Friday 11 June 2010

Knock on wood

I've inherited a few things from my dad; a need to keep a stick for stirring paint (see earlier post), a bunion and an inability to throw away wood.

So when I was left with a pallet after a delivery of plasterboard, did it get thrown away? Absolutely not - I am my father's daughter. It was left hanging around in the garden until I had the time to dismantle it and use it for raised beds for my blueberry bushes:





The problem was, these things are sturdily built. I guess they have to be, considering the weight they have to support. There is a very useful demonstration on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtPmUZ-k3aI) on how to break up a pallet in a way that doesn't destroy the wood, but it would appear you need to be a big strong chap to do it this way. When I tried, nothing moved at all!


So, just in case any of you girls have plans to reuse a pallet, I thought I might show you how I, a weak and feeble woman, took mine apart.


Firstly, here are the tools:





A crowbar (otherwise known as a jemmy to your local burglar) and a rubber hammer (don't use a metal hammer as this will jar your hand and arm).



Get the bar into the corner of the first join and hammer in at an angle.




After prising and jiggling you should be able to lift the first section from the beam:


Do the same with the next three joins and you should be able to remove the first plank. Carry on doing this to all the places where the planks meet the beams. I warn you it's hard work and it took me about forty/fifty minutes to complete, but now I have some great bits of wood to make my raised beds:





My dad will be so proud!

Blessings,

Andi



10 comments:

  1. I am so impressed! I want to collect pallets as I believe there is a multitude of things to be done with them but my husband totally has a thumbs down attitude about it so I will have to live through your little project. Thanks for sharing....Love your header (it's new isn't it?)Have a great weekend.

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  2. Excellent! We are pallet lovers in this house! - well, hubby is. They are so useful. He's in the middle of building a wood store out of one at the moment.
    x

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  3. Hiya- love the new look, it's really summery.

    Our chicken house is built out of pallets- they're wonderful things!

    Just think of all the arm toning you've acheived dismantling the planks- no need at all for the gym!

    Have a lovely weekend
    xx

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  4. This post made me smile, my Dad was a great recycler and it is firmly ingrained within me too. Every time I go into my shed and see my pot of (paint stirrer) sticks, I think of you. In a nice way of course :D

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  5. How very informative, just what I needed to be able to tackle the pile of pallets at the allotment that need breaking up :)

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  6. Very good indeed! WHy chuck things away that can be used for something else. Too much waste in this world, so I am very impressed! Suzie xx

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  7. Clever girl. I'm impressed too!
    :o)

    The photo of your Nan in the last post is really special. Thank you for sharing it

    Have a lovely weekend and sorry I haven't visited for a while ... I've had "stuff" going on!

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  8. Well done Andi, don't forget to let us see when you've 'recycled' it.

    Hugs RosieP x

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  9. Just the kind of instructions I need! We have several pallets that I want to de-assemble then re-assemble slightly differently into a little home for the local wildlife. Thanks for this!
    Dan
    -x-

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  10. I now have one of these pallet stripping bars:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipQLy-0Pfag

    And it is by far the quickist and easiest way I've found of stripping pallets so that I can reuse the timber

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I'd be really pleased to hear from you.