# Using pallets as firewood



## haveawoody (Jan 11, 2012)

I've been asked this question many times and always a bit unsure of an answer to give.
Good or bad what is your opinion on using cut up pallets as firewood?


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## Ductape (Jan 11, 2012)

For me..... too much effort for the amount of heat gained.


Some specialy pallets with hardwood 4X4s as skids........ maybe. Otherwise, pallets aren't for me.


PS My exception MIGHT be if I had an OWB with doors big enough to fit whole pallets without busting them up.


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## haveawoody (Jan 11, 2012)

Ductape,

Same for me on the effort part.
Between nails, paint, weird stains and lots of skill saw work the return is minimal.
That is what i tell people that ask, generally i think the wood is ok in them.

Other than cutting the runners of maybe 4 pallets to use as kindling it looks like work to try and heat a house.
Even at that 1/4 of those runners have paint or gawd knows what on that end up in the fire pit.


The outdoor wood burner and entire pallet is a good idea.
Bet you would have to go hunting for mini pallets though.


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## Somesawguy (Jan 11, 2012)

They will work, but like Ducttape said, it's quite a bit of work. 

Watch out for nails, they will eat blades.


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## Whitespider (Jan 11, 2012)

The plastic pallets make a lot of smoke.


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## ponyexpress976 (Jan 11, 2012)

Heated my parents house for years with nothing but pallets. Every summer it was my job to cut them down. Easiest way to get the nails is with a speaker magnet...drag it through a few times and viola.


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## haveawoody (Jan 11, 2012)

Whitespider,

LOL good thing with the plastic ones is the btu is great, no nails to watch for when cutting and they start up easy


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## haveawoody (Jan 11, 2012)

ponyexpress976,

So the wood in them is ok stuff then.

I sell firewood but you can tell times are tough when quite a few people ask about pallets as firewood.
I've never been to sure what to tell people that simply can't afford to buy firewood and are looking for a free but lots of work way.
Glad i wasn't to far off on what i said to them.


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## stihlrookie (Jan 11, 2012)

*No problem*

Had an older gentlemen, nearly 80, that worked for me a few years back as a tile-setter. He saw how many pallets we had to dispose of and asked if he could have them for firewood. Sure thing I say. He came by the shop one saturday with a 6x10 trailer, extension cord, couple skilsaws, a few cheap blades and his wife. Well, within a couple hours he and his wife had filled that trailer to overflow, probably 50-60 pallets all cut up. I asked him about the nails and fasteners, he said that was why he had a few of the cheap blades on hand, he went through a couple cutting those pallets that day. He broomed the paved area he had worked at when he was done, could hardly tell he had been there. That trailer load lasted him well over a month, he came back twice over the winter to collect more pallets. 

I figured he had a bit over a cord piled on the trailer each time, so maybe 4 cords total over the winter. His cost, a few hours, a handful of cheap blades and a bit of fuel for his truck pulling the trailer, I let him use my power for his sawing. He did say that the firebox needed cleaned a bit more often due to all the different species as well as the nails and fasteners but for nearly free wood he was happy as a clam. We both came out good since I didn't need to pay for disposing of those pallets.


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## kwalshy (Jan 11, 2012)

It is my understanding that a lot of the pallets are made out of a hardwood - oak.
I have a friend who's father uses them as a primary source of wood for his OWB stove & he uses a chainsaw instead of a skill saw to cut them up; he doesn't remove the nails and lets them fall into the ash pan.


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## Mowingman (Jan 11, 2012)

Chainsaw is rthe best way to cut them up. Just watch out for where the nails/staples are, as those will eat up a chain in no time. I can cut up a pallet into small pieces with a chainsaw, in about 3 or 4 minutes.
I also have thought about using them for firewood, but have never tried it.
Jeff


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## Dan_IN_MN (Jan 11, 2012)

I like to keep my wood as big as possible so I only have to fill my stove every two hours or so……wood from pallets is too small….I will not cut up any again. Also….the handling time with the small pieces is increased.


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## Sdh1218 (Jan 11, 2012)

Growing up my father would use the pallets for kindling. He would lean 4-5 pallets up against the wood pile and use the chainsaw to cut them up. The biggest problem with them was they burned so fast and hot because they were really dry. My mother would load the stove up with them to get the house warm quick (drove dad mad). She did it so much that the heat buckled the top plate of the stove and there were times the black stove pipe would glow. As I said before perfect for kindling as it lit up quick and burned hot to get the fire going and they were free to boot.


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## mtfallsmikey (Jan 11, 2012)

I'll bust up a few of them for the last fire in the spring before shutdown to burn out the spooge


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## Steve NW WI (Jan 11, 2012)

On pallets:

Common species are oak (heavy pallets) or cottonwood (much lighter generally), some are pine as well, depends a lot on where the pallet came from. There are small mom and pop pallet mills all over the country and whatever wood is cheap and available will get turned into skids.

Pallets with the HT brand on the side of em have been heat treated in a kiln to get rid of bugs, but doesn't mean they are dry. I tested one at work with the MM and it was still 30% (first day with the MM, had to bring it in to work and play)

The last place I worked at, we'd get fresh off the mill pallets, they'd be sopping wet and heavy as heck, after a couple weeks indoors, they lost 10-15 lbs of moisture. It played havoc with weight counting products, a skid weighed green then checked later would cause the shipping dorks to scream that we didn't have enough parts in the box. I'd yell back to add that gallon of water to the scale and try again! One of the many reasons I left that place.

If it's what ya got to burn, light it up, just don't expect a long burn out of em. They're kinda like slabwood from the sawmill, good for a fast fire, or mixing with bigger wood to stretch your supply.


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## spike60 (Jan 11, 2012)

Lot's of work for the amount of wood you get. And the size of the pieces you end up with means frequent loading of the stove is necessary. 

Did anybody mention nails yet? :msp_rolleyes:

But if you have the time to mess with them and they're free, why not?


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## jrider (Jan 11, 2012)

I would never burn them in my house. You never know what got spilled on them and in this industrial age, it could be any kind of chemical. Once, back in the late 70's or early 80's a bunch of people had to go to the hospital after inhaling fumes from burning pallets that had something nasty spilled on them and soak into the wood. 
I know the chances are small but not a risk worth taking for me.


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## woodguy105 (Jan 11, 2012)

I'd have a hard time using them as primary wood but i rarley pass on a free pallet. At minimum you get clean excellent kindling and a few good pieces to burn and if it's free it's for me! :msp_rolleyes:

Use an old beat chain and your chainsaw and you can make easy work of them.


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## Phatsupratt (Jan 11, 2012)

I get 12' sheet steel hardwood pallets from work. So far this year, I primarily burn those and supplement the OWB with pine. Yes, pine and pallets heat my 3500 sq ft house and keep my 36 x 60 shop at 45 degrees. 

Sure, they're heavy as hell and kind of a pain but no splitting and it's a constant flow of free wood.

Mark


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## avc8130 (Jan 11, 2012)

I used pallets almost exclusively last year to heat as it was year 1 and I didn't have any seasoned wood. Really, I don't think they are that much more work than "real wood". 

Compare:

Real wood:
Drive to wood location
Cut to rounds
Load in truck
Drive home
Empty truck
Split
Stack
WAIT
Bring closer to stove door
Burn

Pallets:
Drive to pallet location
Forklift loads truck full
Drive home
Empty truck outside stove door
Cut with circular saw (FAST)
Stack closer
Burn

Don't get me wrong, they are certainly not ideal as they burn pretty quick...but, they also made NO creosote in my chimney and my house was warm without waiting a year or more for seasoning.

ac


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## haveawoody (Jan 12, 2012)

avc8130,

When you think about the cure wait times the pallets seem a great way to go if you run short on firewood, or maybe even as a full time firewood source.
Lots of people seem to think the pallet wood burns pretty fast but since your cutting them up all pretty much uniform why not just stack wood in the fireplace to control burn speed?

Putting two pieces directly aligned to each other in the wood stove is sure to slow the fire speed, a 2x4 becomes a 4x4, 3 pieces a 4x6 etc.

Works on very thin regular wood so i don't see why that wouldn't work on skid wood, i bet better since skid wood is nice and flat so it should be easy to align for a slower burn.

I've burned quite a few of the main 4x6 oak base runners from stone or concrete skids and for me they burn very well and long.
All the top runners for me become kindle.


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## jasult (Jan 12, 2012)

Whitespider said:


> The plastic pallets make a lot of smoke.



Dont burn plastic but do use them


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## avc8130 (Jan 12, 2012)

haveawoody said:


> avc8130,
> 
> When you think about the cure wait times the pallets seem a great way to go if you run short on firewood, or maybe even as a full time firewood source.
> Lots of people seem to think the pallet wood burns pretty fast but since your cutting them up all pretty much uniform why not just stack wood in the fireplace to control burn speed?
> ...



Trust me, when you are heating your house with pallets you learn "how" to burn them just like you learn how to burn "real" wood. 

If I packed my stove full, it would burn 4-6 hours. Since the wood is all uniform it stacks very tight and you can fit more wood in since there is less air. 

Honestly, there was nothing miserable about burning pallets for me. In fact, I still am not known to pass them up when I see them piled on the road side.

If it was once a tree, it burns in my stove and heats my house.

ac


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## haveawoody (Jan 12, 2012)

avc8130,

Yeah that is what i was trying to figure out why people said it was a to hot fire.
Like anything you put in the wood stove if it's small and has lots of air it sure will burn hot and fast.
Skid wood should be ideal to control and being kiln dried add to the reasons to burn it.
Guess if you discard the painted or heavy stained stuff it's going to be as good as any firewood.

When i burn my oak skid chunks i get a few nails but for me i put all my ash in a woeful garden so rusting iron isn't a bad thing for a rock hard clay area.

I wonder if you collected all the nails from 100 skids how much metal you would get to take to the scrap yard.
i bet something towards the gas to go pick them up.

100 a good guess for an entire heating season?


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## Carl Anderson (Jan 12, 2012)

I wouldn't pass a few up for free but believe it or not I haven't found any close enough to make it worth the gas in my truck to go get (haven't looked that hard though). I have tried asking some of the stores around here for a couple to stack some wall stone on and they won't give them away, they charge between $1 and $2 each. I was shocked and one guy said they have a service that collects them and pays the store that much for them. I think they either re-sell them to comapnies that need them to ship stuff if they are in really good shape or use them for making pellets for pellet stoves. So now it's getting harder to find free ones so it's definitely not worth the effort. If someone wanted to drop off a truckload of free ones at my house, sure I'd cut them up and burn them but having to hunt them down and go get them Lord knows where and/or pay for them, no way. Just another way you get the shaft living in CT, even stuff people don't want isn't free.


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## husky455rancher (Jan 12, 2012)

ive burned more pallets than i could count over the years. hey when moneys tight and you dont have any wood you get it done. ive had plenty of firewood you years now. a couple years ago i used a mountain of pallets for firewood. i had plenty of firewood but the pallets were free and it kept me from using my seasoned wood a bit longer


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## stumpy75 (Jan 12, 2012)

Since I have quite a bit of wood stacked up, I don't go looking for pallets, but if I stumble into some, I won't turn them down. They are not that hard to cut up, and the ones around here tend to be either maple or oak. 

I did burn quite a few of them last year because I had them. I picked up a couple of small magnets at Harbor Freight, stuck them onto the back of an extra ash shovel, and had a great nail collector.


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## haveawoody (Jan 12, 2012)

jasult,

Your plastic skids are pretty sweet, wish i could get about 100 of them for deliveries of wood.
I have to create something similar in wood skids for my deliveries.

Looks like my standard 1/2 cord amount setup but in plastic ?
Bet they are easy to fork.


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## fubar2 (Jan 12, 2012)

Ain't worth the time wear tear and work involved to me. Besides the nails and staples you've got to watch for imbedded pea gravel from being weighted and sitting on concrete floors with the random pea gravel that rode in on the towmotors wheels.


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## Bushmans (Jan 12, 2012)

I love pallets!
Being a fireplace guy I need to get a hot fire going and fast. Everyday I get home from work to a cold house. Get a fire going and toss a few chunks of oak pallet on there and we are hot in no time. Before you know it I have a nice bed of coals and switch to regular wood.
I have a plethera of pallets available at work and bring home a few every week.
Bad thing is you never know where the nails are going to be. I chewed up a chain this week cutting the slot between the boards and it was full of nails. I think from now on I will crush them with the log splitter into chunks that will fit into the fireplace.
Once I get my wood burner insert I might not use as many but for now they really help!


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## stihlrookie (Jan 12, 2012)

Circular saw is the way to go for cutting pallets. Like I said earlier, that old man just had a few cheap blades, maybe 5 or 6. It takes a few hits before that blade is really done. Unless you are ripping down the skids your chances of hitting metal are pretty slim. I have cut through many nails/screws/staples with a circular saw, usually can't even tell you hit one except for a spark maybe and thats a maybe. Hit the pawnshops, they usually have piles of blades and cheap circular saws if you don't want to use your makita. 

As far as burning pallets that are contaminated, you just need to look them over and pass if they look nasty. Like some said, they are wood, they burn, no big deal. I live in a city of near 40,000 and less than 20 miles from me is Spokane(200,000+), pallets are everywhere. Where I worked previously I had arrangements with a couple pallet scroungers, they would rebuild some themselves but mostly were after the 4 way access 42" square pallets. I think they were reselling them for 2 bucks apiece if I remember right. They started making a mess sorting through my pallet stacks so I nixed the arrangement with them. I went back to crushing them against a 30yd dumpster with a forklift before I had the old man ask for them.


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## jasult (Jan 12, 2012)

haveawoody said:


> jasult,
> 
> Your plastic skids are pretty sweet, wish i could get about 100 of them for deliveries of wood.
> I have to create something similar in wood skids for my deliveries.
> ...



Yes very easy to fork. I have 35 of these and some one just left them up for grabs on industrial site where I rent space.
The owner of property asked me if I had a way to dispose of them and I sure did. LOL :biggrin:


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## haveawoody (Jan 12, 2012)

jasult ,

Well that was mighty nice of you to take tme with no charge and all 

U lucky dog


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## jasult (Jan 12, 2012)

I did not waste any time in grabbing every last one:hmm3grin2orange:


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## gugge (Jan 12, 2012)

I used a bunch of pallets this fall. Got them for free at work we needed to get rid of them. Cut them up on the concrete with cheap circular blades no big deal really. I would do a stack of 8 or 1o a night. Use a magnet to pick up nails in the stove and the BOL tskes them for scrap.It saved my good wood for awhile. Keep your eyes out for little pcs. of nails in door track. Like a dumbs_it I shut the door on one a crack went the glass. My stupid fault. Will be getting more they burn hot and you learn how to stack.Some even had cherry


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## Wood Doctor (Jan 12, 2012)

*Nails?*

The biggest problem I see with using hardwood pallets for firewood is avoiding dozens of nails as you cut them up, regardless of what saw you use to get the job done. Those nails tend to make the pallets expensive "free" firewood.


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## avc8130 (Jan 12, 2012)

Wood Doctor said:


> The biggest problem I see with using hardwood pallets for firewood is avoiding dozens of nails as you cut them up, regardless of what saw you use to get the job done. Those nails tend to make the pallets expensive "free" firewood.



I don't understand. I have been cutting up pallets with 1 (one) circular saw blade for 2 straight seasons now. I probably have close to 200 (no joke) pallets cut. No problems with nails. 

Here is how I cut:

Lay the pallet flat on the ground. Most pallets are 7 1x4 on the bottom, 3 2x4 stringers and 11 1x4 on top. I start with the top. I run the saw parallel to the stringers about 2" in from each. This makes me 22 1x4s. Flip the pallet over and repeat. This creates another 14 1x4s. Now I cut the stringers into 3 pieces between where the 1x4s were since there are no nails there. This creates 3 2x4s. 

So...each pallet nets me ~36 1x4s and 9 2x4s. All ~16" long. 

Really very little risk to the blade if you use some common sense.

ac


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## J.W Younger (Jan 12, 2012)

In my experience they are near worthless as heat but will keep wood off the ground for a while.
For me its eaiser to dump em than mess with the nails burnin em when they won't work for stacks.
I suppose it depends on yer situation.


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## Wood Doctor (Jan 12, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> I don't understand. I have been cutting up pallets with 1 (one) circular saw blade for 2 straight seasons now. I probably have close to 200 (no joke) pallets cut. No problems with nails.
> 
> Here is how I cut:
> 
> ...


That's great. I applaud your success. So, what do you do with all the nails? I figure 50 to 100 per pallet.


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## avc8130 (Jan 12, 2012)

Wood Doctor said:


> That's great. I applaud your success. So, what do you do with all the nails? I figure 50 to 100 per pallet.



Depends how motivated you are.

VERY:
magnet through ashes and scrap them.

Not very:
dump them with the ashes

ac


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## gdavis24 (Jan 12, 2012)

Every time I haul home and cut up a dozen of them for kindling, I'm reminded of their real value: Pallets are the lowest form of firewood.


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## lps8 (Jan 12, 2012)

*the right type of pallet is great*

Have used pallets that come into our business that are 3x3 oak and up to 9' long. Is mostly bolted together. No nails, burns clean, hot and long. Cut to 16" long blocks. Fill up fireplace insert at night, set to slow burn and have hot coals in the morning with a warm house all night. A lot less ash than burning split logs, because it was a consistent shape, easier to load.

Am building new house with Opel II and am planning on using pallets. I liked them better than split logs and are a lot less work. I have to burn them anyway to get rid of them and I don't think they can be beat. Give me a choice between free logs or these 3x3 pallets, I'll take the pallets.

lps


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## howellhandmade (Jan 12, 2012)

I hadn't thought of the possibility of pallets being contaminated, but I guess I've never gotten them from anywhere that uses nasty chemicals. It's true, cutting them up for firewood is work, but if you don't have any money there's at least a chance you've got some time. As for the nails, I bought a 3-pack of cheap carbide-toothed blades a while back because I was sawing up some sections of bowling alley to make workbenches. There were lots of nails that just had to be sawn through, and I figured I'd waste all the blades. I'm still on the first one after the bowling alley and a bunch of pallets.


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## SS396driver (Jan 13, 2012)

when I cut them I use a demo blade they are made to hit nails. Don't use them that much for heat but I do cut them to fit the area where I stack the firewood


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## carlseawolf (Jan 13, 2012)

Pallets / scrap timber make up about a third of my firewood pile each year as it allows me to save the good stuff for when i go out , or it's really cold.

I get all of them for free and chop them with a chainsaw between the blocks so no nails are hit.

This type of wood is best used when sitting in the house watching the telly so you can keep stocking up the fire when needed.


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## JeffHK454 (Jan 13, 2012)

Pallets make great fuel ..just depends on which pallets you get.

In my scrounging for kindling planks I lucked onto 6+ cords of Oak 4"x6"x36" timbers..

I've posted this pic before..this is maybe 1/10th of what I had..


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## palmrose2 (Jan 13, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> I don't understand. I have been cutting up pallets with 1 (one) circular saw blade for 2 straight seasons now. I probably have close to 200 (no joke) pallets cut. No problems with nails.
> 
> Here is how I cut:
> 
> ...



There you go. I haven't burned pallets in a long time but this is exactly how I did it. Good circular saw and a carbide blade that I never changed. It couldn't have taken me more than about 90 seconds a pallet once I got in a rhythm. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip,zip, zip, done. Next? Mine were all oak and DRY.


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## tomsteve (Jan 13, 2012)

i worked in a pallet shop/mill quite some time ago. mainly hardwood. at the time, i would see this maple goin thru that had this wild wavy look in it and though we were makin pallets with junk lumber. now i guessin we made some pallets with some pretty nice curly maple. i've picked up pallets and cut em up for firewood and also found some good useable lumber in em. nails in oak stain and add character( also a lot of quartersawn oak found in pallets i've piked up).


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## haveawoody (Jan 14, 2012)

JeffHK454,

Looks identical to the runners from stone yard skids That I'm more than happy to tear up for firewood.
Nice haul on them, i bet you have no trouble in controling the burn on them


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## JeffHK454 (Jan 14, 2012)

haveawoody said:


> JeffHK454,
> 
> Looks identical to the runners from stone yard skids That I'm more than happy to tear up for firewood.
> Nice haul on them, i bet you have no trouble in controling the burn on them



They had three 3"x8"72" Red oak planks standing on edge nailed to three of the timbers above to make one stout skid! The bad part was that they stacked the planks outside on racks after they disassembled them , needless to say they where rotten beyond use. 

A couple years back I burned the decking off these skids, which where White Oak 2"x10"x36" boards, luckily they put these inside with the runners. 

I'd say I've heated my house for three years with this "garbage".


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## Saddle Mander (Sep 18, 2013)

Our church is renovating the youth building. I am driving around collecting clean, heat-treated pallets for the project. The slats will be cut off and nailed to sections of the wall to give the building a rugged feel.

The stringers will go to my wood pile. I'm getting a stove installed in a few weeks and have almost 3 cords of unseasoned wood stacked in back. (A half cord MIGHT be ready by November, but I'm not banking on it.)

With care and luck, the pallets should help get me through this first winter, but I'm still trying to round up more ash or truly seasoned wood.


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## Marine5068 (Sep 20, 2013)

We have hundreds of White Oak pallets a week go out of work.
Beautiful wood and seems like such a waste to trash them.
I wish there was an easier way to cut them and no nails to deal with.


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## steved (Sep 20, 2013)

Ductape said:


> Some specialy pallets with hardwood 4X4s as skids........ maybe. Otherwise, pallets aren't for me.




Same here, I worked at a steel rolling mill back when I was fresh out of college; they got 50% of their coils in on hardwood pallets that consisted of two rough sawn 4x4s or 4x6s with two rough sawn 2x4s or 3x5s connecting them. They were free, I was paid to break them apart, and I drove a truck to work every day. In that case, it was worthwhile...I was bringing home a full pickup load a day. 

The only downfall are the nails and staples...if you spread the ashes on the yard.

I wouldn't waste my time on a typical pine/poplar pallet.


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## rarefish383 (Sep 20, 2013)

I skipped over most of the reply's and I'm sure most of this was said. Most pallets are made of hardwood, Oak, Beech, some Maple. Most are very dry because they are several years old. I used to have a side business hustling pallets. I got $2 for rebuildable pallets and $3.50 for perfect, ready to put into inventory ones. The place I dealt with gave you a slip with the number of pallets and type the day you brought them in, and cash the next day, when you turned in your slip. I got $100 per month to go by several stores in strip malls, where they couldn't stack them outside, and couldn't put them in the dumpsters. I was taking a load every other day, 35 pallets stacked on my GMC Sonoma. The by product was all of the non rebuildable pallets, I was stuck with. Pallets are built on machines, so all of the nails are in the same place. At first I stripped them down with a circular saw, then I just used my little Echo 305. For the 2 years I did that my wife said that was some of the best firewood we ever had. The deck boards stacked like a solid mass, a lot of weight in a tight space. To get rid of the nails, we put the ashes in a tin ash bucket, and set it outside, till the next clean out. Then dumped them in the trash and sent them down the road with the trash man. No we didn't set the world on fire with hot ashes in the trash. Only clean out the stove every 3 weeks or so, ashes were very dead. As all good things come to an end, so did this little venture, the pallet company went out of business. Any of the other pallet companies would only give $1 no matter condition, and it wasn't worth the work involved, Joe.


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## Vermonster (Sep 20, 2013)

Whitespider said:


> The plastic pallets make a lot of smoke.



That right there almost made me choke on my coffee. :msp_biggrin: LOL!!


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## steved (Sep 20, 2013)

rarefish383 said:


> I skipped over most of the reply's and I'm sure most of this was said. Most pallets are made of hardwood, Oak, Beech, some Maple.




Must be a regional thing...they are almost all pine or poplar around here.


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## zogger (Sep 20, 2013)

Marine5068 said:


> We have hundreds of White Oak pallets a week go out of work.
> Beautiful wood and seems like such a waste to trash them.
> I wish there was an easier way to cut them and no nails to deal with.



chainsaw and screen the ashes. Any old big busted speaker has a dandy magnet to use, too.

Dang, I have to hustle to find enough good quality pallets to stack my firewood on. Around here, they get sold for around 3 bucks apiece. I have found a few off the wall places that I scrounge from, but I only got one this week.


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## Woodchucker Ron (Sep 20, 2013)

steved said:


> Must be a regional thing...they are almost all pine or poplar around here.



Depends on whats being shipped on them. I work in a mill where all sorts of thing come in and go out on pallets. I keep some of the hard wood ones for stacking my wood on and when they start to go bad I use them for kindling in my garage, works great for getting a hot fire fast. The guy that delivers and picks them up has a machine that grinds them up for mulch so they might be getting harder for you to find but if you look hard enough i'm sure you can find some.


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## rarefish383 (Sep 21, 2013)

The pallet company I used to sell to only took hardwood pallets. They said the industry standard for the 40X48 grocery store pallets (the only ones they bought) was hard wood only. I work for UPS in Laurel MD. We are a big Hub and process over 500 tractor trailers a day. The pallet company that removes our pallets hauls a tractor trailer load per day, each load has about 500 pallets, all hardwood. The rest go in the dumpster. They also told me the average life of a pallet was seven years, that's why I said they are usually dry as a bone. Maybe because I was targeting 40X48 standard pallets, and the places I charged to pick up from, all used the standard 40X48, that's mostly what I got. I did run across odd ball sized pallets, and they were often real thick pine. But they were usually all busted up. Anyway, if you look, you should be able to find hardwood pallets pretty easy, Joe.


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## husqvarna257 (Dec 27, 2015)

I love pallets! They are great for starting or reviving a slow fire. I burn in an OWB so I don't have to break them up too small. Most are good oak, some are pine. I also collect furring strip from a local small equipment shop, burns better than gas. As far as nails I clean my ashes out once a month and run a magnet through the pile.


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## JeffGu (Dec 27, 2015)

The two most common woods used to make pallets are Southern Yellow Pine and Oak... but it varies a lot by region and purpose. A pallet company here in Nebraska (now defunct) used Cottonwood because it's tough and springy and is _very_ easily obtained in this neck of the woods. I once got one that was made from birch. No idea why... maybe it was made for some specific purpose.


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## Fourced (Dec 27, 2015)

We have a pallet company right up the road that is more than happy to fill my wood hauler with scrap any time I drop it off. It's not the best wood to burn, but we have a OWB so its not picky.


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## JeffGu (Dec 28, 2015)

Fourced said:


> ...not the best wood to burn...



I use it for kindling, and often burn it in the fire pit we built in the front yard. Especially if we're just going to sit out there and drink some coffee or a couple of beers. No sense in burning good wood for a fire you only need for a short time.


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