Endless supply of free pallets...

He has reinvented the shiplap bar, which is part of the tool kit for every serious hand demolition outfit. The foot thing might be handy for those of limited strength, but it could never compete with the speed of a shiplap bar in qualified hands. Mine are both in the hands of my brother right now. Picture a 55" L-bar with the foot offset by 3inches so that the cross bar that joins the handle and foot becomes the spot where the tool rests on the joist. For pallets, you would stand on it so that the material doesn't roll.

I doubt that the guy in the video is aware of this rather obscure tool. His is safer for kids and others of limited strength. Mine is much stronger and versatile whether used to rip up floor boards, roof boards with 2 layers of asphalt attached or to pull drywall. I've pulled several hundred thousand feet of material with a self designed bar that beats the others. If I ever get it back, I'll post a photo.

I think in both cases, I will stick to using pallets mostly as they come. Since ours are all low quality wood it is simply not worth the effort on our long list of to dos. However, anyone else who can get their hands on free pallets made from decent hardwoods should seriously consider using such a tool.

As I said, there are other prybars. I'm getting old and,hopefully, wiser. I have a history of back problems brought on by going for speed when I should have been going for the long haul instead. Over the long haul I'll get a lot more wood with a lot less pain using this tool. There's an old saying to the effect of, "Don't lift it if you can slide it. Don't slide it if you can roll it. And, don't move it at all, it you can avoid it." I'm not on a serious demolition crew and I'm not competing with anybody. I'm breaking apart pallets for the wood I can get from them, and that wood isn't worth much back pain. If I can use my weight to pop them apart that seems like the smart way to go.

Im looking into building my home out of pallets. Any ideas or designs for such a home?

Thanks

I used a garden pick to separate a pallet last week. I was able to stand on one side, so that my arms did very little. The pallet covered a skylight at a demolition job.

I was using the pick up lift tar covered cant strips around the perimeter of a big tar and gravel roof. Others using Burke bars made poorer production while hunched over. The pick method allowed me to stand up. If you ever must process many pallets, this is the way to do it without buying a specific tool for the task.

My "garage" was just a roof supported on posts when we moved in. I built walls from pallets, which I always have plenty of on hand. Covered them with re-claimed tar paper...all four walls were slapped together and made water tight in a day and a half at zero cost. Garage is full of tool shelves made from....pallets of course.


Our chicken run at our old house was made mostly from pallets.


Quarried stone is sometimes shipped on pallets: around here their always oak pallets, so you get good lumber that way.

I have never gotten very fancy with my pallet building....if I'm gonna go all out for a building project, my hands would rather work with branches. I like natural materials and am happier working with them. Just a matter of preference. When I need a flat surface, I'll very patiently rip some natural edge boards from a log--with my chainsaw. Pallets, I've only ever used for quick and dirty projects. You can of course make great stuff with pallets--I just have never applied my patience in that direction.

Now the oak pallets are impossible to dismantle--unless the wood is fresh and blonde. The older grey ones, forget about it. Since I know I won't make anything great with them, I'll take apart the blonde ones and give the material away to someone who loves that kind of thing.

Has anyone ever built a structure by using stacks of pallets for the walls?
I picture them shrink wrapped together...

These chairs are in the yard of a small grocery store. The two that are together sit at a distance from the one where the phrase begins. I sat in one and a young family read the end of the phrase. I told them the beginning and a kid found the missing chair by some bushes. Once all were read, the mother explained that it meant to eat good healthy food, not junk.

I used pallet wood to side the house. I like it!

Cortland Satsuma wrote:We have little around here that goes for free. However, the abundant half and full pallets are available for the taking in mass! I saw the unique pallet bed; but, have no need for it. If you had a ton of pallets available to work with, what would you use them for? (Any pictures would be great, too!)

Before doing anything with pallets - do your homework and know exactly what do you have.
You have been warned.

The FDA said about 70 people have been either sickened by the odor — including nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea — or noticed it.

The smell is caused by small amounts of a chemical associated with the treatment of wooden pallets, Johnson & Johnson said. The FDA said the chemical can leach into the air, and traced it to a facility in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico.

The New Brunswick, N.J., company said it is investigating the issue and will stop shipping products with the same materials on wooden pallets. It has asked suppliers to do so as well.

I've recently learned that pallets made after 2006 are all treated (Government standards- ISPM 15)

From:
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?237054-So-much-for-using-pallets-for-beehives!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPM_15
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Beekeepers-Hive-Artificial-Hive/

The past couple of years I've had the opportunity to focus on volunteering, and this spring I designed these pallet raised beds for a refugee center.



One of my favorite memories is building two smaller (last minute) beds out of the scraps from the larger pallet beds.  It was near the end of the day, and I was out of steam and eager to get home and eat and rest; but then a little girl from the center came outside and helped me finish them.  She passed me hardware, and even used the hammer and screwdriver all on her own when helping install the liner with me.  She also helped me trowel in the extra compost and soil around the plants.  Her little bit of support kept me motivated.  



For the larger beds, we used European-style pallets, which are bulkier than the North American ones.  They are attached to one another with nice long lag-screws through the meatier part of the pallets.  These six DIY beds enable each of the six resident families at this particular center to have their own growing space, in addition to a communal growing area.  You can read more about other projects from this urban garden over at my wiki-thread here.

Don't forget crafts.

Dale Hodgins wrote:These chairs are in the yard of a small grocery store.  The two that are together sit at a distance from the one where the phrase begins. I sat in one and a young family read the end of the phrase. I told them the beginning and a kid found the missing chair by some bushes. Once all were read, the mother explained that it meant to eat good healthy food, not junk.

I believe it is a quote from Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, though I wouldn't be surprised if he borrowed it from elsewhere.

Ran across this on FB.

Dan Schubart wrote:Ran across this on FB.

Love it! Finally a theftproof guitar.

My BIL Ben makes furniture, mostly out of walnut out of his shop in Essex, ON. He also makes beautiful coffins. If he made them from recycled pallets, would that be palletive care? Would we call it down-cycling? I'l show myself out.

How could I not love that?

Dan Schubart wrote:Ran across this on FB.

Dan Schubart wrote:My BIL Ben makes furniture, mostly out of walnut out of his shop in Essex, ON. He also makes beautiful coffins. If he made them from recycled pallets, would that be palletive care? Would we call it down-cycling? I'l show myself out.

Thanks! I can't stop laughing. Good one! LOL, LOL, LOL

I've got a whole Pinterest board for things you can make out of pallets. Back when you could just follow a board (instead of a whole account) it was one of my most popular boards.

Natalie McVander wrote:All my pictures are on an external hard drive that's elsewhere at the moment.

But I did make a visit to my old farm blog and found this picture.

It was the nearest one I had taken to the shed.

I just tried the upload attachment file, so we'll see how it comes out here.

Natalie, what are the 3 square structures made of scrap wood raw edge (?) in the foreground of the first pic?  How did you make them and what are they holding? The cross pieces at top -what are they for?

These are my contributions to keeping my wallet less empty. I get the pallets for free so it just costs a box of screws and and handful of T-Posts. I have no woodworking talent so fencing and walls for cattle panel shelters is about all I do.