Recycling pallets

[Alexx]

Thanks Snadger.
I had to do three car trips so my estimate would be around 15 pallets.

[Jimmy]

Crowbars and lawmower blades are all very good but I still find I damage quite a lot of planks.
Just did another one and this time I hacksawed through the nails.
A little persuation with a wedge and you can get your hacksaw in. Once the hacksaw hits the nails they soon give up.
Lots of perfect planks. But no free nails!
Jimmy

[shirlthegirl43]

Basically after pulling the pallets apart, I ended up with planks of two different lengths, some were around 4ft while the others around 3ft long. I then nailed them in an overlapping pattern. Because of this I had to use four transverse planks instead of three.

(The section behind the shed is yet to be completed)

Thanks for that Alexx. Need to find lots of pallets now - around 100ft of fence required!!

[geoff]

pallets

I have worked in several factories and warehouses; pallets seemed to fall apart when you least wanted , but were difficult to take apart when you wanted to. Many pallets now use serrated nails

Pallet wood is generally poor quality and roughly finished so always wear gloves. I knew a 16 stone warehouse foreman who always wore gloves when handling pallets, and no one tought he was soft!

I found the best tools to take pallets apart were an 18'' crowbar and a 2lb lump hammer. You can sometimes get a car scissor jack between the top and bottom layers of a pallet and use that

You could proof the wood with creosote or other 'proper' proofer; but old sump oil is free, if smellier

[Snadger]

I have worked in several factories and warehouses; pallets seemed to fall apart when you least wanted , but were difficult to take apart when you wanted to. Many pallets now use serrated nails

Pallet wood is generally poor quality and roughly finished so always wear gloves. I knew a 16 stone warehouse foreman who always wore gloves when handling pallets, and no one tought he was soft!

I found the best tools to take pallets apart were an 18'' crowbar and a 2lb lump hammer. You can sometimes get a car scissor jack between the top and bottom layers of a pallet and use that

You could proof the wood with creosote or other 'proper' proofer; but old sump oil is free, if smellier

NBice one geoff! I like the car scissor jack idea!

[allotmentlady]

i find lots of pallets on my local freecycle, they are excellent for repairing raised beds. Also helps recycle !

[Geo]

I use an old axe head & lump hammer...

Geo..

[kevnsue]

pallets

Hi,i always use another bit of wood as a lever to prise them apart,a bit of 2x2 about 4ft long works well for me.

[dandy]

Just managed to blag five pallets from the lady over the road who has had work done in her garden - also a couple of bits of the new fencing (offcuts) and three bits of the old stuff. Travelling distance - about fifty feet! Much better than a mile and a half. Plus the very nice men who were doing the work actually brought them over and put them by the gate for me. Just proves that a polite request and a smile will work wonders.

[RobRep3]

Pallets

I have about 12 pallets of various sizes and condition, (mostly in pretty good nick), at my workplace they are free to take away! if anyone is interested they can post a reply. Cheers! I am in Cramlington near Newcastle upon Tyne.

[teampanda]

Hi
We get pallets from a local haulage company that we found through our local Freecycle. To take them apart we use a lump hammer, a cold chisel and a hacksaw. You do need a lot of pallets to construct most things though.

[skegblade]

I use a cold chisel with a 3 inch blade and a club hammer. The chisel cuts through the nails and there is very little splitting of the planks.

Phil

[Jimmy]

From my experience and the general comments in this post I think the conclusion is...
The best way to dismantle is to shear the nails off by what ever method suits you. That way you get clean undamaged planks.
The down side is you don't get a nice free pot of re-usable nails.
Perhaps collecting badly broken pallets would solve the nail problem.

[Stacey Steve]

If you are shearing off the nails and then want to get the nail heads out of the planks, just use a slightly slimmer nail to drive the heads out.

[Jay Bee]

We have about 3 stacks of pallets (well they were there when I left work yesterday) and I keep trying to get rid of them on freecyle and we don't get any takers. Full ones get sent to the pallet place but these are broken and they won't take them.