Used Pallets

[poolhound]

I was wondering if anybody has found good places to go to pickup used pallets to recycle the wood especially in the Phoenix area.

[Uncle Cracker]

There is always somebody around here with a stack of them they want hauled off. They often put ads on CraigsList. Perhaps it's the same in your area. You could also put a wanted ad there, as well. Couldn't hurt.

[JoeyGee]

Just my 2 cents worth, but the only pallets worth the hassle would be if you could get some exotics and/or rare woods from Asia or somewhere. I had the same idea a few years ago.

I figured it would be free wood and I would feel good by keeping them out of a landfill. I found some hardwood pallets, but after several frustrating hours all I had were a pile of rusty nails and a bunch of crooked boards with rusty holes in them.

FWIW, I have heard motorcycle and snowmobile dealers are good, as they have large pallets with some interesting wood from Asia and other parts of the world. I never tried them, though.

[mnmphd]

Another place is stone (marble/granite) dealers. The slabs often come on large A-frame palletes. I grabbed some a few months back but haven't had time
to work the word to much. In my case many of them where stamped with the
country of origin.

Being larger to start you can get some decent peices of wood without to
much effort. For example, I just cut off the ends that where riddled with
nails and I got a 4x4 about 4ft long. With a little effort on other parts
of the frame I also got some pieces about 6ft in length. I have some
interesting wood from India, but I have yet to figure out what it is.
Maybe I will take a sample to my local hardwood dealer and see if they know.

MNM

[4estgump]

I go behind Lowe's, Wal-Mart, HD, K-Mart, Kroger,some High Schools. Just about any place you would think big orders are shipped to them. I like to work with Oak and alot of pallets are made of Oak. There is alot of work taking them apart, but after you see a project come together it's great. Best of all it's FREE.
4est

[Daryl]

Newspapers get most of their inserts on pallets. My local rag is always trying to get rid of them. The pallets we get at work seem to all be made of green wood and there is not a straight board in the bunch.

[pelligrini]

My brother in law brought me some wood from some cooling tower parts pallets. A few pieces had some really unusual colors. I started working them and I started breaking out in a slight rash. I still don't know what the wood was, but my body sure didn't like it.

[jackellis]

I finally got around to breaking up the pallet my new saw came on. Lotta work for cheap pine, especially without a crowbar.

[JoeyGee]

Now that I have a FUBAR, maybe I'll have to re-visit using pallets .

[DUD]

I have a friend that is sales manager for a local Honda store. I am able to sometimes get some from Him. They are usually wood from overseas, and I have used them in some projects. The only problem is to make sure no nails. Get a Little Wizard or something to check for metal. Bill

[poolhound]

good ideas and feedback - thanks

Jon

[TheRic]

New house / building construction sites normally have a lot of pallets. My brother is a framer, he says they will burn about half a dozen pallets at every job. Would be willing to bet they will let you take them away from the job site.

Buildings that are being remodeled is another good source of pallets. Have not really seen any at a house being remodeled, unless it was a major addition.

Ask to take them, most of them time they are happy to get rid of them. But there is some cases when they are NOT happy, better safe then sorry.

[mleichtle]

Look for a commercial roofing shop. Their sheet metal comes on 10' pallets made of 4x4 hardwoods, mostly oak.

[LCHIEN]

I would not get any hopes up on pallets as a source for good wood.
They are just packing material and not a sales feature so mostly they are made of the cheapest material possible, usually the most inexpensive local woods.
Most industrial users/manufacturers that input raw materials in bulk and ship out products in bulk reuse their pallets so basically they get reused until they are beat up and falling apart and beyond.

People having pallets to spare sometimes resell them to people who in turn them to people who need pallets, used ones being cheaper than new.
If they don't resell them then people having pallets to dispose of are usually end users of bulk products or retailers who get bulk shipments then sell the items out individually where they go home in little plastic bags. If they get their pallets from the manufacturers who get their pallets in the normal chain then they'll be cheap and of poor quality.

The only way you're likely to get decent pallets is as people have said, from underdeveloped countries where good local woods are still usually plentiful and maybe a byproduct (e.g. flooring companies using cutoffs too short for floor planks) and labor is cheap enough that the pallets are well put together and not dmaged by overnailing, the pallets have been used for one shipment and the recipient won't be reshipping.