Here is a great pallet to use – nice thick wood and untreated
As most of you know – we love to build with pallet wood. If you spend some time looking - it is usually pretty easy to find a source to get them for free – and if you find the right kind – the building potential is limitless. I thought for today’s DIY post I would show how we go about taking a pallet from its current state to great usable wood in just a few minutes
Working with pallets – the first thing we realized early on is it is nearly impossible and too time consuming to worry yourselves with pulling out the nails. It is too easy to damage the wood with the claw and hammer or pry bar.
You can get a corded or cordless sawzall – but they are the king of dismantling pallets.
Instead, we opt for our sawzall method – which can disassemble a pallet in less than two minutes into 10 or more pieces of great usable wood. Besides – the left over embedded nail fragments actually add a ton of character to pieces when either stained or painted.
So – 1st Tip – Invest in a sawzall. They are the key to quickly destructing a pallet – and without damaging or splintering the wood. Yes, it’s an expense – but the inexpensive ones will work just fine with pallets.
Throw out the little 5″ min blade and Invest in a 12″ Demo/Construction Blade. They last forever and can rip apart a pallet in a few minutes.
2nd Tip – forget about the little 5″ blade that comes with your sawzall. That will only frustrate you. Buy a couple of 12″ construction blades (trust me – the few bucks are worth it – and they last forever).
3rd Tip - How to disassemble. You can follow below with the pictorial below on how we do it – but in a nutshell – set it on its side and simply slice through the nails on each end. Then – head down the middle row doing the same thing and in no time you have a lot of pallet wood great for all of your crafts! You can also click here to see some of the items we have made from re-using pallets : http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/category/recycling/
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First Step – take your sawzall and cut down through one side of the smaller boards all the way to the bottom
Next cut down the opposite side – followed by the middle if there is one – the boards simply fall off
Once you have the front side finished – repeat for the back side – which are usually the largest of the boards
This is what you are left with – great boards to get building with!
This hutch was made from pallet and shipping crate boards
Thank you for the timely post. I picked up some pallets from my brother’s feed store and it has finally cooled off enough in Oklahoma to do some of this kind of work. I need to get a compost bin going.
Great info! I’ve got some pallet projects coming up and this will be really useful. Thanks!
That hutch is a great result!
I’ve been intimidated by the perceived difficulty of taking apart pallets but this looks easy! Thank you so much!
Glad we could be of help! Thanks for stopping by the blog
Love the hutch – all the work certainly pays off in the finished product:)
Now I have an excuse to buy a new power tool! Great tip!
Thanks for info. Now, I must find my husband’s sawzall and get to work on that stack of pallet wood!
Great tutorial! I just got some pallets yesterday and this is great info! Would love for you to link up to the Pomp Party!
http://www.createcraftlove.com/2012/09/pomp-party-36.html
I’ve been meaning to use a pallet to make a platform for my food pictures. I love what you guys did with it! Thanks for stopping by the link up at ‘Or so she says…’. I would love to have you come back and share some more of your fun ideas. There’s a party going on right now! http://www.oneshetwoshe.com
I love it! Thanks for sharing these great tips to make the process much more efficient and worthwhile.
Thank you Rose!
Thanks so much for sharing this! My husband and I were just talking about gathering pallets for some crafty projects. Ill send this his way!
I have a new blog hop called Natural Living Monday and I would love it if you could share this there. Thanks so much! http://www.naturallivingmamma.com/2012/09/23/natural-living-monday-3/
Great informaiton! Thank you for sharing this.
Great tutorial. I have about 50 pallets in the barn that are just waiting for me….someday I’ll have a chance to get to them. Thanks for sharing at the All Star Block Party!
Holly
About to do my first pallet project, so the timing was great for me to see this post. Pretty sure my husband has a Sawzall in the garage! Thanks for the tips!
Reblogged this on debsthoughtstoday and commented:
I want Taki to build me a book shelf or two and a CD, DVD holder.
If you can’t make it with a sawzall and zipties, it isnt’ worth making! LOL
Love the hutch, nice work!
Hello, new follower here! I would love to have you link up with my Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week!
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/10/upcycled-chicken-coop-clever-chicks.html
I hope to see you there!
Cheers!
Kathy
The Chicken Chick
Just discovered your blog via Gnowfglins and am enjoying reading your articles. This looks like a great project- any suggestions on where to start looking for pallets? Do most grocery stores use them? We also have a lot of horse farms nearby, would they have them? Thanks so much for any suggestions!
So glad to have you visit our blog! We look anywhere and everywhere people take truck deliveries. If you have a local farm and garden store they usually have some lying around – as well as farm implement and parts stores. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the super time saving ‘tip’ on cutting down a pallet in record time !!.
Did you find a plan online for building your chicken coop, it is just beautiful!
Thank you so much Lindsey for the compliment on the chicken coop…we actually drew up the plans ourselves to be able to use up pallet and shipping crate wood we had. – Jim
Would a jig saw work if I used the right blade?
Annelise – Unfortunately, the jigsaw would not work very well because of the inability to have a flat enough cut for the center pallet boards. Although there are longer jigsaw blade you can buy that would come close – the saw itself would be hard to angle for those cuts. Jim
I think I struck GOLD when I saw this post! My husband and I are about to embark on a project idea we found on pinterest using pallets to make a wood wall in our basement for a rustic look. Do you have a pinterest page where all your family projects are pictured??
We do!
Glad you like the post – you can find our pinterest page here : http://pinterest.com/oldworldgarden/
Thank you so much for this tip! We built a pallet cooler box as a gift for relatives, and dismantling the pallets was a nightmare, but the project was so worth it. How much power should I look for in a sawzall? I noticed they range from inexpensive to outrageous. Thanks!
It really makes it go so much quicker!! The pallet cooler sounds really neat! As for power – you can get away with one of the lesser amperage saws if you will only be using it to cut down pallets. The blade is the real key – buy the long deconstruction blades and it will make quick work of them! If you buy a cordless one – i wouldn’t go any less than 18 volt. Hope that helps! Jim
What do you do to address the issue of the nails that remain in the wood?
It only takes a quick nick into one to ruin an expensive blade on a planer, joiner, or table saw.
Carl- we build a lot of our projects leaving them in to look rustic. For those we want out- we will trim off the two end board with nails and then punch out the middle two nails for a clean board to work with.
Do you clean/disinfect wood? I’ve wanted to do a bunch of these projects but my husband tells me the is nasty. Thoughts?
Katie:
You can use a power washer and make quick work of cleaning them up. That is what we always use and it leaves the wood nice and clean. We are also pretty selective when finding them – taking only the cleanest we can find. We really have never had to much of a problem with them. I hope that helps and good luck on your projects! Jim
Great blog – very informative and inspiring! Question for you: I have access to many pallets and really ike the idea of dis-assembling them. The SawZall idea is great but just wondering if either the 2x4s or the slats (or both) are damaged when the SawZall is used to cut them apart. My plan is to use the wood to build a goat house for my Nigerian Dwarf goats. Thanks!
Good morning Gene and thank you for the kind words about the blog. Its a pretty quick technique and the boards usually come out clean. If you have a pallet where the boards are nailed really tight – just use a rubber mallet or a hammer with a board to loosen them a little before running the saw blade down through – it will make it a lot easier! Good luck on your project! Jim
Can you do it without a sawzaw? I tried a hammer, but the boards split. Frustrating…
What do you do about finishing the wood? With nail bits won’t it damage your planer?
I live in the UK and am following your blog. Love it! reading the pallet blog at the mo,but can you tell me what a ‘sawzall’ is please? I think we probably have another name for it in the UK.Thankyou
Thanks so much for the compliments Carol – glad to have you as a reader of the blog! The real name for the saw is a reciprocating saw – and it really does wonders working with pallets! – Jim
Thanks Jim. Am so enjoying reading all the tips on your website.It’s full of the American enthusiasm for ‘doing things’. Just off to buy a reciprocating saw. Will keep you posted!
I’ve been using pallets for a couple of years. I have made potato boxes and compost bins. Potatoe boxes are great. You build it, then fill with 8 in. dirt. Put in seed potatoes. When the plant gets 12 inches tall, you add more dirt. Keep doing it until it’s time to harvest. Then all you have to do is pull out the wood planks starting from the bottom. Reach in and pull out your potatoes. NO DIGGING !
Hi,
I am planning on starting the deconstruction of my pallets and you mention that you use a sawsall. I know that it is also called a reciprocating saw. I have a large one but I would like to get a smaller one that would be easier to handle and also with a cord. Can you tell me what brand that you use or recommend? Thank you.
I have two that i love. A cordless Porter Cable and a corded one – and they both have been great! Hope that helps,
Jim
This is incredible! I just started working with old junk to make some crafty little house. Decor and absolutely love it! Your “how to’s” are great!!