Pallet Wood

[HandyDan]

Pallets are a good source of wood but we have come to realize they may not be safe to use if they were sprayed for bugs etc. I ran across a site that listed branding on some pallets that mean they were no chemicals used on them. Here is a list of the branding sequence used. The green brands are safe to use the red are not.

[Nickp]

Good to know...I'm planning on using pallet wood as some of the components in the shop build...cleats, braces, etc...thanks for the info...

I will look at markings more carefully now...

[smitty10101]

use the wood to build shelves for the garage or outdoor workshop

The BEST suggestion

Alluded to, but not directly mentioned:
ANYTHING that will come in contact with food or anything else that might go in your mouth

[Bushwhacker]

Pallet wood has been known to kill family pets. My brother in law built a fence by nailing pallets together around his Mobil Home in a mobile home lot. He did this to keep his dog from running loose. The dog jumped right over the fence and ran around. He then drove a stake in the ground in the yard and tied the dog to the stake.
When he got home that night, he had an eviction notice on his door.
Seems the dog jumped the fence anyway, but the chain was not long enough for him to reach the ground.
This is how he was found when the school bus stopped right there to discharge the kids
The dog was dead and hanging from the fence with his tongue hanging out.
Some of those kids may have needed therapy .

A side note": The chemicals in the wood didn't seem to bother him.

[kmealy]

I used a pallet once. Way too much time to get a pile of terrible wood. It worked for the chicken coop, but never again.

I also used some reclaimed cedar once. In the last 6" of a board that I didn't need all of, I hit an embedded nail and messed up some expensive planer blades.

[DaninVan]

Amen; same applies to any recycled wood. VoE. Don't touch the stuff anymore. An $80 TS blade with shattered teeth is a pretty heavy price to pay to recover a bit of lumber.

[Nickp]

Christmas wish tool...metal detector. I have the Garrett Super Scanner V. After dealing with a counterfeit on the initial purchase I finally received the real McCoy and I like it...

Maybe there's better, maybe not...supposedly it can pick up a staple on the underside of a 2x4...haven't tried it...

Having said that I haven't picked up any reclaimed wood...

[Nickp]

Bought the Garrett from Amazon...turned out to be a copy from China. Didn't have the right switch, same serial number as hundreds of others, didn't work at all unless you hung a steel plate in front of it. Complained to Amazon and they wanted to send me another...NOOOOO!

I finally bought one from a reputable distributor of Garrett security stuff and been happy since (I contacted Garrett, they were aware of the issue)...today I chased the internet cable down the lawn in preparation for digging a small trench for power to the pool. I believe the cable is buried about 4-6" below the surface.

You need to keep moving the wand across the suspected villain...it's not like a stud finder...it beeps/buzzes/earphone as the wand passes over it. It's a bit tough locating something PRECISELY where it is in the wood but it will tell you there is metal in that area. Of course it works best if the workpiece is suspended in air...otherwise it will pick up any metal under the workpiece and you'll get a lot of false positives. Battery lasts forever but a weak battery will affect locating performance.

Works real well to detect pipes and wires in the walls...will help you trace the line by following the beeps. To help as a stud finder you need to find the screws/nails in the sheetrock and that tells where the stud is.

It's like a torque wrench...sits and does nothing until you need it, but when you do you can't do without it...

There are other products out there...Zircon makes a couple of detectors that seem to rate pretty high. (check out the YT videos)