Homemade Tool for Pallet and Fence Picket Salvage

One of my readers, Harry (aka Fatcat the Tinker), sent me this diagram of a simple handmade tool he created for salvaging old fence pickets. When he saw my adventures in tiny pallet house construction he decided to share this with me and anyone else who was cheap enough to build stuff from other people’s trash. You have to study the image carefully to understand how it works.

Here’s what Harry told me about it:

A few years ago I designed and made a simple tool for picket salvage. It worked very well and should work for pallets too if the handle is made from a salvaged pallet skid plus a shim to make sure it will slide over the skids.

This let me salvage pickets maybe ten times quicker than before without damage most of the time. It might allow you to salvage full length slats rather than having to cut them short.

Hope its useful. Your demo of using the saw on the pallet sure will be useful to me. Into the public domain it goes! Print it and pass it on.

Thanks for sharing this great little tool with us Harry! It’s sure to come in handy.