uh g'day folks uncle knackers here and in today's video i'm going to show you where i find free pallets yep i said the word free for all of my pellet projects which will include where to go what to look for and more importantly what to avoid let's go ah just a quick side note if i may if you've ever had the pleasure or should i say displeasure of removing nails from a whole heap of pellet boards make sure you keep watching as a little later on i'm going to reveal a bonus tip regarding a way to remove all those pesky hard to remove pallet wood nails stay tuned it's a game changer now hands down the best place to find all those lovely free pellets is from your local industrial park but before you jump in your car and go exploring a quick search on facebook or gumtree which is australia's equivalent to craigslist is a great place to start for example check this out if i go onto my local buy swap and sell page and then go to the search bar over here click on that and then we'll type in pallets and see what comes up fingers crossed and there we have it we have two listings both are free this one here is pallets galore free and that sounds right up my alley i'll just give that a click and check that out what a score now if we go back to the other one there he is three pallets click on that and there we have another awesome free stack now that's a really easy way to find free pallets because you don't need to ask anybody and you can save yourself hours from driving around aimlessly looking now while i've got the computer fired up here's another ninja tip now if you can log on to google maps and then click satellite mode you can get an overview of what's happening in your local industrial park or estate that way you can tell which these businesses may or may not be storing pallets now if we go to these guys over here it's a business that sells tiles now if i can enlarge that just like that we can actually see that these guys have some pallets so it might be worthwhile going into that business asking if they're throwing any out and if they are can you have any and you can do that over the entire estate now just be aware that this is most likely an older photo maybe a year or two old but it still gives us a good representation of who may or may not have pellets and we're fat let's shut the computer down grab the car keys let's go for a drive and go pellet mining you'll find that when you're looking and you're driving through these industrial parks or estates pellets will pop up left right and center it's kind of like when you buy a brand new car and you suddenly start noticing them everywhere you look and every now and then you get lucky and you hit the mother lode see what i mean check this out it's an absolute gold mine or should i say pallet mine just a whole stack of pellets right for the taking awesome imagine how much stuff you can make with a haul like this love it now when you're going through your stash of pallets just be a bit selective there's heaps here to choose from like for instance there's no need to choose a pallet that has bent boards like these ones here seriously i've seen bananas straighter than these ones they're just more trouble than they're worth speaking of bananas how's this there's a banana a walnut some broccoli and a mushroom all sitting around one day just having a bit of a chat true story and the broccoli says that it looks like a tree which it does the walnut then pipes up and says he looks like a brain yep fair cool the mushroom was next and he says he looks like an umbrella then finally the banana speaks up and he goes guys can we please change the topic because the whole you know the whole banana thing is just a bit awkward so yeah unfortunate shape you know what i mean so yeah now if you can't find any pallets discarded on the side of the road you may need to approach the business in person now basically any business that handles merchandise will use pallets and the best ones that i've found to approach are the following and just a quick mental note they're all businesses that handle dry goods which means no spillage and the less likelihood of chemical or food contamination okay these are my pallet hot spots kicking off with appliance centers where they sell things like tvs fridges washing machines all that sort of gear well there's always plenty of pellets to choose from in these type of businesses plenty of pellets plenty of pellets that's hard to say plenty of pellets next up on my pallet scavenging list is tile brick and granite and auto and mower supplies heavy equipment requires a heavy duty pallet which often means that these pallets are made from hardwood so if that's the style of pallet you're after then hit these guys up and last on my list are building sites furniture companies and hardware stores these places are also great sources of palliative goodness now obviously you just can't go in and take the pellets you actually need to go inside the business and ask somebody first if it's okay which is a really simple process all you need to do is to go inside introduce yourself say your name is joe blogs and that you're making something like a coffee table out of pallets and you're wondering if they have any spare ones or scrap ones that they're getting rid of nine times out of ten they're going to say yes because that's going to save them time and money to get rid of them without doubt the number one thing to avoid when selecting palettes to use for your projects is any palette labelled mb that stands for methyl bromide it's a potent pesticide and should be avoided at all costs do not use these pallets end of story now some pellets like this one here don't come with any labels at all it's heavy now generally speaking a palette without a stamp means that it's a national palette used only in your country so they aren't treated with any chemicals at all so in theory they should be safe to use and a palette labelled with the ht symbol these are the ones to get they have been heat treated without any use of chemicals at all so they are good to go now just in case you're wondering what those other two letters mean the i in the t that is the pellets country of origin which in this case is italy now i'm going to link to a very good article regarding palette safety down below so make sure you read that before you embark on your pellet project endeavors and number two the other thing to avoid when searching for pellets is don't bother with the damaged ones it's just too much effort for very little reward and you'll probably just finish up using them for firewood [Music] now just a couple of golden rules regarding palette scavenging and that is be responsible clean up after yourself and don't leave the area looking like a dog's breakfast leave it like you found it if not better golden rule number two ask for permission before you load any pallets into your vehicle we don't want anybody getting into trouble and basically it's just the right thin
