Best saw for pallets?

diable

Eliza wrote: »

...was asking for most efficient way to saw up pallets, not most efficient way to dispose of other halves - that bit I managed without advice.

Oh hahaha, just realised,you edited the quote. Well you certainly got me there, hilarious!!!

:beer:
:T

scbk

It depends on the design of pallet, if you have a nice big stack of ones all the same then you can get into the nack of it

Lay a few out on the ground, get a crowbar (the bigger the better), pull up all the planks and put into 2 piles, keeping planks with nails in sperate. Once you have a nice big pile get a claw hammer and go through the pile taking the nails out (have a bucket to throw the nails in)
Then you can move on to cutting the planks into lengths that will fit onto your fire/stove. A sliding mitre saw would be the easiest way but not worth the expense for scrap wood!
I got a circular saw from netto for £20 which is far quicker than a handsaw but can still get tiring

For sawing and knocking the nails out you want a workbench that is at a good height to save your back


In the summer I got a big stack of pallets via a mate (all the same type), put in my earphones with defenders over the top, and just worked solid at the pile, I now have a huge amount of kindling stashed away for the season :cool:

wallbash

I've been offered a supply of pallets for firewood

If this was going to be an ongoing supply , perhaps a very cheap circular saw is not such a bad idea.

Gloomendoom

I hate pallets as firewood. They are so labour intensive.

If you do use a circular saw be careful not to catch any stray nails with the blade.

savemoney

I use a cheap B&Q saw (its lasted 3 years now) and also a B&D jigsaw if I am knackered. I have a crow bar to prise the sections open and occasional I use a large axe (from Aldi) to do job. I use pallet wood for kindling too and put it is blue thick plastic bags I got from Morrisons for garden rubbish

I main issue with pallet wood is the mess though I get bits of wood in car seat when I fold them down even when I do cover the seats it still gets in and also the work involved breaking them up it can take 40 minutes to break one it to manageable pieces and bagged up

Pallet wood also burned very quickly I made the mistake when I first got burner to sue that wood to heat some rooms only the heat was so intense the laminate floor nearby buckled for a time, fortunately it straighten out later

I just tend to use pallet wood to get some quick heat and mainly for kindling now. I prime source of wood is seasoned logs

Eliza_2

Thank you everyone for the advice. Yes logs are great but unfortunately my source of great logs for the past few years has dried up and trying to find some new good ones is proving difficult, I've bought 'tester' bags from a couple of local suppliers and they've been very wet and fizzy.

Anyway, it seems I can have as many pallets as I can be bothered to collect so will do some shopping, circular saws and crowbars will come in handy for other things too so worth the outlay.

Thanks again

Liz

maninthestreet

Surely it would be better to use your chopper, if you have one and it's big enough.

27col

I saw my neighbour breaking up pallets for firewood the other day. It looked like darn hard work to me. I'm glad that I don't have a chimney.
The old saying springs to mind "If you are cutting up firewood it warms you twice" how true.