# Anybody use old pallets for firewood?



## woody1 (Jan 8, 2009)

The title says it all. I have a place I can get pallets from, mixed oak and pine, just curious if anyone uses them. What about the nails?


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## LLigetfa (Jan 8, 2009)

Most people use them to stack real firewood on.  There's a good chance they have been treated and would release really bad stuff if burned.


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## RedRanger (Jan 8, 2009)

Pallets are okay if you are short on real wood.  Specially if they are already reasonibly dry and ready to burn.

Myself, I have access to western red cedar mill ends that I buy every 3 years or so that I purchase in 5 cord multiples for $50 per cord.  This is my preference because no nails, no extra cutting, and it gets the insert cranking hot in a big hurry.  Pallets will do much the same thing for you if they are already dry and don`t have the treated chemicals in them.

Gotta do for yourself what your budget will allow for.


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## mainstation (Jan 8, 2009)

I have in the past, in a pinch, burnt hardwood pallets.  Just the cut the usable stuff with your saw.  I would never, knowingly, burn wood with nails in my stove, mainly because more often than not, I would need the ashes for my icy laneway and wouldn't want to risk a flat tire.


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## savageactor7 (Jan 8, 2009)

I knew peeps that only burned pallets...they go to work in the city make their rounds on the way home with 6 or so pallets and disassemble when they get home. Always said I was crazy to work so hard cutting wood etc.

They were so happy doing that they were actually picky with offers of free wood.


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## LLigetfa (Jan 8, 2009)

Why do they say not to burn mill ends in a wood stove?
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/homillends.htm


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## Dune (Jan 8, 2009)

Burned hundreds of pallets. Just oak, why bother with pine? Stack em up 4 or 5 high. Cut the slats right next to the center runner, both sides, with a skill saw. Grab the slats one at a time and wrench off. Flip remains over, repeat. Cut the runners where they are notched for the side ways fork. Extra care avoiding nails when cutting runners. Makes great firewood.


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## EatenByLimestone (Jan 9, 2009)

They got me through my first year when I ran out of wood.

Matt


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## bluefrier (Jan 9, 2009)

Burning some right now....just be careful not to overfire because they burn hot and fast (especially the thin pieces).


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## TreePapa (Jan 9, 2009)

Dunebilly said:
			
		

> Burned hundreds of pallets. Just oak, why bother with pine? Stack em up 4 or 5 high. Cut the slats right next to the center runner, both sides, with a skill saw. Grab the slats one at a time and wrench off. Flip remains over, repeat. Cut the runners where they are notched for the side ways fork. Extra care avoiding nails when cutting runners. Makes great firewood.



Lots o' work for little wood.


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## firefighterjake (Jan 9, 2009)

woody1 said:
			
		

> The title says it all. I have a place I can get pallets from, mixed oak and pine, just curious if anyone uses them. What about the nails?



I have a love-hate relationship with pallets. 

I find myself lusting after them whenever I'm riding around town and spot them just lying there beside a business and I find myself fantasizing about cutting them up and burning them . . . free wood is good.

But then I get my trailer and haul them home and realize that they are quite a bit of work and my relationship with the pallets cools off . . . I begin to think that they are a lot of extra work to cut up and the stacked pile of cut up pallets just isn't as sexy looking as a neatly stacked pile of hardwood.

However, when I use these pallets to really get the stove cranking in a flash or as kindling I remember how much I lusted after these pallets in the first place and begin to think that I should really get some more to replenish my stock. . . .

And then I realize how fast they burn up and begin to wonder if this love-hate relationship was worth the time I put into it.

As you can see . . . a love/hate relationship. 

On the pro-side: pallets are free (ask first is my mantra before taking 'em), they usually burn up pretty well (sometimes too well as loading up a firebox full of them can lead to overfiring) and are great for getting the stove up to temp quickly or as kindling. 

On the con-side: pallets have plenty of nails and as such it seems that there is no real quick or fool proof method to cutting them up (although I've tried them all from Sawz-Alls to circular saws to chainsaws and busting them up with a sledgehammer), while the wood is free and looks like a lot in the back of a trailer or pick-up the stacked pile results in a lot less wood vs. scrounging or cutting up a tree or branches and finally you do have to be careful of the nails in the ashes if you're planning on putting the ashes on a garden/driveway/lawn . . . and also some folks with cat converters say there may be some possible issues.


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## Risser09 (Jan 9, 2009)

I think pallets are a great addition to the splits already being used. I get the oak/pine kind at work. The pine burns hot and fast to get the fire going quickly, and the oak slats serve as a way to get sustainable heat by filling in the empty gaps, in order to pack your stove. Plus they don't end up in a land fill (my work tosses so many of them, despite my vocal intent to burn them).

I get a lot of *new* pallets at work, where the nails are very easy to pull out b/c they aren't rusted. The older ones can be a PITA to pry apart, so it's more efficient just to cut those pieces out of the pallet and trash them. I don't like putting nails in my stove, I would hate to have one get stuck in my grate or end up in my garden.

As far as the time and effort, to each his own. I don't have a splitter, so I can't easily make a bunch of kindling strips with my maul. My wood is more efficiently left alone to be cord wood. I feel comfortable having a bunch of kindling and 16" board lengths ready to go at all times because I'm that type of person. This summer I plan on filling two huge boxes with kindling, one of small scraps and pieces, the other with 16" board lengths of oak/pine. What else would I be doing, watching tv? Plus, it's winter and there's not much else to do.


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## free75degrees (Jan 9, 2009)

I cut up about a cord of pallet wood this last fall beause i knew I would be short on seasoned wood.  I got them mostly from a landscape stone supplier so they are very heavy duty ones - most slats are 1 inch thick.  They are great for the part of the fire startup stack between the newspaper/kindling and the logs.

As far as the amount of work required, I think they are about the same amount of work as normal wood splits.  I tried using a circ saw and a chain saw and found the circ was much better.  I used a rough blade that can cut nails, which is key.  A chain saw will always hit nails no matter how careful you are.


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## Duetech (Jan 9, 2009)

I have cut up pallets with a circular saw with a carbide blade in it. You can't ignore the nails but you won't ditz a blade if you nick one. I burned them with the nails in. Just moved the ashes around until I got them to fall into the ash pan then used a "tool" holding bar magnet to swirl around in the ashes to collect the nails. Used gloves because they were hot. It was not fun but I used oak pallets whenever I could. Lots of heat but for the cost involved in extra trips to pick them up you kind of lose cash incentive so plan your trips to pick up pallets to coincide with other trips you have to make. Some place like to have junk pallets moved on a dependable basis and you could set up a regular pick-up date to cut costs. A trick on the bar magnet is to remove the first magnet in the end of the bar that you use to "fish" through the ashes (they are usually epoxied in so your first use in hot ash will help loosen the magnet) to retrieve the nails. You will get more nails with less fight to get them off the magnet bar.


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## Badfish740 (Jan 9, 2009)

I managed to find a pretty good pallet source so I'm going to experiment with burning different mixtures of pallet wood and splits to see what kind of burn times I get.  As for pallets being treated they are either kiln baked (commonly stamped "HT") to kill bugs or gassed.  Gassing leaves no residue so there's no risk there.  What I am running into more and more are pallets that have been painted blue and white which is irritating since they're usually the heavy hardwood type but the paint makes them un-burnable.  I use them to stack on.


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## Chumley (Jan 9, 2009)

I've burned them before as kindling but switch to cord wood once my fire is going. One needs to exercise caution with kiln dried wood.


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## Bigg_Redd (Jan 9, 2009)

woody1 said:
			
		

> The title says it all. I have a place I can get pallets from, mixed oak and pine, just curious if anyone uses them. What about the nails?



A buddy of mine did this for a year.  

The next year he got his schidt together and had enough real firewood for the winter.


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## madrone (Jan 9, 2009)

I'm always on the lookout for rare (here) oak pallets to use for kindling and to warm up a cold stove. I won't use it for anything beyond that, though.


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## free75degrees (Jan 9, 2009)

I was wondering about kiln dried pallets or kiln dried wood in general...  Is it possible that the kiln is hot enough to remove some of the flammable wood gasses?  This wood suck cause it would lower the energy content of the wood.  Anybody know if this happens?  If the kilns they use have precautions like significant venting to remove gasses then that might be a sign that some valuable gasses are being removed.


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## Malatesta (Jan 9, 2009)

My neighbor uses kiln dried wood scraps and rough lumber cuts ,he swares it burns hotter ? One thing for sure it lights very easy. 

Palletts are Ok as long as there not pressure treated or have been painted. But hten you have to deal with all those nails.

They seem to burn up to fast, but if thats all you can get. Hay burn it !


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## Beanscoot (Jan 9, 2009)

At a former place of work I would saw up the unwanted pallets on our huge industrial bandsaw.  It worked great, and as it was a metal cutting one, hitting a nail wouldn't wreck the blade.  So I never made special trips for it.

A local pallet removal company once offered to deliver pallets, whole and broken to me for free since I am in the city and thus convenient to them.  However they would bring a five ton truck load at a time so I declined.  I have just a regular size city lot so this might end up becoming a huge mess.

I wouldn't worry about the small amount of paint on the pallets.  It's not lead anymore.


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## Dune (Jan 9, 2009)

TreePapa said:
			
		

> Dunebilly said:
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Sorry you feel that way. Heated a five thousand square foot shop for six years for free with wood that was right out side the door. If you are strong and good at it, it's not bad at all.  Kinda strange comment from a guy planning to grow three twenty foot tall trees for firewood someday in the future huh?


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## Jake (Jan 10, 2009)

free73degrees said:
			
		

> I was wondering about kiln dried pallets or kiln dried wood in general...  Is it possible that the kiln is hot enough to remove some of the flammable wood gasses? .



we usually run our between 120-150, So i doubt it


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## LLigetfa (Jan 10, 2009)

There's not much to be had around here for free pallets.  They want big money for them here.  Too much money for me to lay them on the ground to rot and the free ones are so beat up and odd sized they wouldn't make for a good base either.  I just go out back and cut all the sacrifice wood I want for laying on the ground.

As for burning, I couldn't be bothered to scrounge pallets and bust them up to burn.  I would never trust that they haven't been treated or had chemicals spilled on them.  I don't mind paying for good quality logs to be delivered to my yard.  If I were too cheap to pay for good wood, I could go out back and cut as much as I wanted.


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## madrone (Jan 10, 2009)

I don't think they're much more work than cutting and splitting. Maybe less. They burn up too hot and fast for my liking, though. If I filled my stove with pallet, I'm pretty sure it would run away. If I had no other wood, and could stay near the stove all the time, I'd burn free pallets. I'm glad have them for kindling, nothing's better.


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## myzamboni (Jan 10, 2009)

Badfish740 said:
			
		

> I managed to find a pretty good pallet source so I'm going to experiment with burning different mixtures of pallet wood and splits to see what kind of burn times I get.  As for pallets being treated they are either kiln baked (commonly stamped "HT") to kill bugs or gassed.  Gassing leaves no residue so there's no risk there. * What I am running into more and more are pallets that have been painted blue and white* which is irritating since they're usually the heavy hardwood type but the paint makes them un-burnable.  I use them to stack on.



Around here the blue and white pallets are considered property of a pallet recycling company that goes around collecting the empty skids an re-supplying them to their consumers at a discounted rate vs. building new pallets.  That is why they are built so much better . . . so they can get more life from each pallet.


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## Beanscoot (Jan 10, 2009)

Good point MyZamboni.  I am careful not to take pallets that will be reused.  There is more than enough wrecked ones around, that I can pick and choose which ones to take.  I try to clean up the area where the pallets are to encourage the business to keep putting them out.  I figure that if I take a few more minutes to take away odd bits of shrink wrap etc. it will instill goodwill towards us scroungers.


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## leaf4952 (Jan 11, 2009)

Oh,  COME  ON  !   This is a favorite subject of mine,  but ... why the heck  ISN"T  this subject on  " TREAD - SPEED - DIAL "  ?  So that new people can access all the great information members have already posted on this great subject.  This site is awesome but does the search function work on this site ?


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## bigoak9745 (Jan 11, 2009)

I get free pallets from the various trucking firms around my area, in the spring. They are usually glad to get rid of them. I pile them and dont use them really for burning source but cut then up anduse dry ones as firestarter in the fall and late winter when I dont keep the wood furnace going full time and need to start up a fire every night when i get home. The pallet chunks work good as they have the gap between boards which helps air flow for starting.

If I did not have woods to cut in, I would haul free pallets home. As many have said earlier on this thred, they burned pallets for their heat source.


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## myzamboni (Jan 11, 2009)

leaf4952 said:
			
		

> Oh,  COME  ON  !   This is a favorite subject of mine,  but ... why the heck  ISN"T  this subject on  " TREAD - SPEED - DIAL "  ?  So that new people can access all the great information members have already posted on this great subject.  This site is awesome but does the search function work on this site ?



more than half the threads on this site are re-t(h)reads.  Th interesting thing is each time a topic comes up the conversation gets better and better.

Pour another beverage of choice and chillax :coolsmile:


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## spadafore (Jan 11, 2009)

Pallet wood is a pretty general term.  Pallet wood can be anything from pine to oak.  Kiln dried or green wood.  Nails and staples even wax wrapped.  As far as the nails go, it all depends on how you dispose of your ashes.  If you know what you are burning and it is seasoned then I say go for it.  I burn pallets and I think they are awesome.  I burn oak pallets that 5000 lb steel coils are shipped on.  The runners are 6" by 6".  I cut them with my chainsaw or my circular saw.  I see no problem with using them.  Just my two cents.


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## Der Fuirmeister (Jan 11, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> As for burning, I couldn't be bothered to scrounge pallets and bust them up to burn. I would never trust that they haven't been treated or had chemicals spilled on them. I don't mind paying for good quality logs to be delivered to my yard. If I were too cheap to pay for good wood, I could go out back and cut as much as I wanted.



I am too cheap to pay for good wood.  Especially when I can get good wood for free.  I'm trying to save for retirement and this helps.

Our company gets clean pallets and crating wood every week.  All new, one time use.  Much of it 2x4 or 2x6 pine.  Also 4x4 and 1x4 oak, maple or other hardwood. All of the equipment crating and most of the pallets we get are non standard sizes and not of interest to recyclers.............so I help do my part and recycle it back into the atmosphere.  Better than filling up a landfill.

A large "pallet burner" was considered. Prior to my burning this clean scrap wood they were burned out back in a burning barrel or thrown in the dumpster.

There are advantages.......no mud in the bark / chain saw to sharpen.  Far less mess in the house.  No ants. No splitting required. 

I mix my woods. Both by species and scrap / logs. I don't try to heat with scrap alone. I use caution with the moisture content. Since the wood we get is intended for one time use it's not all kiln dried. Mixing wood also helps with this potential problem.  Overnight or in mid winter I use larger dry logs.   

Much depends on the type of wood burner you are using i.e. stove, furnace or boiler. I don't have any first hand experience with boilers, but the gasifiers I've read about are supposed to be able to handle any species of wood without problems. And some manufacturers say scrap wood is fine. In my furnace I burn smaller fires in the fall and spring. Pallets work well then. 

A 1/4" hardware cloth screens out the nails that make it into the ash pan. A strong magnet with a long handle (normally used to remove nails from a horse paddock) removes them from the furnace grate.

Hope you find this helpful.......


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## leaf4952 (Jan 11, 2009)

myzamboni said:
			
		

> leaf4952 said:
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I apoligize for forgeting the H in the word "thread'. I burn wood better than I spell. I don't know if the subjects' responses get better with re-asking.
Perhaps I'm a little impatient with redundancy and a tad overly organizational pertaining to the structure of the website, but HEY. . . I've seen the pictures of these guys woodpiles lined up with laser beams so . . . I'm amongst my own fellow-catagorizers !  I just think a really good search tool would be helpful when we wanna just cut to the chase. Whether we be NEW or not !  Sometimes I'm busy for a while and can't keep in touch with the site for a week or two and a problem comes up. I can't be always checking to see if the most current threads happen to correspond to what my problem is. A really good site search tool would save me time and certainly make me more prone to come back later to lolly-gag & shoot the bull when I have time.


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## Beanscoot (Jan 11, 2009)

The search function works erratically for me.  Sometimes I'll find the threads, other times I'll get the message that no matches were found, although entering the same word(s) a minute later will get many results.


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## myzamboni (Jan 11, 2009)

leaf4952 said:
			
		

> myzamboni said:
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Just so you know I wasn't correcting your spelling but making my own pun.  There are some topics that should come up and nauseum with the search function, but I guess people get different levels of results.

I guess the mods should take you feedback and strategically place it in the site forum so Craig can get to work.


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## iskiatomic (Jan 11, 2009)

Every 2-3 weeks I bust up about 6-7 pallets for my once a day "HOT" burn to flush out any creosote in my chimney. 

In the late summer early fall I cut up about 10 or sore and split the slats to use for kindling. The uprights will get burned outside in the fire pit.

Free wood, a little work, a little beer. All in a day of being a wood burner.


                                                                                                       KC


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## SAABMaven (Jan 11, 2009)

In spite of temptation and the many 'pros' for burning pallets that I have seen in this thread, I do not.  The pallets probably come from China along with the toxic imports that rested on them; the pallet wood itself will have been treated with heaven-knows-what.  I use wood ash in my garden!


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## Beanscoot (Jan 11, 2009)

The Chinese pallets are full of nasty invasive insect eggs, it is our duty to burn them.


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## mlasko (Jan 12, 2009)

Man I sawed up 4 pallets during half time of the steelers game today and threw about 4 16inch pieces in and WOW!  Instant HOT HEAT!  Gotta be careful with those pallets but man the heat they throw is awesome!  I'm sold on the pallets.


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## Der Fuirmeister (Jan 12, 2009)

Beanscoot said:
			
		

> The Chinese pallets are full of nasty invasive insect eggs, it is our duty to burn them.



Actually I believe most pallets are made right here in the good old USA. Someone told me there are 41 pallet manufacturers in WI alone. I know of 5 within an hour's drive from my place. Maybe someone has some stats on this. Igoogled pallet assoc etc. The US and Canada have a lot of wood compared to Europe and Eastern Asia. All the writing I saw on the pallets I cut up and burned today wasEnglish.  No paint by the way. 

My beer tap is in the basement, so when on weekends it's not a problem to fill often.........and I can put more wood in the furnace too


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## Danno77 (Jan 12, 2009)

So, I'd like a few pallets to aid in stacking wood, what's the most likely source for someone who lives in the middle of the rural midwest? Should I check with local lumber store? Farm and home supply? There is a pallet distributor and manufacturer in the town next over, so I don't know if they toss broken ones too. I guess I should do some calling....


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## madrone (Jan 13, 2009)

SAABMaven said:
			
		

> In spite of temptation and the many 'pros' for burning pallets that I have seen in this thread, I do not.  The pallets probably come from China along with the toxic imports that rested on them; the pallet wood itself will have been treated with heaven-knows-what.  I use wood ash in my garden!



 :lol: I've never met a Chinese pallet. They're always stamped US. I'd expect the problem with a Chinese pallet would be that they wouldn't be treated, since that would cost time and money.


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## firefighterjake (Jan 13, 2009)

Danno77 said:
			
		

> So, I'd like a few pallets to aid in stacking wood, what's the most likely source for someone who lives in the middle of the rural midwest? Should I check with local lumber store? Farm and home supply? There is a pallet distributor and manufacturer in the town next over, so I don't know if they toss broken ones too. I guess I should do some calling....



Just about any place that has stuff shipped to them will have pallets . . . so far some of the best sources I've found for one-stop "shopping" (i.e. lots of pallets in one place) are places that get lots of heavy stuff shipped to them (think stores that sell or service tractors, tractor trailers, newspaper printers, shipping companies, large auto part dealers, etc.


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## Der Fuirmeister (Jan 14, 2009)

Go through any industrial park and look for a pile.  

Either that or the local Lowe's, Home Depot, Builders Square or Menard's type store.  Especially the Menard's stores.  Like Walmart they import a ton of Chinese stuff.  The pallets probably have insects.  Protect your local woods from invasive species of insects.  Burn Chinese wood.  Recycle US made.  Sounds good, hey?  

Then again we should burn the US made pallets and provide jobs for US pallet companies and loggers. Sounds like something a politician would say.........


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## Danno77 (Jan 14, 2009)

What's an industrial park? Is that when one hog farm is next to another hog farm? 

Seriously, though, Menards, lowes, home depot - they are all 45 minute drives for me. There is a hardware/lumber store in town. I know them pretty well, so I stopped in this morning. They said they pay deposits on some pallets, so those go back, and they give away the rest to first come. They are fresh out now, so I'll just keep trying back. Nice small home-town business. The delivery guy, Rudy, knows me and where I live, so I wouldn't be surprised if a few pallets magically found there way into my front yard sometime soon. I told them I only need ten or so in order to start stacking my wood on them instead of the cement slab that my (cross my fingers) 12x20 storage shed/workshop will hopefully go up on next summer. I'm slowly filling that slab up and I don't look forward to moving all the wood off of it in the summer heat!


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## free75degrees (Jan 14, 2009)

The best pallets i have found are at a landscape stone supplier.  The wood is very thick compared to the typical pallets - some of the boards are an inch or more thick.


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## CowboyAndy (Jan 16, 2009)

The pallet fairy left me 2 dozen last night... the first ones found their way into my furnace this morning making short work of a relight after running the oil all night last night. Small, pea sized coals lit them pieces right up!


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## verne (Jan 16, 2009)

If you get the chance get pallet wood from a recycler . My friend owns a pallet business, I get full pallets with sides full of pallet tops bottoms and stringers . Its about a half a cord per pallet load . hard wood mix and you have to cut it down between sheered nails, but a hell of a bargain for free. The nails don't bother a thing and its and endless supply. my friend burns pallet wood only in his wood stove for his only source of heat. I mix it with my cord wood. Helps out when you need it and a great way to get a fire crank en.


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## oldgrezmonke (Jan 17, 2009)

Another place to try for free pallets might be your local electric utility company [maybe also gas and water?] . Some of the ones I have gotten from there had seriously thick , heavy slats and crossmembers . The pallets are mostly odd sizes that the recyclers don't want . The place near me even helps people load them up .


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## bluefrier (Jan 18, 2009)

verne2 said:
			
		

> If you get the chance get pallet wood from a recycler . My friend owns a pallet business, I get full pallets with sides full of pallet tops bottoms and stringers . Its about a half a cord per pallet load . hard wood mix and you have to cut it down between sheered nails, but a hell of a bargain for free. The nails don't bother a thing and its and endless supply. my friend burns pallet wood only in his wood stove for his only source of heat. I mix it with my cord wood. Helps out when you need it and a great way to get a fire crank en.



I agree with verne,  Pallet recyclers give away all the scraps and all you have to do is cut the pieces to length.  No busting or taking the pallets apart.


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## njtomatoguy (Jan 18, 2009)

I burn a lot of pallets. Mostly heavy duty 36x48(fit in HHR) OAK from forklift supply. I 
had another source from a floor coating company, but they were too messy.
On average, it takes me 3 minutes with a circular saw to cut the slats out a a pallet.
I leave the rails for the chop saw. In less than 2 hours I can "butcher up" about 15 pallets,
Thats from dragging the saws and stuff out of the shed, to blowing and sweeping the driveway 
for nails when i'm done.


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