Kindling Made From Pallets

Hi all,

My name is Eren, I'm ten years old and live in the UK.

Welcome to my very first instructable. I'm going to show you how to make kindling out of pallets using a kindling maker using an axe I built with my dad's help. I got the inspiration after reading a book titled "Rich Kid, Smart Kid" by Robert T Kiyosaki which is a book about making kids financially aware. I've been wanting to buy my own games for my Xbox and needed a way to generate some cash to do so.

We have a fireplace and I noticed the small bags of kindling that my dad has been buying from B&Q looks like its been made from pallet wood. I also spotted adverts for free pallets on my dad's facebay and thought. "Hey, why don't I make some kindling from free pallets and sell it to my neighbors who all have fireplaces!?". Here follows the steps I took with a video at the end:

First you need to find some pallets (any way you like, but there are lots of free pallets on Facebook and online). Once you start looking, you see them everywhere! My dad and I drive around and look like Meerkats scouting the surroundings for discarded pallets :-) I agreed with my dad to pay him a small contribution for fuel. And £9 for the new axe.

I used a jigsaw to cut the flat bits from the pallet and stacked the pieces up in a pile. . I then used a chopsaw to cut the long pieces into thirds that will fit into a fireplace( or whatever size suits you). This is roughly the same length (15cm) as the kindling we buy from the shops.

Remember to wear your safety goggles and gloves.

We used 2 bolts to clamp the axe to 2 pieces of 2x2 timber. I drilled 2 holes through the axe handle and lined it up with the holes I drilled in the 2x2 pieces and bolted them together using 10mm dia bolts, washers and nuts Once bolted together, I secured it down to a log using 6 long wood screws. I ensured the head of the axe overhangs the log so that the split pieces fall to the ground.

Now that all the pallets have been cut down to the correct size and the kindling maker is complete, I used a small hammer to hit the wood onto the blade causing it to split into 3 or 4 narrower pieces. This was easier than I thought and I managed to split 5 pallets down to kindling without hitting my thumb!

The Photo above is a result of five pallets only. I am planning to sell the big bags for £7 each which is a lot cheaper than what you would pay at the shops.