Post by kelabar on May 29, 2020 23:06:41 GMT 10
I strip a lot of pallets down for the wood and the exercise. I find it good to do while camping.
There isn't any 'right' way to do it so I'll show the way I have found easiest and most productive.
I have got a heap of good wood from pallets and packing cases over the years, also some crap stuff but if I don't use it I burn it so there isn't a downside. The plywood in the wooden storage boxes in one of my other threads all came from piano packing cases. Sadly most pianos come packed in quadruple corrugated cardboard these days, but this is also a handy product.
Most transport companies have hundreds of disposable pallets to get rid of every year. The hard part will be stopping the forkies giving you too many. You can try any company. The pictured pallets came from a flooring company. Printers, hardware stores, food companies, electrical suppliers, just about anywhere you go there will be some lying around in their way. The best way is to ask a forkie or the operations people. Office staff will generally just say "no" beacuse they want you to go away so they can do nothing. Also offer to take some broken ones as well. You will still get wood but more importantly in my experience they will be very grateful and will look after you next time.
First pic is a couple of pallets I'll strip down with pictures showing the stages. The ply and MDF in the background came from a couple of other pallets I stripped at the same time. Plywood/MDF pallets aren't as common as wood pallets so grab them if you can. Bear in mind the quality of both ply/MDF and wood varies incredibly.
We'll start with the left one.
This one is a standard Australian size. About 116 cm square. A lot of pallets are this size because two will fit side by side in a shipping container. I suspect this one came from overseas. It is a really light wood and fairly brittle.
I call the top and bottom wood 'slats' and the three 2x4s 'runners'.
As in the second picture remove the bottom slats first. It is more likely that these will break. Also there are fewer of them and they are more beaten up by irresponsible forkies (that would include me).
Two ways to do this are either lift the centre nails first with the jemmy bar or cut the ends near the outer runners with a saw.
I prefer to lift the middle and leave the ends uncut. This will be shown in more detail later. It gives a longer piece of wood. But some pallets are so brittle or nailed so tightly that it doesn't matter how you do it, the wood just shreds.
If the wood is just breaking instead of lifting then consider cutting the ends. Then you can rock the shortened slat over the centre runner and this helps to loosen it. The wood will be a bit shorter but a short unbroken bit of wood is better than a longer bit split in two.
Once all the bottom slats are removed it is time to get physical.
Stand on the pallet and bash each runner from either side with the hammer. The bigger the hammer the easier this is. Bash the runner back and forth until you loosen it enough to get a jemmy bar between the runner and the slats. It will look like the third photo. I propped the pallet up here to get a better camera angle.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I had a close call when a runner I was bashing split. The hammer kept going and nearly took out my shin. Make sure your swinging arc won't take your leg out if the wood gives way.
Sometimes the nails are in so tight that the nails will pull through the slat rather than pull out of the runner. Either way works. The ends of the wood will be a bit more beaten up but generally will still be intact.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you take one of the runners off you will have a heap of very sharp nails sticking up. Don't be like me. I have trodden on them twice so far. It hurts, so remember they are there and don't do it!
Once you have removed the centre and one outer runner it will look like picture 4. The slats will come off the third runner without much jemmying. Often you can just work them back and forth until they pop off. Sometimes a quick hit with the hammer makes it easier.
All that is left is denailing. This is tedious but can be speeded up a bit. Because the nails have already been nailed in once and then we have beaten them around a bit they aren't as strong as they could be. Most of them will come out just by hitting them down with the hammer but quite a few of them will want to bend over instead. If they are already bent straighten them out as much as possible first. I have found the easiest way to get them out is by grabbing them with a pair of pliers near the end and pushing down as you hammer them as in pic 5. This isn't always necessary but in my experience if one bends over it takes more time to pick up the pliers and bend it back that to just grab them all with the pliers in the first place.
Also note the setup for denailing. The slat is resting on both runners and the runners are close to the nail. The third runner is at the other end of the slat holding it level.
i cannot stress enough if you are hammering nails, either in or denailing, the importance of having a solid rest. These runners are bedded into the dirt and they are close to the nail. When I was hammering there was a dull 'thud' noise. If you hear a bouncy, springy or hollow type noise then the wood is flexing too much and you are making it hard for yourself. Make the rest solider or bring the rests in closer to the nail. If you do this on a trailer, the trailer will bounce up and down as you hammer. It is easier that doing it on the ground but you will need to jack or block the trailer so it doesn't bounce. Solid, solid, solid... did I mention solid!
. Nails also bend less when hammered on a solid rest.
Job done. What we end up with is in picture 6. Some wood scraps, 3 or 4 half decent slats, 4 or 5 bits of rubbish wood and three 2x4 runners.
Continued next post.
There isn't any 'right' way to do it so I'll show the way I have found easiest and most productive.
I have got a heap of good wood from pallets and packing cases over the years, also some crap stuff but if I don't use it I burn it so there isn't a downside. The plywood in the wooden storage boxes in one of my other threads all came from piano packing cases. Sadly most pianos come packed in quadruple corrugated cardboard these days, but this is also a handy product.
Most transport companies have hundreds of disposable pallets to get rid of every year. The hard part will be stopping the forkies giving you too many. You can try any company. The pictured pallets came from a flooring company. Printers, hardware stores, food companies, electrical suppliers, just about anywhere you go there will be some lying around in their way. The best way is to ask a forkie or the operations people. Office staff will generally just say "no" beacuse they want you to go away so they can do nothing. Also offer to take some broken ones as well. You will still get wood but more importantly in my experience they will be very grateful and will look after you next time.
First pic is a couple of pallets I'll strip down with pictures showing the stages. The ply and MDF in the background came from a couple of other pallets I stripped at the same time. Plywood/MDF pallets aren't as common as wood pallets so grab them if you can. Bear in mind the quality of both ply/MDF and wood varies incredibly.
We'll start with the left one.
This one is a standard Australian size. About 116 cm square. A lot of pallets are this size because two will fit side by side in a shipping container. I suspect this one came from overseas. It is a really light wood and fairly brittle.
I call the top and bottom wood 'slats' and the three 2x4s 'runners'.
As in the second picture remove the bottom slats first. It is more likely that these will break. Also there are fewer of them and they are more beaten up by irresponsible forkies (that would include me).
Two ways to do this are either lift the centre nails first with the jemmy bar or cut the ends near the outer runners with a saw.
I prefer to lift the middle and leave the ends uncut. This will be shown in more detail later. It gives a longer piece of wood. But some pallets are so brittle or nailed so tightly that it doesn't matter how you do it, the wood just shreds.
If the wood is just breaking instead of lifting then consider cutting the ends. Then you can rock the shortened slat over the centre runner and this helps to loosen it. The wood will be a bit shorter but a short unbroken bit of wood is better than a longer bit split in two.
Once all the bottom slats are removed it is time to get physical.
Stand on the pallet and bash each runner from either side with the hammer. The bigger the hammer the easier this is. Bash the runner back and forth until you loosen it enough to get a jemmy bar between the runner and the slats. It will look like the third photo. I propped the pallet up here to get a better camera angle.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I had a close call when a runner I was bashing split. The hammer kept going and nearly took out my shin. Make sure your swinging arc won't take your leg out if the wood gives way.
Sometimes the nails are in so tight that the nails will pull through the slat rather than pull out of the runner. Either way works. The ends of the wood will be a bit more beaten up but generally will still be intact.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you take one of the runners off you will have a heap of very sharp nails sticking up. Don't be like me. I have trodden on them twice so far. It hurts, so remember they are there and don't do it!
Once you have removed the centre and one outer runner it will look like picture 4. The slats will come off the third runner without much jemmying. Often you can just work them back and forth until they pop off. Sometimes a quick hit with the hammer makes it easier.
All that is left is denailing. This is tedious but can be speeded up a bit. Because the nails have already been nailed in once and then we have beaten them around a bit they aren't as strong as they could be. Most of them will come out just by hitting them down with the hammer but quite a few of them will want to bend over instead. If they are already bent straighten them out as much as possible first. I have found the easiest way to get them out is by grabbing them with a pair of pliers near the end and pushing down as you hammer them as in pic 5. This isn't always necessary but in my experience if one bends over it takes more time to pick up the pliers and bend it back that to just grab them all with the pliers in the first place.
Also note the setup for denailing. The slat is resting on both runners and the runners are close to the nail. The third runner is at the other end of the slat holding it level.
i cannot stress enough if you are hammering nails, either in or denailing, the importance of having a solid rest. These runners are bedded into the dirt and they are close to the nail. When I was hammering there was a dull 'thud' noise. If you hear a bouncy, springy or hollow type noise then the wood is flexing too much and you are making it hard for yourself. Make the rest solider or bring the rests in closer to the nail. If you do this on a trailer, the trailer will bounce up and down as you hammer. It is easier that doing it on the ground but you will need to jack or block the trailer so it doesn't bounce. Solid, solid, solid... did I mention solid!
. Nails also bend less when hammered on a solid rest.Job done. What we end up with is in picture 6. Some wood scraps, 3 or 4 half decent slats, 4 or 5 bits of rubbish wood and three 2x4 runners.
Continued next post.
