was digging around with it, and the last one asked me why I was sweating so much. That was a giant pain and it wasn't worth it.

If nothing else, I don't have to pay for a separate garbage pickup for it.
 
In Year One when I was actively seeking out pallets to burn I started out by trying to remove the nails . . . and it was a PITA . . . I soon learned to either bust them apart or just take my chainsaw and carefully cut down the pallets into pieces. Doesn't look quite so nice and you have to deal with the nails in the ash (be sure to dump the ash away from anywhere you might ride over it) . . . but it was much easier than trying to pull the nails.
 
If you have concerns about the nails post burning just dump your ash in one pile and run a magnet through it in the spring. Or dig a hole in the fall and fill it over in the spring. Those nails will rot, eventually.
 
Hmm after years of contemplating taking on a pallet with the expectation of too much hassle, my job got a load of paper and I noticed this time the pallets were not some garbage wood but were actually Oak. I grabbed them with the anticipation of reducing them to kindling. Got them home and the first one banged apart with my hammer with such ease that nails were flying all over the driveway and it was all I could do to track them all down. Within ten minutes I had the pallet reduced to a small pile of sweet boards I took to the chop saw and reduced to length and it turned out awesomely east for a large load of kindling. Keeping my eye out for more Oak pallets but they seem rare here.
 
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