How to Cut Up AND PROCESS Pallets into Usable Boards

As promised, here is a fast and easy way to cut up and process wood pallets. I use these boards for so many things, not just "pallet wood projects." I know there are a ton of pallet cut up videos on youtube so I hope you get something a little new and different out of it. Enjoy!
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Links to some tools and materials I use:
Art Resin - amzn.to/3SKaLWh
Porter Cable Sander - amzn.to/3McZPhD
Titebond Wood Glue - amzn.to/3rI3yKF
Porter Cable Air Compressor - amzn.to/3CDpEEh
Porter Cable Air Compressor with Nail Guns Incl. - amzn.to/3rD71dd
Some Wood Stain - amzn.to/3SNo2gP
18 Gauge 3/4” nails - amzn.to/3rAUirL
Irwin Clamps (md size) - amzn.to/3fSyxRm
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[@briansolo]

You built that guitar out of pallets?! Impressive ;-)

[@carlosreira2189]

Very smart. You're right about the variety of woods you'll find. Fun fact, most pallets have a two letter country code. Some of the ones I've seen--CA (Canada, lots of spruce, doug fir, and nice maple, if it's light and white it's Aspen), BR (Brazil, lots of plantation grown pine, but really usable), MX (Mexico, various woods, even mahogany once in a blue moon), CL (Chile, plantation pine), AS (Austria, good alpine spruce and Scots pine), Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Philippines, Malaysia etc. I've never ever seen walnut on a pallet. Cherry a few times. Oak, tons. Ash, often. Beech, only occasionally. Basswood, ditto. Tulip poplar, as frequently as oak, second only to Yellow pine. By law, all pallets which are shipped across borders must be fumigated or heat treated to kill bugs and larvae. HT is the code for heat treated at the video made clear. To get longer boards you need a pallet breaker, a four foot leverage tool. You can get them on Amazon for around $60 US. You'll need about 3.5" of space to get the tool in between boards. The nails are always spiral or ring shank mothers, often cement coated, rusty if their in oak for any amount of time. Nails pull best out of fresh pallets. Use a pry bar. You'll often break off their heads before they come out. If so, grab the shank super tight with your best vice grips and get the pry bar under the jaws, then tug. As a last resort, drill two holes along side a buried nail and chisel around it a bit. There's always a way. But usually not worth the time. Watch out for buried grit from gravel and the forklift. It's easier to pull oak slats off of pine stringers than vice versa. The thicker the slat the less breakage. Nails that come out on the slat will often have their heads overdriven. Spray the nail head with water to soften the wood before backing out the nail. This prevents splintering. That's everything I know about pallets. Hope this helps somebody.

[@MountainsideArts]

Wow! That was awesome Carlos!!

[@carlosreira2189]

@@MountainsideArts no. thank you for doing what you do. I just happen to live next door to a lumberyard that puts out pallets. Oh boy.

[@stefaniehart-neidenberg8702]

Great video! And nice van…let’s see a tour!!

[@katspeace5550]

Thanks for sharing your method 🤘🏼

[@MountainsideArts]

My pleasure!

[@amkessel2014]

Another great video! I’ve been enjoying these. The time lapse makes it interesting and moves it along, your monologues are informative, and the guitar music fits well! You’re inspiring me to hopefully one day get into woodworking myself. 😊

[@skyshotoffical]

Awesome video!

[@dennisdownes9319]

Great that you're not afraid to speak up for safety!! Great video!! DD

[@MountainsideArts]

Thanks Dennis!

[@hillcountrygarage]

Good job, and nice tunes to go along with the content.

[@MountainsideArts]

Thanks!

[@woodandwheelz]

Thank you for sharing, You have a new subscriber. God bless.

[@cabman86]

I have 3 pallets made with hickory I need to process. I have gotten a lot of red oak too. Had one with hard maple.

[@MountainsideArts]

It’s pretty amazing really how much good wood is out there. We just need to find it and put in a little elbow grease.

[@CCdance19]

That was awesome. I had never thought to go straight for the clean short boards. That will motivate me to actually process pallets when I get one. Not just let it rot on the side of the house or take up space in my shed or garage. Thanks! What planer did you use? I'm considering getting one but I don't think it would be worth the money if I am just doing hobby pieces.

[@MountainsideArts]

I have the Dewalt 735x. It's a great planer. But, to be honest, it's probably overkill for someone who is not using it all the time. There are a few great bench top planers out there that aren't too bad price wise. The Rigid & Dewalt 734 come to mind but there are other quality ones. I actually got mine (slightly) used. I just kept looking at FB Marketplace & Craigslist for a couple weeks until I found a good one. "Not just let it rot on the side of the house or take up space in my shed or garage". Totally. LOL

[@VictorBecker-if8ns]

Nice guitar soundtrack!

[@MountainsideArts]

Thanks! Not a professional but it’s fun. :)

[@michaelwillson6847]

Wish I got different species pallets over here most the pallets I can lay my hands on are pine or usually painted red or blue which your not meant to take because they belong to a company and wouldn't use painted ones anyway. Nice process though. Would love some exotic pallets! 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@MountainsideArts]

I try and be strategic on where I get them from. I look for businesses that I think get a lot of foreign deliveries.

[@michaelwillson6847]

@@MountainsideArts makes sense a suppose I don't really have anything like that here other than Chinese takeaways and a don't think they get pallets worth of stuff🤔🤔👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

[@MountainsideArts]

@@michaelwillson6847 Just a guess here but I’ll bet a lot of those Chinese pallets are also chemically treated and not heat treated.

[@michaelwillson6847]

@@MountainsideArts quite probably it's hard finding decent pallets over here they either have mb written on them(bad) or they've nothing on them which can't really trust. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@ninmpeck]

Love it. Did you make the guitar too?

[@MountainsideArts]

Ahh, not this one. But I have made guitars in the past. 😎

[@sjf67gto]

I'm considering getting into this Hobby, the only thing is how do you guys tell the difference of what type of wood the pallet is?

[@MountainsideArts]

Many pallets that originate in the U.S. are pine, hickory, some oak, and a surprise mix of some other stuff too. The pallets that originated from overseas are a fun mix of all kinds of exotic species. The best way to tell what you have, besides just experience, is to try and match pictures. Here is a great place to start. www.bobvila.com/articles/types-of-wood/

[@kellyallgaier5376]

Great video! Is it easy to see where all the nails are, or are there hidden ones to watch out for?

[@MountainsideArts]

It’s almost always easy to see them. But, of course, it’s still always a good idea to be extra careful and double check. 👍😎

[@mikeking7470]

I've hit a few nails, those are nails than went out the side of the stringer, used to use my pull saw until I ruined it, now I use a demo blade, in either my battery powered reciprocating saw or my circular saw. You can still clean up the 2x4 stingers after cutting off the deck boards.

[@MountainsideArts]

@@mikeking7470 Good call on the demo blade!

[@anthonycoyer7186]

I foud a jigsaw/sabresaw also works well

[@MountainsideArts]

Nice 👍

[@barbieogden6132]

I am new and so lost because I am no carpenter and these project are for my own use . All the videos I see give no step by step and no definitions on measuring and cuts . Please help or give reference and guide .

[@MountainsideArts]

Thank you for the feedback. I'll definitely try to incorporate more of that in the future.

[@Habibulla.M]

I wonder who will need these small pieces for wood work. People ask for longer pieces mostly . They don't bother about the nail holes as they can fill them easily. Else they don't mind having them in their project. Only if you have customers for these small pieces it's ok to do this.

[@MountainsideArts]

Agreed. Yes, these would be for small to medium size projects. If somebody wanted to, they could also laminate them together (butcher block style) and make something bigger.

[@MDD1966]

Wasted a lot of usable wood, the nail holes give your project character

[@MountainsideArts]

Agreed. I still use a lot of the other wood too. It just depends on the project though.

[@birdmananyweather1681]

I think it's more about the time savings here. All that being processed in a couple hours is so worth it. Especially that clean of wood... So to speak (no holes, multiple sides surfaced, and project ready). Super useful if batching things out! Cheers!!

[@whoawhoawhoahwoahwho]

You know a lot of people don't have a planer

[@MountainsideArts]

That's true. Thank you. I was just trying to show how I go through this process with the tools I currently have. I didn't always have a 13" planer either. I started with a $10 used electric hand planer from a pawn shop. I made a simple box and turned the planer upside-down to use it sort of like a jointer. That worked for a while. But you definitely need to be more safety cautious! Thanks!

[@peterburns2709]

Absolutely rubbish over the treatment 😂

[@MountainsideArts]

Hmmmm ?

[@scottykonovalov4518]

Ya I seen some shop built pallets untreated I also seen the chemical treated ones