Help dismantling pallets

[bmuir]

Any hints on how to dismantle pallets?
Large crowbar? Larger crowbar? Thanks,
Bill

[Popeye]

What you said and probably "large hammer" maybe jig saw. Pat

[LCHIEN]

What you said and probably "large hammer" maybe jig saw. Pat

yeah you probably want to use the large hammer to hit the boards from the bottom to loosen them a little and lift the nails a bit, then push the boards back down and use a nail puller/crowbar to take the nail out.
Otherwise you'll damage the boards trying to get under the nail heads.

[WoodButcher26]

Definitely a big hammer, plus a pry bar or catspaw to get the nails started. I also find it helpful to keep a couple of good sets of locking pliers available to pull out the nails that lose their heads--fairly common with the ones that get shot in during production.

[eddy merckx]

Hi Bill

I recently got a bunch of nice oak boards from some pallets. I tried to pry some off at first, but they use some type of helical nail which won't pull out. The result is that the board splits. What works better is using an old circular saw blade to cross cut each board right next to the nail heads. You end up with shorter boards, but long enough to make boxes, etc. I made a finger jointed jewelry box out of salvaged red oak boards a few weeks ago. It looked pretty good.

Eddy

[Pappy]

Hi Bill

I recently got a bunch of nice oak boards from some pallets. I tried to pry some off at first, but they use some type of helical nail which won't pull out. The result is that the board splits. What works better is using an old circular saw blade to cross cut each board right next to the nail heads. You end up with shorter boards, but long enough to make boxes, etc. I made a finger jointed jewelry box out of salvaged red oak boards a few weeks ago. It looked pretty good.

Eddy

That's the way I do it. Also less chance of running a piece of nail thru the jointer or planer.

[cobob]

I have a lawnmower shop near me. He piles his packing crates up & the city won't let him burn. These are not put togetther as well as other pallets & dissassemble with relative ease...I still use the cordless circular saw often. There is a good mix of oak, poplar, & pine in his pile.

[gjat]

I just took apart an oak pallet yesterday. This is what I did...

I found they tend to use 'spiral nails' in oak pallets because it's stronger wood and everyting holds together better. That's why oak is used in pallets for heavy stuff.
I remove the bottom slats with a crowbar. There's usually less slats and they're usually the most beat up so I don't worry about waste if they split.
Once the back slats are gone, I flip the pallet over and put it on a very solid surface (driveway). I slide old 2x4's underneath from rail to rail, between the slats.
While standing on it to keep everything solid (I've learned that the more solid everything stays, the easier it is to take wood apart. A little bounce is too much)
I then use a 3' piece of 2x4 and place it up against the rail but on the slat. Hit it a few times with your hammer, and the would should start coming out. Most of the nails will just pull through the slat. I do the outside, center, and then the last outside rails.
Pull out all the nails you see. If the head breaks off, there are techniques using channel locks to get the other ones out.
BEFORE PLANING OR CUTTING, throw some 60 grit sandpaper in a 1/3 sheet sander and hit the surfaces. This will remove alot of dirt and grease that will screw up your blades. I then take a strong maganet out of a computer hard drive (rare earth) and run it over the wood, looking for broken nails. I find alot of theat wood was ripped out of salvaged wood hand may have broken nails in it. I use an old nail set to punch out nails in the slats. Only once did I find a nial in a rail. I used a utility knive, cut around the nail, and got the nail out with vice grips, hammer, and ample cursing.