For those of you that use pallet wood

[jerry1939]

Saw this picture on the internet;

 

jerry

[Lucky2]

Smart thinking.

Len

[Lucky2]

Smart thinking.

Len

[heppnerguy]

Looks like a winner to me...I doubt that I would have thougth of it, but I guarantee you, if I were to want to dismantle a pallet, I would do it this way.. Thanks for the good tip

 

Dick

heppnerguy

[WayneMahler]

Interesting

[amazingkevin]

Saw this picture on the internet;

 

jerry

that would save your back.I get them apart kind of easy but this way is a win win,Thanks Jerry!

[Phantom Scroller]

I've got one of those never use it much but might do now great idea.   Roly

[lawson56]

The guy has a great head on his shoulders.

[hawkeye10]

"" Work smarter not harder""

[Scrolling Steve]

Interesting ....Works for one side anyway...maybe both?!

[Debi Shipman]

I don't know how it would work on the second side, there would be nothing there for it to push against unless it does both sides at once.

[Scrappile]

On the internet there are pictures of all kinds of pallet pry bars, which would be very easy to make or there are commercial ones that work great.  If a person was using a lot of pallet wood, it would be well worth making one or purchasing one.  What Jerry shows is a good idea and looks like it will work, but awkward and slow.  Okay for the occasional breakdown.  I think debinz makes a very good point also.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Scrappile

[Phantom Scroller]

I think the other side would be a great big sledge hammer to knock the posts off. Roly

[Jim McDonald]

Sawzall down the edges of the runners.  Fast and reasonably clean.

[CharleyL]

Sawzall down the edges of the runners.  Fast and reasonably clean.

That's how I have done it. I'm not interested in saving the areas with the nail holes, but it's been many years since I've used pallet wood. Be careful what pallets you use. Some are treated with bug killing chemicals and some have chemicals spilled on them. Choose your sources wisely.

 

Charley 

[nitro201]

This kinda answer my question,  but I will ask it anyway Can you use different types of pallet wood to scroll with??  New here and to scrolling and wanting to get good. Thanks for the help and support

Jeff

[CharleyL]

This was made from red oak pallet wood. It's two very similarly grained pieces about 1/2" thick that I joined edge to edge. The seam runs horizontally through the clock area. 

 

It's sometimes difficult to figure out what the wood is in a pallet, but I have found red oak, poplar, hard and soft maple, black walnut, ash, cherry, hickory, hornbeam, beech, birch, and a whole bunch that I can't identify. Pallets and crates from Japan are usually made from mahogany plywood and can be great sources of thin plywood, but be extremely careful about possible chemical treatments of wood in pallets from a foreign country.

 

The more desirable kinds of wood typically found in American and Canadian pallets seem to have more wild grain and knots in them when these woods are incorporated into pallets as they are the less desirable pieces for making furniture, but if your projects are thin and/or small, there can be some very interesting hard woods in pallets. Usually you will need to sand it or run it through a planer before you can tell what it is. You will typically need to just break them down by your method of choice, and then bring the pieces home and sand or skip plane them to try to identify what they are. Some will be easy to identify if the pallets haven't been left out in the rain and have taken on the gray aged look.

 

Don't use good blades in your planer for pallet wood for the first cuts. You will likely miss small nail pieces and there will certainly be gravel and tiny stones and concrete chips embedded in them that a metal detector won't see, but get yourself a metal detector to pre-examine these boards before you go putting them through any expensive equipment. Once you have taken the crud off the top and bottom surfaces and removed all of the metal you can then clean them up with old planer blades, Coarse sand paper, or whatever way works best for you. Then decide what you have, and use your better quality tools will bring them to the dimensions that you want.

 

I once worked for a printing press manufacturer, and the paper pallets that they, and their customers received, were very heavy duty and about 1/2 the size of standard pallets. Frequently the top boards were a full 1" plus thick and the legs were 3" X 5". Some of my best pieces of rough sawn red oak and cherry pallet wood came from these pallets, and there was no need to worry about chemicals in them. Again, be very careful about your pallet sources. If you see any spills or funny colored wood in them, leave them where you found them. I always tried to pick pallets that were visibly clean, so chemical spills were easy to see. I also avoided painted pallets, since many of them have a large deposit on them and the source wants them returned.

 

Charley

 

 

 

    

Edited September 18, 2016 by CharleyL