Nail removal, hollow drill bit???

Re: Nail removal, hollow drill bit???

Sam Force

Why not use a plug cutter bit? Or if you are not needing long boards just cut the nailed areas out

Can't Pull It?

Mark Mandell - Gone Round in New Jersey

I'd try a flat bar to pry the boards off the 2x, then flip and pound the nails back out.

(Message Deleted by Poster)

Re: Nail removal, hollow drill bit???

Joe Fleming

Hey Barry, I've pried a couple of pallets apart and the nails are nasty. I was going for some white oak. When I pounded on the wood from the back, I tended to split the planks. So, I used a plug cutter to clear the nails if they wouldn't pull. Be careful with the plug cutter. I found that before it engaged in the wood, it would wander a little. Sometimes it would whack the nail. You don't want to damage the cutter edge. Joe

Re: Nail removal, hollow drill bit???

Richard Long

I have used these screw extractors a few times. They stand up well.

https://www.rockler.com/screw-extractor

Hi, my name is Barry, I'm a wood hoarder

Barry Irby

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

My plan was to cut away most of the nail holes. Where necessary I can plug then or fill them with accumpucky.

I just can't stand it. They put these pallets out just to taunt me. I go look at them and try to talk myself out of taking them with things like "I bet the rails that are 3 x 3 1/2 all have the pith in them and are juvenile wood." Nope, most of them don't.

I have gotten walnut and cherry and lots of oak.

I pull about 90% of the nails but it has ceased to be fun. My drive looks like the Beverly Hillbillies live here. I am surprised the neighbors haven't gotten up a petition. Or maybe a recall.

Exactly...

Barry Irby

That Rockler gadget is exactly what I was looing for. Thanks. Now to convince myself to spend the big bucks.

Screw Extractors

Steve Elliott

I've had three sizes of screw extractors in my "fix it" kit for years because they are sometimes just the right tool for a tough job.

Barry, these are not the right way to go to take apart a pallet. I've done that and never wanted to do it again.

The screw extractors are hard to start because they don't have a center point and want to walk all over the place. To start them I bore a hole in a scrap and clamp the scrap over the workpiece in the right place. That's OK for one broken-off screw but would be a pain for taking out lots of nails.

The screw extractors are hardened steel and can break if they hit a screw or nail. They also have no set on the teeth so they tend to burn. Again, these drawbacks can be dealt with for a single screw but would be deadly when used to remove dozens of fasteners.

Just hoping to save you the cost and annoyance of trying the wrong tool.

Re: Screw Extractors

Barry Irby

Thanks Steve.

I hope not to use it at all. I made one out of a thin wall piece of tubing and got the one recalcitrant nail out with it but the nail was curved and jammed itself in the tube and that was the end of that.

What I have found on the few pallets I have reclaimed is the nails ere driven into green wood and rusted making them even more difficult to remove and they don't tend to leave a clean unstained hole. They use thin spiral shank nails that are hard to start with and they Break easily. In particular, I pulled the heads off more than I would like to admit. I clamped onto them with ViceGrips and pulled all but one. I heated some with a torch to see if I could burn them loose. I hit some with a hammer to see if that would break the grip and maybe it did.

So, unless I find some really interesting pallets, I won't be doing a lot of this.

Re: Screw Extractors

William Duffield

For a one off problem solution, just about any kind of metal tubing will work. All you need is a saw file to cut the teeth and a hacksaw to cut it to length. Disassembling pallets, however, is a horse of a different feather. I learned my lessons, and I don't do it anymore. I think it's cheaper and less stressful to buy my lumber even from Hearne Hardwoods.

I leave all the pallets I see to the "pallet rats", who clean them out of dumpsters. I don't know if pallet rat is an official recycler company name or a generic for pallet scavengers. They just make them disappear. When the pallets are non-standard sizes, they won't take them, and the SWA doesn't want them either. In this case, I have had to saw them up with a skillsaw, avoiding the ring shank nails and knots, and throw the pieces back in the dumpster.

Do yo have any idea how much of the world's hardwoods are tied up in pallets? Somewhere I read a truly phenomenal statistic, but can't find it now.

I've used...

John in NM

A Crescent 56 style puller. About 90% success with pallets and such. Just need enough nail sticking out to get the jaws on, then slide the weighted handle down to pound the jaws into the wood and tight on the nail, and lever out against the movable jaw.

Makes a bit of a mess of the wood around the nail, but hell, you're salvaging pallets, they tend to be messy anyway.

Will someone provide a reason to ....

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

....salvage wood from pallets?

I am reminded of a saying my Uncle Willy used. "Ruining a $1 pocket knife skinning a fart to save a "cent"."

In the grading system pallet wood is 3A and 3B, with #2, #1, Sel, FAS1F and FAS grades above. It used to sell for about $350 per thousand bdft and probably not much different now. Every mill produces gobs of this grade and the mill will happily sell you a truckload to mess with to your heats content. Or, if you have milled some of your own logs you generated some 3A and 3B and don't need to visit a mill to get it.

Wood from pallets

John K Jordan

>>> Funny how a couple of guys with too much wood already are breaking done pallets.

I've gotten wonderful exotic wood from pallets that used to ship granite slabs from far lands. A local company would tear down the pallets then throw all the wood in bins for whoever was interested to dig through. I couldn't help myself. And the work of tearing them apart was already done so it was so easy.

JKJ

Sometimes Bill....

Mark Hennebury

You just suck the fun out of the room.

Saving the universe, 1 pallet at a time

Funny!!   

Re: Nail removal, hollow drill bit???

John McGaw

I've done it a few times -- used a plug cutter with an inside diameter that just fits over the offending nail/screw. Plug cutters come in a wide range of sizes but most of them really work best in a drill press although I have removed small brass screws freehand when I've broken one off installing a hinge. Those are the easy ones though -- stick a plug in the offending hole and the hinge covers your dirty work.

Re: Will someone provide a reason to ....

John McGaw

Guess it depends on the pallet. In my USAF days we got in a shipment of broadcasting equipment from a closed operation in Thailand. The pallets had really stout teak skids about 6" square and 6' long. There was a scrimmage over those among the woodworkers in the detachment.

Salvage depends ...

H Bruce McCrory

... upon intended use. I was looking for a site to link that showed CVG Doug fir flooring from internationally sourced shipping pallets. They had a photo of the ends with all the countries of origin. Located on the Left Coast, but I can't find.

A local road contractor had acres of DF in 6x6's stored, for use in bridge building forms. That material is recovered for a lot of Doug fir flooring. I see a lot of salvage used in local retail sites. They don't even need to "age" it. The construction wood does not reflect grading culls as much as whatever is available to cut and complete an order.

The following link shows pretty crappy stuff, but it points to a Bates Nail Puller, similar to one a contractor used when replacing an old deck of mine....

https://homereference.net/pallet-flooring/

Like most things creatively adapted, you probably won't have salvagers divulging their methods of recovery, especially, nail removal.