Got Old Pallets?

Old Pallets - YouTube

 

Thanks for posting, I have a lot of old pallets that I use to start fires and now I am going to mess around and make some stuff out of them. Looks like it could be fun.

 

I had some pallets. I would ask people if they wanted them, and they would always say "Yes! I want them!" So I told them to come by and take them, and they would reply "You bring them to me!"

I just burned them. Lazy people. I know that some people may not have a truck, but they could at least take one at a time over a few days. Nope, they just want them delivered. Too bad, now I have to dig nails out of the ash pile so I don't run them over with the mower later in the season.

 

I bring all the pallets from work home they are throwing out, many are oak, and I use it as fireplace kindling, or for campfire wood. I can't stand waste, driving by construction sites I see so much lumber tossed in the 16 yard dumpsters but I can't salvage it all.

 

There was a group on Facebook that was chronicling their use of wood pallets (among other things, like tires, to make Earthship houses) that ran into a roadblock with bureaucrats.

This group (of maybe 15 people, who had traveled from all over the country to be part of this experiment) has arranged with a friendly local farmer to let them use a portion of their land (20 acres, or thereabouts) to do a homesteading experiment in Arkansas or Missouri (forget which).

They tentatively got together with the town bureaucrats who gave them their blessings on the project, so they proceeded to build the homestead (they had several skilled carpenters in the group), having partly built several residences (the size of small cabins) out of reclaimed wood pallets. This was, to my understanding, well out of sight of public view so should not have aroused any ire from the neighbors, but somehow some public servant got wind of it and the shit hit the fan.

It's not clear what happened and what politicians ass was buttsore, since no answers were given, but the approval to build somehow got retroactively revoked and they group had to stop dead in their tracks... their plans essentially obliterated.

Anyway, they said that despite their massive loss... essentially having lost it all with the stroke of a proverbial politicians pen.... they didn't want to make trouble for the farmer since ultimately it would be his ass in a sling, so they had to pack it all up after investigating where they could migrate to that suited their needs and desires, and where the might run into less bureaucratic resistance.

They ended up choosing some small town in Colorado that had no building enforcement bureau, so they were expecting less hassle. Not really sure how things turned out for them, since their Facebook group either disappeared, or I simply lost track of which one it was. Hope things turned out better for them the second time around. [/end short story]

 

Bud uses them to make a jam up hog pen.

 

Pictures would be awesome. Think you could post a few?

 

I have a steady supply of them through my job, and often have to chop them up to fit in the dumpster. Once my wood burner is installed on my hunting property, i will be stacking the slats and chunks for fire wood. They are pretty rough for any kind of finish work, Though I may use parts to construct a shelter for firewood outside.

 

My dad builds stuff out of them. Dog houses and playhouses and the like but also some repairs on the barn and his own house. I just cut them to pieces and burn them for heat and use a magnet to get the nails out of the fireplace. They burn fast, but then again they are free and practically no work compared to getting spruce and pine home from the woods.

 

I hooked up with a hydraulic supply company that lets me have all I want. So far I've built a nice raised bed planter by the chicken coop, enclosed the chicken coop's roosting area, and am in the process of building a deck/walkways around it, as well as the fence for the chicken yard. And a rabbit hutch! We just got our aquaponics system up and almost running, and will use pallets for the front and back walls of a cold frame to go over it. And of course, the scrap is great for burning.


Excuse the mess... when I'm working on something I tend to throw stuff out of my way and make a bigger mess than I had before.

 

Looks like a very good use of recycled materials, DW. Nicely done.

 

If in a hurry I just cut between the 2Xs and retrieve the 14" boards for fire or use on jobs. The remaining 2Xs are cut in half for the heater.

 

doesn't seem to be any problem around the Upper Midwest getting rid of those cheap one-way pallets or the odd ball sized .... the stores like Farm & Fleet and Tractor Supply stack them out front and people are fighting over them ..... if you drive around the industrial parks there's always some shipping company or machinery outfit with pallets or crates out in their parking lot ...... I've seen stacks of perfectly good CDX plywood from crates sitting and waiting for the taking .....

 

sometimes pallets are treated with preservatives that can come out in a fire or leach into the soil. also if you go to a tile importer or anyone that imports from asia they sometimes have pallets made from some pretty good hardwood.

 

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the only things i bought was nails and tin for the roof -took some pallets apart to fill tie open spaces out side and insulted between the walls with insulation from a wrecked trailer -free-and the drywall is from free craigs list the wood stove was passed down from grandmother-still works great--also built a wood shed 8x10x8 ft. tall will hold around 6 cords of wood--its great to recycle

 

This Pinterest webpage has a number of links to good ideas for using old wooden pallets.

Uses For Old Pallets



Image Via Amazing Uses For Old Pallets – 50 Pics | Uses For Old Pallets



Via Pinterest Amazing Uses For Old Pallets – 32 Pics | Uses For Old Pallets



Via Pinterest Amazing Uses For Old Pallets – 32 Pics | Uses For Old Pallets



Via Pinterest Amazing Uses For Old Pallets – 25 Pics | Uses For Old Pallets



Via Pinterest got old pallets? | Page 2 | Survival Monkey Forums

 

Another useful web-page for some pallet shed making ideas....



Via: Building a shed from recycled wooden pallets, Building with pallets

 

My bud builds repairs his old building with scrap boards. He then "paints" them with a mixture of used motor oil and diesel fuel. Make them a beautiful brown color and preserves the wood.

 

FWIW

I have found it is much easier, with the heavy oak pallets, to use a hammer and a punch to remove the boards rather than a Claw Hammer.

The hammer & punch method does not crack the wood and you have more usuable wood with less effort.