[Miss Phantom]

You may plan to paint it black or leave it bare but I highly recommend aging the wood with a steel wool and distilled vinegar solution. Soak the wool covered in a bowl for 4 days and brush on with a sponge. Use gloves though 'cause that stuff stinks up your hands. It instantly changes the color - although some pallets are treated and finicky. Those ones you got there in the middle of your pile look like they will take it nicely. Try it out on one pallet and see how you like it.

Also, use a sawzall if you can. Those pallets don't come apart easily. And screw them down so they don't move on you while you do this. These are all lesson I learned this year as I "boarded up" my front porch. Here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thAsa9jE2QQ

 

[TosaTerror]

Great idea on finding thrown away wood pallets for a fence!!! Looks like I have a year to start checking around grocery story dumpsters. I have a very narrow lot, so I won't need very many.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[JCO]

If you have access to a table saw you might consider cutting them in half lengthwise. Doubles your materials and still makes a great fence. Just a thought.

 

[Rigormortor]

You may plan to paint it black or leave it bare but I highly recommend aging the wood with a steel wool and distilled vinegar solution. Soak the wool covered in a bowl for 4 days and brush on with a sponge. Use gloves though 'cause that stuff stinks up your hands. It instantly changes the color - although some pallets are treated and finicky. Those ones you got there in the middle of your pile look like they will take it nicely. Try it out on one pallet and see how you like it.

Also, use a sawzall if you can. Those pallets don't come apart easily. And screw them down so they don't move on you while you do this. These are all lesson I learned this year as I "boarded up" my front porch. Here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thAsa9jE2QQ

Thanks for the reply on aging the wood. Yes it will look great once aged. I think I will try aging before painting

 

[Oak Lane Cemetery]

I like that look. I trashed my pallet fence this year. I used rope to assemble mine to make it easy to roll up, and while it worked great, I was foolish enough to leave it outside rolled up all year to let it weather naturally. Pallet boards are really tough and don't rot easily so I figured there wouldn't be issues. Unrolled it to set up this year and found that half of my ropes had rotted! Managed to patch and stake it well enough to make it through the season, but decided to throw it away and make a pvc fence for next year.

 

[wifegonnakillme]

On fences in general, I picked up a bunch of 3'x4' 1/2 inch plywood used at a temporary greenhouse (Canadian Tire) for free. Ripped in lengthwise twice for the horizontal slats and one diagonal, vertical cut the rest into 2 inch pieces; used pneumatic staples and had 3 four foot pre-aged fences in less that 20 minutes... worked great for keeping kids out of the launch zone for props and easy to stack and store - Cheers!

 

[Rigormortor]

11 more wood pallets.... up to 27 now. I will start ripping them apart this weeked. Have other props in planning as im collecting the
materials to build cemetary pillars and fog chillers. Got 2 medium storage containers from the dollar store for the chillers...... more to come...

 

[Ski0204]

When aging wood with the steel wool/vinegar method, try painting on some strong tea first. Your pallets are most likely made with softwood, which (depending on the type of wood) usually doesn't have much tannic acid to react with the iron oxide solution. The tea will help to increase this reaction. An explanation of the method can be found here:

http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/how-to-age-wood-tutorial-guest-post-from-que-linda

 

[Eblore]

I use lots of pallet wood. I make 10 of the circus fence panels this year out of pallets. The center X is made of plywood to give it some diagonal bracing but the staves are all pallet boards ripped down. The cross supports are the pallets runners that i also cut down. I pre-painted all the pieces before assembly. I then glue and stapled them together with a pneumatic nail gun.

I also made this years Ticket booth out of pallets. I had several 7' oak pallets that I broke down to use the runners as the frame. Each strip is a separate pallet board. I made it in 3 pieces so that I can disassemble and flat pack it for the next time I do Carnival Freak Show.

Last year I made an entire 32' facade and pirate bar out of pallets.

 

[djm902]

please delete

 

[djm902]

View attachment 269205

Here is a photo of the same style of fence that you're making from a haunt I did a few years ago. I always was very pleased with how it came out and will build another one in that fashion when I have another place to do a haunted house.

 

[TheHalloweenGuru]

OMG love the tree!

 

[Rigormortor]

I started pulling the pallets apart today. Well right away I noticed you need more than just a hammer. I bought the Stanley Wonder bar and
with out this pry bar I dont think I could have pulled these apart. I also got out my jig saw and cut along the top edges and cut through the
tough nails to make the job somewhat easier. The wood used on these pallets are horrible and brittle. Then the nails are extremely tough to
remove, they have no tip and are spiraled...... well I did 5 pallets and have 31 to go now. It is fun working on my own props. Good thing I
started now. The fences, which im making 8-10 sections that will be 8 feet long will be done in time for Halloween LOL.....

 

[EdgarWhelp]

Yes pallets are a nightmare to pull apart. After spending a whole afternoon pulling a bunch apart, I gave up and got a reciprocating saw (a "sawzall"), which can do a whole pallet in about 5 minutes and doesn't result in broken pieces and a broken back from the effort! :-D

This guy explains the two best techniques (pulling apart vs reciprocating saw) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thAsa9jE2QQ .

Here's my new fence for this year. I didn't get a chance to finish it (I'm going to apply a coat of crackle paint to it) so it's just flat black at the moment.

 

[Rigormortor]

That might be my next purchase or break out my chainsaw ha! Well I went out and bough a Bosch 6.5 amp Jigsaw. My Black and decker $20
wasn't cutting the mustard. Taking these pallets apart is crazy. My son came outside and said forget that! He said why don't you just go buy
the wood. Im so tempted but have 10 pallets ripped apart now. My son looked over at the other pile of 26 and said your doing them to? Um well
not all..... I might have all the wood I need in 10 more pallets, I will never do this again..... but it will be worth it when all finished. I started cutting
the tops at 45 degree angle too, Having fun so far....

 

[djm902]

The best way that I have found to tear the pallets down was with a sawzall and milwalkee blade used for cutting nails. Make sure to get an eight inch plus blade, it comes in handy.With that I could rip through a pallet in under five minutes. Yes you could go out and purchase the wood, but it wouldn't give you the same look as the pallet slats do.

 

[djm902]

Just a warning though, you will have to replace the blade every few pallets. Otherwise your cutting speed will drastically slow down.

 

[Rigormortor]

I notice that with my jigsaw, changing blades every 5 or so pallets... so I bought 20 blades yesterday ha!

 

[Miss Phantom]

You may plan to paint it black or leave it bare but I highly recommend aging the wood with a steel wool and distilled vinegar solution. Soak the wool covered in a bowl for 4 days and brush on with a sponge. Use gloves though 'cause that stuff stinks up your hands. It instantly changes the color - although some pallets are treated and finicky. Those ones you got there in the middle of your pile look like they will take it nicely. Try it out on one pallet and see how you like it.

Also, use a sawzall if you can. Those pallets don't come apart easily. And screw them down so they don't move on you while you do this. These are all lesson I learned this year as I "boarded up" my front porch. Here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thAsa9jE2QQ

I hate to be a broken record but a cheap sawzall from menards or Harbor Freight with a QUALITY metal blade like Dewalt works magic.