…and only breaks your back once.
I’ve been pulling pallets apart, converting these…
To this…
And I do confess, usually I go for the less labor-intensive method of just chopping the damned things to pieces with an electric saw. But that always leaves me with messy-as-hell stovewood and a stove full of nails. So today I figured I’d do it the right way, with hammer and crowbar, and then slice up the pieces to length.
I managed to dismember three ten-footers before seriously running out of steam, and was never so happy to hear thunder in my life. It works, but it’s work.
Normally I don’t get serious about firewood until sometime in October. But with a new influx, I’m suffering a literal embarrassment of riches in the matter of pallets stacked every-damn-where. Didn’t realize just how popular my offer to haul them off for free would turn out to be. Figured I’d knock down some of the piles a bit while it’s cloudy and cool. But oy. It hurts to be reminded of how much work it is.
Ain’t no such thing as too much: money, good luck, health, or firewood.
Could this new, more manual, method of pallet disassembly have anything to do with the loss of your big inverter?
No, I generally haul them to Ian’s for dismantling anyway. He’s got plenty of juice. I’m just unsatisfied with the result of cutting them up without taking them apart first, and thought I’d give this way a serious try.
If the Farmers Almanac is accurate, you’ll need the extra pallets.
http://farmersalmanac.com/weather-outlook/2016-winter-forecast/
I use a saws-all to cut the nails, then cut the pieces to length later.
This winter when the snow is blowing, the fire going and the windows are open.
Not worrying about if the wood will last until spring.
You can think of all this work and relax.
The option to open the windows, get the fresh air moving while it is winter and still be warm is right up there.
Burning is the best way to get nails out of wood. It just offends our sensibilities – but our sensibilities should shut up for once. 🙂
I’m with Paul on this one. I just leave the nails in place and run the saw right along the edge of the 2x4s then cut the resulting short boards in half again then the 2x4s to length and stack them up. Ashes with nails haul out just as easy as ashes without nails.
Pallets make surprisingly good firewood since they are usually made out of various types of really hard wood.