Pallets - how to bust them up.

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Kelvin 506

Kelvin 506

Member
Aug 20, 2014
56
MA
I'm not sure what came over me. I saw a posting on CL for free pallets that were close by. I went over with the trailer and grabbed 20. They have been stored inside and are very clean looking.
I am thinking I can load them in the stove with some of the cord wood I have that isn't as dry as they good stuff.

I have a 3 cords of wood (I probably need 4 to 5) but some of the wood, despite all being delivered together, has a higher moisture content. Want to supplement the wood with dry pallet stuff.
There was a post here where someone described the process of breaking up pallets. I can'f find it.

Lastly, the stove technician came out and fixed the door so it no longer chafes against the opening of the stove. That was a relief.
 
Several members here have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to do this. Two that stand out in my mind was:
Build an "H" frame (standing up) that allows the pallets to be slid onto the uprights (this is for stability), then chainsaw down next to each runner.

Second - one member built a steel bar with a heavy fork at the end. The fork could bridge the pallet runners then come up under the cross boards and pop them off. Something like a giant version of this:
9094003_700x700.jpg
 
Jags said:
Several members here have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to do this. Two that stand out in my mind was:
Build an "H" frame (standing up) that allows the pallets to be slid onto the uprights (this is for stability), then chainsaw down next to each runner.

Second - one member built a steel bar with a heavy fork at the end. The fork could bridge the pallet runners then come up under the cross boards and pop them off. Something like a giant version of this:
View attachment 141884
Click to expand...


Hmm., I was thinking recip saw. Didn't really consider the chainsaw but I suppose that might be much faster!
 
My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.

On that note, however, there was a "pin" that said something about how to dismantle a pallet. I'll ask about that.


[actually, here is a secret for non-pinterest peoples... Every freaking thing you can find on the Pinterest app can also be found by doing a Google search. no joke...]
 
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Danno77 said:
My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.

On that note, however, there was a "pin" that said something about how to dismantle a pallet. I'll ask about that.


[actually, here is a secret for non-pinterest peoples... Every freaking thing you can find on the Pinterest app can also be found by doing a Google search. no joke...]
Click to expand...
Your house sounds like mine., I can only imagine you on hearth.com while your wife is on Pinterest.
We had a snow day last year and I looked into the living room only to find my wife was on a laptop and the 2 kids on their tablets, all next to each other on the couch. We now refer to that as family bonding time!
 
We have some beefy pallets at work. They deliver fire hydrants on them. I just cut the long boards right out of them with a chainsaw then cut it in a half the rest is short enough to fit in the stove. It's a lot of work but they are great to start fire with or maybe supplement not so dry wood.
 
prezes13 said:
We have some beefy pallets at work. They deliver fire hydrants on them. I just cut the long boards right out of them with a chainsaw then cut it in a half the rest is short enough to fit in the stove. It's a lot of work but they are great to start fire with or maybe supplement not so dry wood.
Click to expand...

just be careful not to hit the hydrant with your chainsaw. Or do you remove it first?
But really, do you chainsaw parallel to the long boards? I could see that being pretty quick.
 
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I work for a local water dept. We install hydrants among other things. I like to help the department by getting rid off the pallets for them. Yes that's exactly what I do. I think it's the fastest way to cut them up.
 
Kelvin 506 said:
We now refer to that as family bonding time!
Click to expand...

Were they e-mailing each other?

Pallet busting's been done a zillion ways by folks here. I've only done a couple of pallets. The fasteners used to assemble them are typically impossible to remove, so I'd think the trick is to cut them up the best you can without ruining your cutting tool...so avoid the nails. Burning the pallet pieces in the stove with the nails still in isn't a problem, and would only be a problem if you use the ashes from your stove for some useful purpose. In that case, folks have used magnets to pluck the nails out of the ashes.

I don't even know what Pinterest is, and your post hasn't exactly piqued my interest. :confused:
 
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We are on pinterest either but I did see a cool watermelon pirate ship that I made for my daughter's pirate treasure hunt party. Like Danno said, if you google pirate watermelon you will see hundred of pics from all over the place. I have way more serious/ informative places I hang out at online (like Hearth.com!).
 
fossil said:
Were they e-mailing each other?
Click to expand...
They weren't st the time but now they play minecraft and can be in the same world over the wifi! It's just so fulfilling as a parent when all your kids want to do is look at a screen. We went no screen last weekend and they managed to have some fun canoeing and playing outside while I finished reconstructing their skyfort playset that we had moved with us.
 
I burn a lot of pallets, have about 1/4 cord in the basement, the best ones are what they ship OPE on, they come apart with a hammer and pry-bar and are usually made of oak.:)
The standard shipping pallets, I take them apart with my fork, (I made mine but you can buy them, search "pallet fork".)
Then I use a chop saw with a cheap HF carbide blade, if you should hit a nail it will cut right through, no problem.

DSCF1069 (Medium).JPG
pallet fork.jpg Picture 176.jpg
 
The nails used on pallets have like a square edge that has a twist to it. They are absolutely impossible to pull out.
Ive tried to repair pallets by sacrificing others and salvaging boards and its not pretty.
Theres a pallet crowbar thing Ive seen here. But I agree with the boys here, a cut off saw or Sawzall or chop saw.
Chainsaw chains are too expensive or valuable to me to waste them on this sport.
 
Be careful. I burned up the motor brushes in my circular saw cutting up pallets. The boards can shift/twist after being cut and bind against the blade. I did it once, replaced the brushes, then didn't learn my lesson and did it again next season. I like the idea of this h-frame and using a chainsaw.
 
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I supplement my wood with apllets too. Quite a few of them have the runners out of oak or other hardwood. I just load them on my old table saw and cut parallel to the runners, and then cut them up in stove sized pièces. I tried dismantling them with a few Tools, and the nails just wouldn`t come out.
 
I am a Woodstove newbie, but a bonfire aficionado! I drop a crap chain on my chainsaw and do like the others, run along the three main boards, then cut the main boards into three pieces. No matter what you will hit nails. The trick is to go reasonably slowly and stop as soon as you see any sign of sparks, start a new cut if you see sparks, don't force your way through. I little bit of metal on metal won't destroy a chain, but it will get dull, in my opinion not as fast as hitting the ground with the chain does. Keep and re sharpen that chain for your skid work only till it's kaput, then rotate to your next oldest chain and so on.




Ian
 
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I have quite few pallets I want to bust up and have access to about as much as I want so I was thinking of buying this tool

dc36ad9f-f981-426a-b075-4fd636d688e2_400.jpg
 
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Yes, Yes. Wes999 is the fork I was trying to describe above. I never realized that they were available on the open market.
 
Danno77 said:
My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.
Click to expand...

The way I see it, if the zombie apocalypse ever hits, you will have a lot of furniture that can be turned into great firewood.

Think of it this way. All she is doing is bringing your stacks inside and turning them into functional items. At least until they are needed to fed the stove.::-)
 
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In my house, I was the idiot who somehow found ideas for pallets on pinterest. My wife had never even heard of Pinterest until she asked me how I got the idea to line my basement walls with storage racks made from pallets. She then spent the next 8 months planning our wedding off of Pinterest. Now that we're married, she wants outdoor furniture made from pallets too.
 
I just saw a pallet wine rack (1 shelf) on craigslist for $150! Seriously???
 
I've always just taken the chainsaw and zinged off the thinner boards on one side, separating them from the three larger supports . . . flipped the pallet over and done the same . . . and then cut the larger supports to size.

One thing I've always done though is take the time to see where the nails are located.

True story . . . once picked up a load of pallets on my trailer and parked it at the fire station's training facility to pick up later. Unbeknowst to me there was a fire academy going on and that day's training happened to be in Forcible Entry and Ventilation (which just happens to have an exercise where pallets are busted up by ax, saw, etc.) Went to pick up my trailer at the end of my work day and found all of my pallets had been busted . . . the good news is that I didn't have to work to get them apart, the bad news is that some of the firefighter trainees were pretty aggressive as some of the pallet wood was no longer than 6 inches.
 
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Danno77 said:
My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.
Click to expand...

Pinterest

0824142013.jpg

Half of my sister's barn has been turned from workshop into party palace. The pallets are screwed directly to the studs, and the bar is faced with pallet boards. Actually, this was all done for the wedding reception, which rocked. Some of the tools have been moved back in.
 
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A band saw works well for pallet cutting. We cut up many a scrap pallet on the old band saw back in the day.

I don't fuss with pallets anymore... when I do get one I just chop it up with the chainsaw.
 
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