Big shipment of free pallets!

[ChickenSahib]

Hey all,

I recently got a giant shipment of free pallets to build my coop with. The problem is, these things are so darn difficult to separate. I wanted to keep costs low and that's why I got these pallets.

Any ideas?

I was thinking about taking my uncles circular saw and just cutting out the pieces that don't have nails in them. Granted, they will be about 2ft long, but I can build up from that.

Thanks

 

[Mike & Baby Chicken]

Short of sitting there with a claw hammer removing boards and nails, the skil-saw may be your best bet.

 

[ECBW]

I pried a seam then used reciprocating saw (sawz-all) and metal-cutting blade to cut thru the nails. This way you get the lumber at the fullest dimensions possible. The nails can stay in and will not diminish the functionality of the lumber.

 

[ChickenSahib]

How much would renting a recip saw and blade cost me at HD?

 

[ladyride]

Love sawz-all they are so handy for lot's of things worth the investment jmho

 

[ChickenSahib]

Unfortunately, I'm a college student on a budget

 

[Roccomanchickens]

Hi; The nails are really difficult to remove because the are "twisted" so don't pull out like regular nails. You can cut through the sides and use the top of the pallet like a fence panel, filling in the spaces between with the scraps that you cut out. Kind of hard to describe, but if you look at the pallet like a sandwich, you would be separating the top from the bottom. Just be careful cutting through the wood with a circular saw because if you do hit a nail it can kick back at you. You can buy saw blades that cut metal, but they are kinda pricey.

 

[Chemguy]

I love the idea of using pallette wood, and that's how I started out. Some of those suckers are held together with nails, some with 50 staples each, and some with both! It took a while to get a small stack of useable wood. There was lots of splitting. What I found as I went through the pallettes is that about 3/4 of them aren't worth the wood they are made of. Your stack might be different. The other 1/4 of mine were absolutely wonderful. Nice, hard tropical wood. If you want the full length of wood use a claw hammer, a pry bar and a set of vise-grips or channel-locks to get the metal out. Take your time. While you could use 2 ft pieces of wood, you'll need even more 'studs' to attach them together to make a wall.

One option I thought of, before it was clear that staples were my enemy, was to use a small circle saw to cut a hole around each nail head, giving me a board that had nice, neat holes in it. The plan was to then use felt paper over the whole coop to stop drafts.

Another option would be to just leave the pallettes intact. Lots of folk do that. Search for "pallette coop" here on BYC.

I wound up coming into a huge heap of used 2x4's and plywood for free and it was a quick and easy decision to stop culling wood from pallettes. I kind of regret my decision, since I like the look of the pallette wood. Maybe I'll wind up using it for siding.

Good Luck!

 

[ECBW]

Quote:
Call HD and find out.

 

[ladyride]

My small coop is pallet wood used some for siding as someone else on here I liked the look of pallet wood. There has been some modifications since I put it on my page I called a roofing co. asked for their scrapes those were free, got enough to do the coop & run 2 different colors but you can"t beat free.

The run was on CL you can find them very reasonable.

The hardware for the doors & windows were the most expensive part.