Anyone see any issues with this as long as you don't overfire or burn ones with paint on them. Running low on wood and wanted to burn this with some of my semi-seasoned wood.
Burning wood from pallets
- Thread starter f700
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
- Status
possible con: nails/staples in the ashes, nails/staples wherever they get busted apart.
if you know where they've been / used for, then the chances of being chemical soaked are slim.
I burned hundreds of them in a fireplace one Winter many moons ago. They were free.
if you know where they've been / used for, then the chances of being chemical soaked are slim.
I burned hundreds of them in a fireplace one Winter many moons ago. They were free.
When I was a kid we heated our house with an insert and in our town was a plastic recycling company and they had 1000s of these heavy oak pallets with 4x4 runners free for the taking.Every weekend we would get a truckload of them and we built a stand to hold them with the runners vertical and cut them with a chainsaw two or three times thru the boards and the 4xs into pieces that would fit in the insert nails and all.They were free and we didn't need a splitter my dad burned them for 25years untill the plant closed up and he never had any trouble.
This is my first season burning. Since I misestimated my wood needs, I've been burning pallets for two months while I'm home. I save my cord wood for overnight burns and for when I go to work.
I agree with billb about cons, but they are minor, I think. Also, pallets are best if it hasn't rained for a few days. If they are wet and you are in a jam, using a fan for 24-48 hours works.
When cutting them, I stand on top of them and use a sawsall ripping on either side of the center beam. Then with my hands, I rip the boards off. Great exercise. AS I cut them, I throw them in photo copier boxes. It's all time consuming at first, but eventually you'll develop a system that works for you.
Except for the burn time, pallets work well. Once in a while, I get lucky and score some red oak pallets, but mostly I think they are pine and spruce.
I agree with billb about cons, but they are minor, I think. Also, pallets are best if it hasn't rained for a few days. If they are wet and you are in a jam, using a fan for 24-48 hours works.
When cutting them, I stand on top of them and use a sawsall ripping on either side of the center beam. Then with my hands, I rip the boards off. Great exercise. AS I cut them, I throw them in photo copier boxes. It's all time consuming at first, but eventually you'll develop a system that works for you.
Except for the burn time, pallets work well. Once in a while, I get lucky and score some red oak pallets, but mostly I think they are pine and spruce.
I agree with clownfish on the technique to cut up pallets. Another suggestion is to get a big horseshoe shaped magnet and use that before you clear the ashes ( as long as the stove is cool). I find it an easy way to pick up most of the nails. Then I don't have to worry when I am shoveling out the ashes.
I been burning pallets almost exclusivly the whole 07/08 season. around 360 of them by the end of april. i find it a lot easier & faster to bust them up with a sledgehammer rather than chain sawing them. sledge hammer twice as fast. I turn pallets upside down & rest them on top of two 4" x4" x 6' pallet skid boards, so that the pallet I want to bust up is supported 4 inch off the ground.
4 wacks per board is all it takes to reduce the pallet to 3 skids in about 5 minutes total.
For pallets with 3 in twisty nails & 2 in thick cross boards, I switch to a 20 or 30 lb sledgehammer, a 6 lb or 12 lb sledge handles everything else.
I find that a table saw with a 10 inch carbide blade is the fastest for cutting them to stove length but make sure you know where all the nails are on each board before you start to cut so you can make sure to miss them all.
Have a good flouresent light over the table saw so you can see what you are doing.
Once you get used to pallet wood, all other wood seems to burn real slow, in compairision.
If you load just the 4 x 4 pieces ,you will have a good overnight burn & keep the thin runners for day fires.
The trick is to cut the 4 x 4 to lengths only 3 inch smaller that the max lenght or width of your firebox, depending on if you load north,south or east, west.
oh, btw & fyi, i bend all the nails over with a hammer to make the boards safer to handle/ step on & also because they load into my stove real tight for overnite burns once the nails are bent over with a hammer so that you can get more wood into your firebox for a longer overnite burn.
4 wacks per board is all it takes to reduce the pallet to 3 skids in about 5 minutes total.
For pallets with 3 in twisty nails & 2 in thick cross boards, I switch to a 20 or 30 lb sledgehammer, a 6 lb or 12 lb sledge handles everything else.
I find that a table saw with a 10 inch carbide blade is the fastest for cutting them to stove length but make sure you know where all the nails are on each board before you start to cut so you can make sure to miss them all.
Have a good flouresent light over the table saw so you can see what you are doing.
Once you get used to pallet wood, all other wood seems to burn real slow, in compairision.
If you load just the 4 x 4 pieces ,you will have a good overnight burn & keep the thin runners for day fires.
The trick is to cut the 4 x 4 to lengths only 3 inch smaller that the max lenght or width of your firebox, depending on if you load north,south or east, west.
oh, btw & fyi, i bend all the nails over with a hammer to make the boards safer to handle/ step on & also because they load into my stove real tight for overnite burns once the nails are bent over with a hammer so that you can get more wood into your firebox for a longer overnite burn.
I find that pallets by themselves burn much to hot even in my old insert. Don`t mind burning them mixed with some real wood though. As for the nails, well I got acreage :coolsmile: And the deep forest keeps on growing.
I use scavenged construction scrap as kindling, so I have to deal with nails, too. I stuck a rare earth magnet on my metal ember fork (ash rake, whatever you want to call it) so when I move the ashes around, the magnet picks up the nails. I let them cool, then pick them off. When I take out the ashes, I do dump them in a large plastic gardening container (they're cold, they've been in a metal container for days and days) and swirl the fork through again just to be sure, since I use the ashes in the composter and garden.
If you haven't played with a rare earth magnet yet, you should! They're almost as cool as wood stoves. Take apart an old hard drive, and there's one in there. It's the thing that has metal flying across the room and slamming into it.
(ok, not quite. But close--watch your fingers)
If you haven't played with a rare earth magnet yet, you should! They're almost as cool as wood stoves. Take apart an old hard drive, and there's one in there. It's the thing that has metal flying across the room and slamming into it.
(ok, not quite. But close--watch your fingers)
clamp01 said:
If they are stamped "NC-US", the NC means non-coniferous or hardwood. Otherwise, you would just have to go on density and grain pattern.
Clownfish99 said:
I googled and got this http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/
What do they have to do with a woodstove....I am curious? They do help with pain, so you got a painful back or knee from loading wood into your stove?
When people burn pallets, they usually don't take the time to pull all of the nails out. If you want to use your ash for the garden, you need to fish the nails out. A strong magnet seems to be the way to go.
I googled magnet as well, thanks. A quick search didn't turn up the answer that I was looking for. I was being lazy and asking if people knew a place where I could walk in and get a magnet, Lowes & Home Depot don't seem to carry them, at least according to their web pages . . . instant gratification was what I was after, I guess.
Thanks pwdohio.
I googled magnet as well, thanks. A quick search didn't turn up the answer that I was looking for. I was being lazy and asking if people knew a place where I could walk in and get a magnet, Lowes & Home Depot don't seem to carry them, at least according to their web pages . . . instant gratification was what I was after, I guess.
Thanks pwdohio.
Clownfish - look on line at cabelas or Bass Pro. They sell some pretty good sized magnets for those people who need to retrieve fishing poles from the bottom of the lake. Nice eye on top in case you need to tie a rope to it also. Pretty reasonable.
You can also pick up a handy magnet picker upper at a sewing store such as JoAnn's...at least I think it would work for nails, it does work for needles, pins, etc.
My husband also has a tray in the shape of a saw that is magnetized and picks up nails but not sure where he got it.
You will probably pay more for that "rare earth" name as they are generally sold for healing properties to my knowledge.
My husband also has a tray in the shape of a saw that is magnetized and picks up nails but not sure where he got it.
You will probably pay more for that "rare earth" name as they are generally sold for healing properties to my knowledge.
I work in a textile mill and we get yarn in on oak pallets because it is very heavy. We also get a lot of ash and pine which makes good kindling. We give them away. If you have a local weaving mill hit them up for some they just might be free.
I like to stack pallets a few high so that they're a little off the ground and then saw up with a circular saw with carbide teeth. I never use a new blade, I use secondhand ones from the flea market that I buy for a dollar a piece. I've also gotten them from the piles of scrap lumber at construction sites. Hey-a load of firewood complete with one blade! These used blades are a little dull to make nice cuts for construction but are fine for scrap cutting. I can hit a couple nails before they get too dull, then they hit the scrap metal bin.
However I was quite interested to hear Eernest's technique and I think I'll try it next time.
As for nails, I spread the ashes on a 2 x 3 foot piece of plywood on an outdoor workbench and push the ashes to the other side with one of those magnetic nail picker uppers. I like this tool because you just squeeze the handle to release the nails. I also pick out the chunks of unburnt charcoal to return to the stove. Then the ashes go on the compost and get mixed in with the lawn clippings in the spring. I don't think the nails hurt the soil but the wife was concerned about getting jabbed when gardening. They also go into the scrap bucket and every month or so we drop off our scrap metal at the local garbage/recycling depot.
However I was quite interested to hear Eernest's technique and I think I'll try it next time.
As for nails, I spread the ashes on a 2 x 3 foot piece of plywood on an outdoor workbench and push the ashes to the other side with one of those magnetic nail picker uppers. I like this tool because you just squeeze the handle to release the nails. I also pick out the chunks of unburnt charcoal to return to the stove. Then the ashes go on the compost and get mixed in with the lawn clippings in the spring. I don't think the nails hurt the soil but the wife was concerned about getting jabbed when gardening. They also go into the scrap bucket and every month or so we drop off our scrap metal at the local garbage/recycling depot.
On a more serious note, there is a very powerful magnet on the back side of speakers. Easy to find free wherever TVs and sterios are junked, or out of junk cars. ;-P
To walk in and buy a rare earth magnet, I think you'd have to find a science store like American Science and Surplus. Radio Shack lists them online, maybe they're in the store too. They only have a tiny size--3/16". You can buy them on Ebay, but you have to buy a few. If you find dead hard drives on Freecycle or Craig's List or however, it's pretty simple to get the magnet out. It's a pretty big one, worth the work. You'll probably need a tiny torx bit, you can get that at Radio Shack. You can read instructions on the following site, you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to them. There are neat photos showing the amazing strength of the magnets. "Rare Earth" is a term for a section of the Periodic Table, the Lanthanide Series.
http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm
Here's a link to an Ebay search:
(broken link removed)
http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm
Here's a link to an Ebay search:
(broken link removed)
Lots of nice ideas in this thread. I cut up lots of lumber and burnt it this year to get rid of it. As for nails, screws, and things
I just dump them with the ashes next to a pine tree and figure they will desolve adding to the soil over time. I don't think I
would have the patience to sort through the dusty ashes for metel with a magnet. Bad enough to have to dump the ashes.
Clean old wood does work well for quck fires or to get an almost dead one going again. Only problem is to watch out for
old paint, etc which may give off poisonous gases. I don't think pallets would be any concern. I have seen them around
and have burnt the few I get. Often I see signs with free wood and some old pallet remains stacked under it. If I were in
an area with less good wood I would probably grab these to burn.
I just dump them with the ashes next to a pine tree and figure they will desolve adding to the soil over time. I don't think I
would have the patience to sort through the dusty ashes for metel with a magnet. Bad enough to have to dump the ashes.
Clean old wood does work well for quck fires or to get an almost dead one going again. Only problem is to watch out for
old paint, etc which may give off poisonous gases. I don't think pallets would be any concern. I have seen them around
and have burnt the few I get. Often I see signs with free wood and some old pallet remains stacked under it. If I were in
an area with less good wood I would probably grab these to burn.
I throw all my ashes in the garden...even if there's nails in them. also I'll burn wood and boards with nails in the garden. Tires will only pick up nails if your tires are spinning...who does that in the garden? Besides my Dad always said iron is good for the soil.
Of course a board with a nail sticking up threw it is a hazzard...but nails and staples mixed in with the dirt, not really.
One thing about burning nails though...they can cause problems with grates in that a super hot fire could melt them and bind up shaker grates. Stoves without grates have no worries just don't put ashes containing nails on your frozen driveway.
Of course a board with a nail sticking up threw it is a hazzard...but nails and staples mixed in with the dirt, not really.
One thing about burning nails though...they can cause problems with grates in that a super hot fire could melt them and bind up shaker grates. Stoves without grates have no worries just don't put ashes containing nails on your frozen driveway.
Hey All, This is my first post. We are putting up a big addition soon and I'm in the process of finding a wood stove for it. Thanks for all of the help I've gotten from this forum so far. But as for pallets and nails. Just go to Northern Tool and look for a nail sweep. Used by roofers to pick up all of the nails that fall to the ground after stripping and installing a roof. I think they are around 40 dollars.
Haystaddle
Haystaddle
This is my first year burning pallets. I have found a skill saw with a good blade, ripping across next to all the runners. Also having a good wife to help. She stacks it, i cut it. Then i take my chop saw, and cut the thicker runners with it. Now the kicker, i take my framing nailer and nail 5 pcs of the thinner boards together with two nails, and i have a log. Two nails per prefab log, but were talking hardwood and they are free. The two nails hold it together during burning. I look for the best gargains on nails. It still turns out dirt cheap. price of nails and air commpressor use. after the gas company sent me a budget bill double what i paid last year , because of prices they think its going to be, i had to do something. Screw the gas company. Oh, and this is my first post. Howdy all.
- Status
Similar threads
