Pallets

[marcros]

This may make me a bit of a pikey, but I have a decent supply of old pallets and shipping cases, and the timber is good for making shelving for the shed etc etc. The shipping cases, when I have enough 5ft boards, I am going to use for fencing- they are good flat boards and have a decent edge to them. Otherwise, they just get chucked in the skip and crushed,

Knocking the things apart can be easier said than done, and I find that I am damaging the boards on occasions. I then turn them over and knock out the nails. Is there a better way of nail removal than this?

Cheers
Mark

 

[Jacob]

.....This may make me a bit of a pikey......,

Makes you a bit of a racist

.. Is there a better way of nail removal than this?.....

Parrot beak nail extractor

 

[sirjj]

.....This may make me a bit of a pikey......,

Makes you a bit of a racist

ehy?...

 

[theartfulbodger]

an interesting conundrum

to me "pikey" and "gypsy" and "irish person" have three different meanings...



Anyway as I seem to be good at wandering off topic maybe it's a good time to buy one of these? :mrgreen:
http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp ... BER=55-099

 

[OPJ]

If you're going to be feeding these boards back through a machine then, a stiff brush would be a good purchase, if you don't already have one. Some kind of metal detector would also be useful - 'pallet wood' can pick up a lot of grit that would quickly ruin your knives and cutters.

Nice idea, though. A good way to build furniture on zero budget.

 

[Jacob]

I was thinking if one of these

but with pallets the more varieties of nail puller you have , the better.

"Cat's paw" is another

 

[marcros]

If you're going to be feeding these boards back through a machine then, a stiff brush would be a good purchase, if you don't already have one. Some kind of metal detector would also be useful - 'pallet wood' can pick up a lot of grit that would quickly ruin your knives and cutters.

Nice idea, though. A good way to build furniture on zero budget.

Furniture may be a bit grander than I had in mind. A shed may be a possibility though, as well as a host of things for the allotment.

An important point about picking up debris though, A brush and metal detector may be a sound investment.

 

[doorframe]

an interesting conundrum

to me "pikey" and "gypsy" and "irish person" have three different meanings...

We have an Irish lad here where I work. He takes no offence from the mention of Pikey's (unless you call him one!!). He calls them 'Knackers' and he hates them.

Been called one myself quite often, as I'm not adverse to raiding the odd skip!!

Regards pallets... watch out for woodworm. We had 8 footers for sheet steel at my previous job, made with 75 x 75mm. Some of it was good hardwood at 1st glance, but close inspection showed the dreaded signs of WW!! You don't want that in your workshop!

Roy

 

[TheTiddles]

Ignore Jacob, he's a pineapple faced pineapple who'd pineapple a goat if he thought his pineappling pineapples would get some attention in his pineappled-up existence.

As for pallets, yes you're a theiving little gypo, like many of us are here, there's a huge one at work which I think is 3X3 birch so I'm fixing to cut it up one day when I don't have to be dressed decently.

Aidan

 

[studders]

when I don't have to be dressed decently.

Aidan

You're going to do it dressed Indecently? :shock:

 

[Guggs]

Congratulations in raiding skips ! Its a great place to rescue timber from the 'dump' ! Many a time have i had a timber windfall .As for buckets .you can never have enough !

 

[Mark A]

You're going to do it dressed Indecently? :shock:

What - in your underwear?

 

[TheTiddles]

when I don't have to be dressed decently.

Aidan

You're going to do it dressed Indecently? :shock:

You should try it, keeps the pikeys away!

aidan

 

[studders]

Doesn't it frighten the Horses?

 

[No skills]

Not round here it wont :lol:

 

[jimi43]

Some pallets are made of superb hardwoods...some from exotic places anyway!

I use them for all sorts of things and I get most of my wood from skips or freecycle.

It never ceases to amaze me how much good wood is burned out there....I rescued two solid oak doors and built my workbench from them...

People eh!?

Once, overseas on a nearly deserted island with a huge American airbase....I used to "farm" the dump...Americans chuck out a far better class of junk! I was called "Stig of the Dump"! I think compared with that nickname...pikey seems tame! :mrgreen:

Jim

 

[AndyT]

Wandering back in the general direction of the topic, the OP asked about how to get nails out. Pallets are generally built with 'annular ring' nails which are really difficult to pull out, even with a proper nail puller. You may find it worth buying a plug cutter so you can drill the nails out but leave clean tidy holes rather than splits. Or for real economy, make one yourself by filing saw teeth round the rim of a scrap of 1/2" steel tube.

 

[TheTiddles]

So far as I'm concerned, if it's got a nail hole in it, it's scrap anyway, unless you want to make something that looks distressed, like a pikey when a police siren sounds.

I cut around them, the very large pallets have a good three feet between the bearers which is a fair chunk of wood for free

Aidan

 

[studders]

I cut through the nails using a Reciprocating Saw I got of t'bay for peanuts and some Bosch blades ideal for that purpose. Saves a lot of grunt work and a lot of split wood. What's left of the nail is punched out and easily filled with a plug to make it almost invisible.

 

[andy king]

.....This may make me a bit of a pikey......,

Makes you a bit of a racist

So can you explain your comment on 'Towel Heads' and A-rabs' then Jacob?
You started a thread on Woodwork UK using those exact terms, but luckily for you it was altered by a moderator.
Blaming it on 'having one too many' when you made the post doesn't alter the fact you seem to harbour the same racist/derogatory undertones you seem to be taking umbrage with here.