Pallets - how do you burn them?

[unclemoustache]

I usually use pallets for stacking wood on until there's not much left of them so I just throw them out or toss them onto my outdoor burning pit.

However, some of you burn them and have a source for lots of them. What method do you use to get them into firewood size? Hammer off the slats and then cut them with a chop saw, or what? How long does it take you to get them that way?

 

[Marshy]

I don't use them as a source of fuel or kinlen but I know what I'd use. Skill saw, also known as a circular saw.

 

[cre73]

I burn a lot of pallets. I have tried about every way there is for cutting them up. Circular saw is the way to go. I cut the slats off the runners and use those in the house stove. The runners with the nails get burnt in my big stove in my shop.

 

[Jerryv88]

Burned a lot of them for kindling. A circular saw is the easiest way to make pieces out of them. You have to watch carefully for nails. They are hell on blades.

Jerry

 

[Deleted member 83629]

i pull the nails out then stack the wood with the ugly stuff, btw the nails come in handy for future repairs on the shed since all the pallets i get are hard wood.

 

[row.man]

Sawzall, there are blades that don't mind a few nails, and I can cut it all from any angle.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Cut in 2 or 3 pieces with chainsaw, throw in stove.

 

[CentaurG2]

I have cut up many a pallet. If you are only going to cut up a couple (or they are very dirty), I use a good reciprocating saw with an aggressive blade. Milwaukee ax blades work very well and last a long time. Lean the pallet up against a wall or tailgate, cut the stringers as close to the runners as you can leaving one or two stringers attached at the bottom of the pallet. Rotate the pallet so the top is now the bottom and finish cutting the remaining stringers. Turn the pallet over and cut the back stringers if it has any. You now will have 2 or three runners. Set them aside to cut later. Done properly, you should never need to bend over except to pick up the cut pieces. Total cutting time is probably about 3-5 min depending on the number and thickness of the stringers.

If you are facing down a truck load of pallets, I use a small chainsaw with a narrow kerf bar and 95vp chain. Stack up several pallets till you get to a comfortable working height. Cut the stringers out of the top pallet and set the runners aside. Replace the top pallet and repeat. This process goes amazingly fast as long as you don’t hit anything.

To cut the runners, a circular saw is the fastest but you really need to watch out for the nails. I usually just use the reciprocating saw and cut the runners in the fork cut outs. At 2 cuts per runner, you are probably looking at about 20-30 seconds per runner.

While there is a good amount of heat in a hardwood pallet, I don’t really think they are worth the time/effort to gather and cut up unless you are really hard pressed for firewood.

 

[Fred Wright]

Back when I had a good source I cut up many a pallet. Had no truck at the time so it had to be done on site. They were nice - a plate glass company scrapped stacks of long, all oak skids. Across the complex, a guv'mint contractor tossed rough oak timbers that equipment was shipped on. Sweep up afterwards and you're good.

Anyhoo, a chainsaw was (and still is) my go-to for smalling down pallets. It's much faster than electric lumber saws and there's no fussing with dulled blades.

As was mentioned, be aware of where the hardware is and cut away from it. Before dumping stove ash, use a magnet to retrieve nails and bolts.

 

[Marine5068]

Back when I had a good source I cut up many a pallet. Had no truck at the time so it had to be done on site. They were nice - a plate glass company scrapped stacks of long, all oak skids. Across the complex, a guv'mint contractor tossed rough oak timbers that equipment was shipped on. Sweep up afterwards and you're good.

Anyhoo, a chainsaw was (and still is) my go-to for smalling down pallets. It's much faster than electric lumber saws and there's no fussing with dulled blades.

As was mentioned, be aware of where the hardware is and cut away from it. Before dumping stove ash, use a magnet to retrieve nails and bolts.

Good idea with the magnet trick.

 

[stillhunter]

I use a small Ryobi cordless circular saw to cut through the middle of the top and bottom slates, pop them off the frames w a hammer and then saw the frames into pieces. It only takes a few mins. per pallet to make a pile of kindling. I don't bother w the nails I just try to pic them out of the ashes I spread in the natural areas or in w the compost.

 

[7sleeper]

Eletric chainsaw 7

 

[windthrown]

I use pallets for stacking my firewood on. When they rot out I cut them up with a Skill saw with a carbide blade. I use a magnet to fish out the nails from the ashes before dumping them in the garden or on the driveway. Wood ashes make good fertilizer and good 3/4 minus gravel fines.

 

[TMFARM 2009]

i just cut them in 5-6 pieces with 14" chainsaw, then throw them in the stove.( a very good application for a power sharp system.)
you can stoke a stove quickly with pallets.
some are pine some are hardwood.
around us plenty of farmers and factories and stores get an abundance of used pallets.
in one shipment i had received more than two hundred 40"x 48" pallets. a friend wanted rid of them.
some can be mended and resold. busted pallets get the stove treatment.
its a quick way to get firewood for little to no money.

 

[stihly dan]

In a pallet stove stupid.

 

[Odog]

Back when I was in high school, I used to take a pickup load to the desert every Saturday night. We'd stack them up in a sand hole for a bonfire and usually a keg of beer would magically appear, then presto, we'd have a party!

 

[blkcloud]

I hate cutting pallets up.. I've tried everything and nothing is acceptable to me.. Seems like I can get twice as much wood for the same amount of time sawing up a tree.. Course if you don't have anything to do all day long.. Go for it!

 

[Macman125]

I have a little echo top handle saw I use to cut them up. It makes pretty quick work out of them.

 

[brenndatomu]

Circular saw is the way to go. I cut the slats off the runners and use those in the house stove.

Bingo. I burn the runners too, just cut 'em in half somewhere between the middle slats (and hopefully between the nails) Once you get set up you can turn a pallet into firewood in about 3 minutes or less. I make 11 cuts total on each one. My ashes go into the dumpster (in empty water softener salt bags) so I don't worry about the nails.

 

[HarvestMan]

Picked up a whole bunch of oak pallets used to ship standby generators last winter. When I found better pallets for stacking, I decided to cut up the oak ones for fuel. Circular saw to cut all the slats off works best for me. The dang nail heads break off if I try to pull them, so I end up leaving them in and cutting around the nails using my table saw. Results in shorter pieces than I would like, but I don't want to burn nails in my cat stove. The short, nail filled pieces may end up going to the landfill. Not really sure the nails would harm the cat, but still a bit reluctant to burn them.

I use the pallet pieces for filler or bundle the slats together with bailing twine and use them at the back of the stove like a big rectangular split. Sometimes will put down a couple slats and then a couple gren bricks with a couple more slats on top; the cwf bricks burn best for me when sandwiched between wood.