# Pallets - how to bust them up.



## Kelvin 506 (Oct 21, 2014)

I'm not sure what came over me.  I saw a posting on CL for free pallets that were close by.  I went over with the trailer and grabbed 20. They have been stored inside and are very clean looking.
I am thinking I can load them in the stove with some of the cord wood I have that isn't as dry as they good stuff.

I have a 3 cords of wood (I probably need 4 to 5) but some of the wood, despite all being delivered together, has a higher moisture content.  Want to supplement the wood with dry pallet stuff.
There was a post here where someone described the process of breaking up pallets.  I can'f find it.

Lastly, the stove technician came out and fixed the door so it no longer chafes against the opening of the stove.  That was a relief.


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## Jags (Oct 21, 2014)

Several members here have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to do this.  Two that stand out in my mind was:
Build an "H" frame (standing up) that allows the pallets to be slid onto the uprights (this is for stability), then chainsaw down next to each runner.

Second - one member built a steel bar with a heavy fork at the end.  The fork could bridge the pallet runners then come up under the cross boards and pop them off. Something like a giant version of this:


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 21, 2014)

Jags said:


> Several members here have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to do this.  Two that stand out in my mind was:
> Build an "H" frame (standing up) that allows the pallets to be slid onto the uprights (this is for stability), then chainsaw down next to each runner.
> 
> Second - one member built a steel bar with a heavy fork at the end.  The fork could bridge the pallet runners then come up under the cross boards and pop them off. Something like a giant version of this:
> View attachment 141884




Hmm., I was thinking recip saw.  Didn't really consider the chainsaw but I suppose that might be much faster!


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## Jags (Oct 21, 2014)

Kelvin 506 said:


> Hmm., I was thinking recip saw.


Many have used them, too.  Also old circ saws and just about any darn thing you can think of.


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## Danno77 (Oct 21, 2014)

My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.

On that note, however, there was a "pin" that said something about how to dismantle a pallet. I'll ask about that.


[actually, here is a secret for non-pinterest peoples... Every freaking thing you can find on the Pinterest app can also be found by doing a Google search. no joke...]


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 21, 2014)

Danno77 said:


> My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.
> 
> On that note, however, there was a "pin" that said something about how to dismantle a pallet. I'll ask about that.
> 
> ...


 Your house sounds like mine.,  I can only imagine you on hearth.com while your wife is on Pinterest.  
We had a snow day last year and I looked into the living room only to find my wife was on a laptop and the 2 kids on their tablets, all next to each other on the couch.  We now refer to that as family bonding time!


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## prezes13 (Oct 21, 2014)

We have some beefy pallets at work.  They deliver fire hydrants on them.  I just cut the long boards right out of them with a chainsaw then cut it in a half the rest is short enough to fit in the stove.  It's a lot of work but they are great to start fire with or maybe supplement not so dry wood.


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 21, 2014)

prezes13 said:


> We have some beefy pallets at work.  They deliver fire hydrants on them.  I just cut the long boards right out of them with a chainsaw then cut it in a half the rest is short enough to fit in the stove.  It's a lot of work but they are great to start fire with or maybe supplement not so dry wood.



just be careful not to hit the hydrant with your chainsaw.  Or do you remove it first?
But really, do you chainsaw parallel to the long boards?  I could see that being pretty quick.


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## prezes13 (Oct 21, 2014)

I work for a local water dept.  We install hydrants among other things.  I like to help the department by getting rid off the pallets for them.  Yes that's exactly what I do.  I think it's the fastest way to cut them up.


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## fossil (Oct 21, 2014)

Kelvin 506 said:


> We now refer to that as family bonding time!



Were they e-mailing each other?

Pallet busting's been done a zillion ways by folks here.  I've only done a couple of pallets.  The fasteners used to assemble them are typically impossible to remove, so I'd think the trick is to cut them up the best you can without ruining your cutting tool...so avoid the nails.  Burning the pallet pieces in the stove with the nails still in isn't a problem, and would only be a problem if you use the ashes from your stove for some useful purpose.  In that case, folks have used magnets to pluck the nails out of the ashes.

I don't even know what Pinterest is, and your post hasn't exactly piqued my interest.


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 21, 2014)

We are on pinterest either but I did see a cool watermelon pirate ship that I made for my daughter's pirate treasure hunt party.  Like Danno said, if you google pirate watermelon you will see hundred of pics from all over the place. I have way more serious/ informative places I hang out at online (like Hearth.com!).


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 21, 2014)

fossil said:


> Were they e-mailing each other?


They weren't st the time but now they play minecraft and can be in the same world over the wifi! It's just so fulfilling as a parent when all your kids want to do is look at a screen.  We went no screen last weekend and they managed to have some fun canoeing and playing outside while I finished reconstructing their skyfort playset that we had moved with us.


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## WES999 (Oct 21, 2014)

I burn a lot of pallets, have about 1/4 cord in the basement,  the best ones are what they ship OPE on, they come apart with a hammer and pry-bar and are usually made of oak.
The standard shipping pallets, I take them apart with my fork, (I made mine but you can buy them, search "pallet fork".)
Then I use a chop saw with a cheap HF carbide blade, if you should hit a nail it will cut right through, no problem.


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## Applesister (Oct 21, 2014)

The nails used on pallets have like a square edge that has a twist to it. They are absolutely impossible to pull out.
Ive tried to repair pallets by sacrificing others and salvaging boards and its not pretty.
Theres a pallet crowbar thing Ive seen here. But I agree with the boys here, a cut off saw or Sawzall  or chop saw.
Chainsaw chains are too expensive or valuable to me to waste them on this sport.


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## wahoowad (Oct 21, 2014)

Be careful. I burned up the motor brushes in my circular saw cutting up pallets. The boards can shift/twist after being cut and bind against the blade. I did it once, replaced the brushes, then didn't learn my lesson and did it again next season. I like the idea of this h-frame and using a chainsaw.


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## Laurent Cyr (Oct 21, 2014)

I supplement my wood with apllets too.  Quite a few of them have the runners out of oak or other hardwood.  I just load them on my old table saw and cut parallel to the runners, and then cut them up in stove sized pièces.  I tried dismantling them with a few Tools, and the nails just wouldn`t come out.


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## Thislilfishy (Oct 21, 2014)

I am a Woodstove newbie, but a bonfire aficionado! I drop a crap chain on my chainsaw and do like the others, run along the three main boards, then cut the main boards into three pieces. No matter what you will hit nails. The trick is to go reasonably slowly and stop as soon as you see any sign of sparks, start a new cut if you see sparks, don't force your way through. I little bit of metal on metal won't destroy a chain, but it will get dull, in my opinion not as fast as hitting the ground with the chain does. Keep and re sharpen that chain for your skid work only till it's kaput, then rotate to your next oldest chain and so on.






Ian


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## weatherguy (Oct 21, 2014)

I have quite  few pallets I want to bust up and have access to about as much as I want so I was thinking of buying this tool


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## Jags (Oct 22, 2014)

Yes, Yes.  Wes999 is the fork I was trying to describe above.  I never realized that they were available on the open market.


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## Longstreet (Oct 22, 2014)

Danno77 said:


> My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.



The way I see it, if the zombie apocalypse ever hits, you will have a lot of furniture that can be turned into great firewood.

Think of it this way.  All she is doing is bringing your stacks inside and turning them into functional items.  At least until they are needed to fed the stove.


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## bassJAM (Oct 22, 2014)

In my house, I was the idiot who somehow found ideas for pallets on pinterest.  My wife had never even heard of Pinterest until she asked me how I got the idea to line my basement walls with storage racks made from pallets.  She then spent the next 8 months planning our wedding off of Pinterest.  Now that we're married, she wants outdoor furniture made from pallets too.


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 22, 2014)

I just saw a pallet wine rack (1 shelf) on craigslist for $150!  Seriously???


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## firefighterjake (Oct 22, 2014)

I've always just taken the chainsaw and zinged off the thinner boards on one side, separating them from the three larger supports . . . flipped the pallet over and done the same . . . and then cut the larger supports to size. 

One thing I've always done though is take the time to see where the nails are located.

True story . . . once picked up a load of pallets on my trailer and parked it at the fire station's training facility to pick up later. Unbeknowst to me there was a fire academy going on and that day's training happened to be in Forcible Entry and Ventilation (which just happens to have an exercise where pallets are busted up by ax, saw, etc.) Went to pick up my trailer at the end of my work day and found all of my pallets had been busted . . . the good news is that I didn't have to work to get them apart, the bad news is that some of the firefighter trainees were pretty aggressive as some of the pallet wood was no longer than 6 inches.


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## jeff_t (Oct 22, 2014)

Danno77 said:


> My wife has pinterest. I'm no longer allowed to "waste" pallets. There are about a billion different crafty things you can do with them, apparently, and none of those things have anything to do with warmth or for a firewood base. You have the wine bottle/glass racks, outdoor seating, a dry bar, a toddler bed, and the list goes on forever.



Pinterest




Half of my sister's barn has been turned from workshop into party palace. The pallets are screwed directly to the studs, and the bar is faced with pallet boards. Actually, this was all done for the wedding reception, which rocked. Some of the tools have been moved back in.


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## Fred Wright (Oct 22, 2014)

A band saw works well for pallet cutting. We cut up many a scrap pallet on the old band saw back in the day.

I don't fuss with pallets anymore... when I do get one I just chop it up with the chainsaw.


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## pma1123 (Oct 22, 2014)

I can say from experience, looking at pictures of completed projects on Pinterest is far more romantic than actually dismantling the pallets in a fashion that will render the pallet wood usable for another purpose.  Those twisty nails REALLY hang on!   Then the boards split as you pry with a flat bar. The fire and rescue sawzall blades seem to be the best approach I've found for salvaging. 

Thanks for the tip on efficiently turning the pallets into firewood FFJ!  I've been carefully using an old skil saw till now.  Chainsaw is far more convenient, but was afraid of the inevitable with hitting nails.


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## Got Wood (Oct 22, 2014)

I wait for a high stress day, take a sledge hammer and beat the snot out of them


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## fossil (Oct 22, 2014)

I wouldn't burn wood containing snot in either of my wood stoves.


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## Got Wood (Oct 22, 2014)

LOL thats why you need to beat it out


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## NickDL (Oct 29, 2014)

I've used a sawzall or a crowbar to dismantle pallets. Either way is a real chore but I did manage to salvage some usable pieces.


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## HDRock (Oct 29, 2014)

Easiest way
I use a 42 inch pry bar but you can also use a 4ft,2 by 4 to pop the top pieces off. 
Lay a 2 by 4 across the Pallet, lever on that with your 2 by or pry bar,  pop em off, moving the 2by that's laying on the Pallet, as you go,  easy peasy, you get a lot of leverage with a 4ft 2x4 or 42 to 48in pry bar


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## HDRock (Oct 29, 2014)

weatherguy said:


> I have quite  few pallets I want to bust up and have access to about as much as I want so I was thinking of buying this tool


*The Deck Demon, or a cats paw deck wrecker will do the job easy for sure if you want to spend the money *


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## Stegman (Oct 29, 2014)

I just bought at "Pallet Paw" on eBay for about $65 delivered. Pretty good tool for busting up a pallet while keeping the wood reusable for projects. Takes about 5 minutes to break one down if you're being careful not to damage the wood.

If I were just using the wood to burn, I'd probably just use a skilsaw and some brute forece.

Here's the guy's website - but I think he sells them slightly cheaper on eBay.

http://palletpaw.com


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## TomatoLover (Oct 30, 2014)

Go ahead and laugh, gentlemen, but I am a 48 year old mother of 2, and I bust pallets for kindling everyday with an ax as part of our "we don't need no stinkin' gym membership" routine.  I figure if I can split oak all spring and summer, I can bust a few pallets in the fall.  I am a newbie wood burner and I can't really figure out our wood stove, but it takes me 10 minutes to destroy a pallet and then I feel like at least I've accomplished something with regard to the stove.  But you guys with your tools -- my husband uses a chainsaw, circular saw, blah blah blah...just hand the girl the ax and let her destroy the pallet.


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## jillybeansisme (Oct 30, 2014)

@TomatoLover -- awesome inspiration!  When I (finally) get to my wood pile (hey, the house isn't finished yet and the wood pile is there), I'll keep your technique in mind!  It should work for me, although I'm a 57 year old Mother of one 8 y.o.  (and you gave me a new good reason for still not having a gym membership  )


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## firefighterjake (Oct 30, 2014)

TomatoLover said:


> Go ahead and laugh, gentlemen, but I am a 48 year old mother of 2, and I bust pallets for kindling everyday with an ax as part of our "we don't need no stinkin' gym membership" routine.  I figure if I can split oak all spring and summer, I can bust a few pallets in the fall.  I am a newbie wood burner and I can't really figure out our wood stove, but it takes me 10 minutes to destroy a pallet and then I feel like at least I've accomplished something with regard to the stove.  But you guys with your tools -- my husband uses a chainsaw, circular saw, blah blah blah...just hand the girl the ax and let her destroy the pallet.



HehHeh . . . just how far away from Fall River, MA are you?   40 whacks . . . and all those pallets are nothing but kindling, right?


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## TomatoLover (Oct 30, 2014)

jillybeansisme said:


> @TomatoLover -- awesome inspiration!  When I (finally) get to my wood pile (hey, the house isn't finished yet and the wood pile is there), I'll keep your technique in mind!  It should work for me, although I'm a 57 year old Mother of one 8 y.o.  (and you gave me a new good reason for still not having a gym membership  )



You go, girl!  We are city slickers who ran from the city to the woods when we decided we didn't want to raise the kids around gangs and drive-by shootings.  My 11 year old can bust a pallet pretty well now, and my 16 year old is a wood-chopping demon!  I am a cautious, nervous idiot when it comes to running the wood stove, but give me an ax and watch me be productive!  Combined, my husband and I have lost 50 pounds since moving to the woods 8 months ago.  We burn a lot of calories taking down trees, splitting wood, and now, whacking apart pallets.  We should have made this move years ago!  Good luck in Oregon -- sounds wonderful!


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## TomatoLover (Oct 30, 2014)

firefighterjake said:


> HehHeh . . . just how far away from Fall River, MA are you?   40 whacks . . . and all those pallets are nothing but kindling, right?



Brilliant.  I wonder how many got that.  

Perhaps Lizzy Borden should be my avatar?


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## firefighterjake (Oct 30, 2014)

TomatoLover said:


> Brilliant.  I wonder how many got that.
> 
> Perhaps Lizzy Borden should be my avatar?



I thought you would get it when you mentioned going crazy with the ax . . . wasn't sure if you would get the whole Fall River mention . . . so I added in the 40 whacks for good measure. 

And yeah . . . I think the Lizzy Borden avatar would be fantastic!


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 30, 2014)

I have the pallets in the shed, right next to them is the x27.  The thought has crossed my mind by I don't want to damage the axe if it goes through the the pallet and onto the cement flooring.  
You need to understand that for some of us testosterone laden humans we crave any and all reason to fire up a power tool.  It's like that show home improvement with Tim Allen, only without the vana White models walking around. .


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## TomatoLover (Oct 30, 2014)

Kelvin 506 said:


> I have the pallets in the shed, right next to them is the x27.  The thought has crossed my mind by I don't want to damage the axe if it goes through the the pallet and onto the cement flooring.
> You need to understand that for some of us testosterone laden humans we crave any and all reason to fire up a power tool.  It's like that show home improvement with Tim Allen, only without the vana White models walking around. .



  I so get it.  Tonight, my husband came home a bit early from work with a few pallets he picked up along the way.  He ran outside to start busting up pallets while he still had some daylight.  I was NOT surprised to hear the power tools running.


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## Kelvin 506 (Oct 30, 2014)

I was using a circ saw but then, based on comments about motor wear, I switched to a recip saw. It was way easier. I filled the "Manchvegas" stove for the first time.  Too hot to handle.  I've been doing 50% loads but it got a bit colder tonight and I wanted a quick heat up in the house.  I even through a few pallet slices on a roaring flame (my stove takes a little extra hot to get warmed up). 
Happy burning!


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## Paulywalnut (Oct 31, 2014)

You must end up with a stove full of nails. Warning: don't use those ashes on your driveway for traction.
How about a pallet woodshed.


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## zig (Oct 31, 2014)

Paulywalnut said:


> You must end up with a stove full of nails. Warning: don't use those ashes on your driveway for traction.
> How about a pallet woodshed.


That's what i did. 6x16, 2 pallets high, fiberglass roof made from garage door panels, and a couple of coats of red barn paint. Only lumber was 4x4 for posts and 2x4 for rafters. Wood stays dry and still gets air.


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## WES999 (Oct 31, 2014)

Paulywalnut said:


> You must end up with a stove full of nails



Yes I do, I just shovel them out with the ash, let them sit outside for a week and put them out with the trash.




Paulywalnut said:


> How about a pallet woodshed.



Well here is one, my wood shed is almost all recycled pallets, the base is standard shipping pallets'
all the 1x5  framing came from shipping crates (I stained them), the plywood roof decking came from..., you guessed it,
pallets from China. Used roll roofing over the decking. Holds about 4-5 cords.


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## TomatoLover (Oct 31, 2014)

Paulywalnut said:


> You must end up with a stove full of nails. Warning: don't use those ashes on your driveway for traction.
> How about a pallet woodshed.


Super magnet grabs the nails before the ashes are spread in the garden area.  I think I learned that trick from somewhere on this forum.


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## Paulywalnut (Nov 1, 2014)

WES999 said:


> Yes I do, I just shovel them out with the ash, let them sit outside for a week and put them out with the trash.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice. Plenty of ventilation...naturally.


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## billb3 (Nov 1, 2014)

My neighbor has a fairly fast system down,
He stacks three or four pallets  down , stands the one he's going to cut  upright /stringers vertical on an edge.
His wife or kid holds one end of the pallet while he rips the right and  center stringers off with a small chainsaw which gives him short pieces of deck boards,  and the last stringer  lays down with the remaining deck boards straight up and he slices those off. Ends up with a pile of cut to length deck boards and stringers to cut in three in a sawhorse.
They'll do this all Winter long on the side of the driveway often after supper with a couple lights.

I've given him some heavy duty magnets for the nails in the ashes.


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## Ski-Patroller (Nov 3, 2014)

A circular saw with a nail cutting blade is handy for cutting up pallets.  If you hit a nail, its no big deal.   You end up with a lot of nails in the ashes though.  That may or may not be a problem, depending on what you do with the ashes.

Wear safety glasses, and be careful of kick back.  A big Skill 77 worm drive saw is (IMHO) safer than a sidewinder.


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## lectraplayer (Nov 3, 2014)

I usually use the ol' flailin' iron (a common Estwing) to seperate the boards of a common shipping palette.  I am also bad to use my mawl to "break" the boards over two logs (but watch for the boards to fly), or use the saw.  

...though I primarily like to use the palettes and tin as a base for my woodpiles.


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## seabert (Nov 5, 2014)

pma1123 said:


> I can say from experience, looking at pictures of completed projects on Pinterest is far more romantic than actually dismantling the pallets in a fashion that will render the pallet wood usable for another purpose.  Those twisty nails REALLY hang on!   Then the boards split as you pry with a flat bar. The fire and rescue sawzall blades seem to be the best approach I've found for salvaging.
> 
> Thanks for the tip on efficiently turning the pallets into firewood FFJ!  I've been carefully using an old skil saw till now.  Chainsaw is far more convenient, but was afraid of the inevitable with hitting nails.


I have the "Deluxe Pallet Buster" tool. I think the tool works fine and easily pulls off very tough planks. However there needs to be enough space to get the tool between a slat to get the leverage of the cross piece. Sometimes a pallet cross piece has a cutout for fork trucks so i simply slide in a piece of wood to get the leverage. The cat paw tool was hard to find when I was looking but I thing that will fit in tighter spaced slats. The best part of the Deluxe Pallet Buster is the feet rotate so you get a solid pull on the wood and so much less splitting up of the wood. Great if you are using the wood for projects.


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