Sandra Dee Do it that way and you'll be buying another bit holder, because you'd have shattered the magnet inside it!! Learn how to use the hammer! A couple of tricks n tips for you, scratch up the striking face of the hammer with 40 or 60grade abrasive paper, this will stop the hammer from sliding off the nail when hit, and with the nail head exposed, here's the clever bit, put the claw against the nail but lever it sideways as if you are laying the hammer down, you get loads more leverage on nail this way, and when it frees up enough you can pull the rest out in the usual way, great for removing pallet nails, which are serrated, and old well rusted ones. I've seen many tradesmen struggle because they didn't know that. DON'T do it with a wooden handled hammer you may snap it where it joins the head. Good luck, and I hope you find this helpfull.
I clip the end of the nail, leaving about a half inch, or less. I then hammer the nail, giving a half inch to pull with on the other side. This eliminates nail bend, and reduces how much nail has to be pulled through the board.
You dont even need to clip it. Just an inch thick slab with a 6-8mm hole in the middle, you straighten the nail with the claw hammer, put the slab on it, then hit it. Next, you remove the slab and hit it again until it flush. This is realy not a rocket science, just need practice.
Reminds me when I was a kid my dad would give me a box of old used nails to straighten... I thought at the time he was just cheap... Now I'm nearly 50 and will have a go at any DIY jobs , 3 kitchens , 5 bathrooms, self build house, car repairs etc ... Where did these skills start.... Straightening NAILS,! Life lessons the old fashioned way
of note, plywood scrap elevates this from good hack to sublime genius! For all the people who say "well you are going to destroy your driver bit holder, wahhh!" I say i have many that have no magnet some are even stripped internally from using them to drive 1/4 inch hex screws. So by never throwing crap away I win. Love it.
Brilliant! Over time those impact bit holders start to round anyway. Now they can still serve a function! I just got a free source of pallets and needed a way to speed up the disassembly. This is perfect, thank you for sharing!
I wish I had thought of that years ago when I was using pallets for building projects. I will suggest though that unless you need the full length of the boards to simply take a skill saw and cut off the ends just inside the nails. Then all you have to do is remove the few center nails. Oak pallets can be pretty tough to drive those cement coated nails out of so reducing how many you have to remove can speed up the job.
This is a great creative solution. I recommend trying the Air Locker AP700 denailer. It works on compressed air and will often shoot the nails out of the board, requiring no hammer. If the wood is soft enough, you could do all this wood in 5 mins. It pays for itself quickly in saved time. Often with white oak boards the nails wont come all the way out, and you will need to use the hammer to finish removing the nails. Good luck
I'm thinking of picking up a tool like this. The gun itself is pretty cheap and simple, but what about the compressed air? I'm not sure how much capacity/PSI/cost it takes to drive one, and how much that adds to the sticker price if you don't already have an air compressor.
I always take my bolt cutter with me when i go to collect a load of pallets.When i take the pallets apart i cut the stem of the nails of 1/8 -3/16 from the wood.Two reasons,one its easier to load on my roof rack and two when i hit the nail to show the head and pull it out its too short to bend. Different folks different strokes, but we are all saving trees and money.
I was just about to comment this lol. I had the same idea as the video, but I wondered if I was trying to over simplify somthing that was already pretty simple. I grabbed my heavy duty wire cutters and went to town the other night on a few pallets and then just tapped the heads up with no bending like you said. Nails seem to pop put a lot easier too. Both of your ideas are a great example of the endless ways to do the same task. That's one of my favorite aspects of problem solving.
What a really great idea! I use a lot of pallet wood myself and denailing has been the bane of my existence with my projects! Thanks to you, now not so much! Thanks for sharing!
When I was a kid hardly anyone bought new lumber. It was a kids job to clean the wood of nails. It taught them how to use a hammer. I clean nails out of wood quickly still at 55. Easier now, I can listen to music and do the work in the shade. Pound all the nails from boards out of a whole barn and you get fairly good in a summer.
Red Barn woodworking,: thank you Very Much for this nail tip. I started pulling pallets last summer and getting the nails backed out has been a Major chore. I have damaged vision and hand eye co-ordination isn't what it could be. I tried the hammer whack method and I spent so much time re-straightening the nail... oh yeah. I had one of the those screw guides that I wore out driving deck screws. what a difference a tool makes. !! I can hit the nail guide with authority without smashing a finger. Johnson&Johnson was making a living on my Band-Aid purchases... I like using all the board length I can get so sawing the board off to save pulling nails is no useful. not only that but Izzy Swan showed how to ttake the nail to the crowbar in a vise and now I can re-use all those rusty nails I used to bend into pretzels. Saving money lets me spend on other things. In the meanwhile I am building planter boxes and freezing my fingers... spring will see more boxes in the yard this summer. Thanks for the tip. it saved me a lot of time and effort. go ahead and re-invent the wheel. some folks need to be shown the way. thanks for the help.
Good idea you have! You can avoid the head of the nail splitting the timbers surface by positioning the nail over something to support the timber. I've got away with a vice closed up to about 3/8". Cutting the nails off to about 1/2" also helps to keep them traveling straight.
I use pliers and I crush the spikes in wards so they don't catch the wood when I drive them out with my hammer. It makes removing them SUPER easy! Another trick I found was to drive the nail out enough for the hammer to catch it then cut the rest of the nail off. The spikes are usually towards the middle and end of the nail.
That might be inexpensive, but there is an air-hammer that sells for about $50 that would make each removal a single trigger pull. It also makes a great hole punch for adjusting leather belts.
I don't like using my tailgate for a work bench and I might suggest using a battery impact drill in place of the hammer. It worked great for me when I tried your idea
I can see why it's one of your most popular videos. I have several of these tools and a mess of pallets to practice on. As an experienced carpenter I can also say that just using a hammer to knock that nail out works great if you just put it into a soft wood 2 X 4 but let that nail be in beaded in a hardwood pallet board and this tool will put you at a much better success rate.
I just rip the end with a skill saw, burn the scraps and collect the nails with a magnet. Takes maybe 10 minutes tops to do a load of scrap out of my truck.
I would like to commend you for your creativity and ingenuity with this idea. At least for me, it’s still much faster just using a hammer to remove the old nails or simply cut the ends off and only having to deal with the nails towards the center of the planks if the entire length of the stock is not needed. Everyone has their own techniques and you use what works best for you. I’ve learned a lot of different techniques from tradesmen over the years and adapt them to work for me. Thanks for sharing.
I de-nail a lot of pallets I use the heavy duty pallet pry bar to separate them to get them to this point if you set that on a concrete surface with the nail head up then steady it with your foot smack it once at each of the 3 nail clusters with a rubber mallet the head is exposed just flip it over and use a claw hammer to pull them out much easier and a lot faster than this method also a nice strong magnet on a long handle works great to retrieve all of the nails
Very cool idea. I just found a tool called an Air Locker that runs on an air compressor, it looks like a nail gun but it's meant to push the nails out of the wood in a similar way. If you do this a lot it might be a good investment.
That was excellent! I can't wait tp try this. One of the most simplist solution I've ever seen for a pain in the rear problem that's kept me from using pallet wood! Now if I can get a truck to start hauling all stuff my job throws away I'll be good. You seriously earned a new subscriber.
Cool video...liked the idea of how you made that job a bit easier. Me and my wife have been disassembling skids/pallets for years now and always come across the stubborn nails that just love to keep bending instead of driving straight out when being hit with a hammer. Hmmm now just need a video on how to easily remove those stubborn staples whereby their design makes it even more difficult to drive them out or get ahold of their 'head' and pry them out.
I just use a lightweight framing hammer for the waffle head. A pair of channel locks or vice grips to grab a bent nail. If I hit a nail and the waffle head slips, or the nail just wont budge, Ill grab the nail with the vice grips and give a solid blow to force it. Hammer in one hand, vice grips/channel locks in the other, it starts to go very fast when you find your rhythm. I also keep a cat paw and pry bar nearby but don't utilize them. I feel I would accidentally break this makeshift de-nailer, and I don't think I could go faster using it anyway. Also, I'm not worried about bending or breaking any nails(not sure if the purpose of this de-nailer is to salvage nails). Ill throw the good ones in a bucket of old nails but if I break/bend every one, that's fine. With so many pallets and reclaimed wood to clean nails out of I really just need the wood.
Smart Idea👍 I'm a Pallet connoisseur myself. Lol I just built my first Storage/Flower Box to put on my Pallet Deck I'm working on. Removing those nails are tedious most times. 😣 Love Your little conventional invention/Idea!💯👍 Now THAT'S..using your Noggin 😉 Thank you so much for the tip👍👍 I will Definitely put your great idea to use. 😆 Cheers
Use channel locks. Put the locks right against the wood where the nail sticks through. Pivot the channel locks on their curved side. They will pull the nail straight through and you'll be stuck holding the nail and can toss it in a can or the garbage. One step and you don't have to pick up nails.
Harder to do it this way. Nails in pallets generally have large heads to keep them from pulling through. Your trick works better for finish nails which have small heads.
I have a broken one with a chip out of it going to give that a try. Not sure why selling every thing off to wander the highways for a couple of years. If it works I will give it to the son so he can tear up some pallets :) Nothing but a great idea Thomas. I also like your answers to all the negativity
When pulling out the nails, put a piece of 3/4" material under the head of the hammer to give more leverage. Really helpful when using a framing hammer with claws that are not curved.
Thomas, this is purely ingenious!! "Necessity it the mother of invention". Simple idea, simple execution...Done & Done:) Thank you for taking the time to film this.
Very clever idea! i think I have to make one. previously I have been solving the nail bending problem by clipping each nail off with only 1/2" sticking up, so would not bend as easily. Works good, but is one more time eating step.
This is the BEST idea yet. No need for another jig, just an available wire cutter. I am amazed why so many people (youtubers who cannot wait to feature themselves) don't attack the problem by removing it ( i.e. remove the length of the long nail that bends when hammered), but go to great lengths to make complicated tools to half solve the issue.
Great idea using that bit, if you have a rotary drill that you can turn off the drilling action and just have the impact part will speed up the process and you can get out of the cold. I have a Bosch rotary drill that does that.
Awesome idea... because hammers are not a tool I use everyday and end up bending the nail over in the end anyhow... im going to fabricate one from metal then weld the tool on... since the wood would wear out after time... thanks for the great idea!
Thinks for posting looks like a winner. its ease, cheep and seems to work well things like this help make the world a better place and any time you can reuse a item it saves so much.
I suspect he dismantled them at another location, an was tossing them in the truck bed to de-nail all at once, so storing them like this was safe nothing to cringe worthy
Neat idea, though its faster if you don't need to use it. I recommend a heavy solid block of wood under your nailed boards on a sturdy platform (not a tailgate). It makes hammering faster, less noisy and more effective. And for removing bigger nails, a 36" crowbar is much better than a hammer when pulling them out.
Getting the boards off of the pallets is the hardest part. The ones I get use twist nails and each board will have 5 or 6 nails in each end. I haven't found an easy way to get the boards off without splitting them badly. What's your method for pulling the boards?
use a cats paw and pull the nails from the head or put a pry bar between the pieces of wood then remove it and slap the wood with the hammer to pop the heads up out of the wood.
Brilliantly simple! Thanks for sharing this video. On another note, any way you can post a brief video of those stairs? I'm wanting to build stairs to the second floor of my workshop, but have limited space to do so. Those stairs look like they could be my answer. Thanks in advance (assuming you still read these comments after 2 years).
Those stairs are awesome. I got them from an industrial site that was throwing them out. That is the problem, though. You can buy stairs like these, but they are really, really expensive. Like $500-$1000 expensive per section. That is why most people opt to make them out of wood. Just as strong and super cheap.
I definitely need to build them (out of wood) to access my second floor. As it is, there's a "ladder" made of 2x4s nailed to one wall through which you enter the second floor through a very narrow square opening at the top. Do you know what the stairs' manufacturer is called? I'd like to look them up to see them better to have a better idea how to replicate them. Thanks, again!
these are the exact units I used: www.grainger.com/product/GRAINGER-APPROVED-5-Step-Aluminum-Stair-Unit-4XV21?searchBar=true&searchQuery=4xv21 The hardest part was the 3-stair turn in the corner which I did build out of wood. Unfortunately, I don't have any footage of that being built and I don't have access to the property any more.
I use two crowbars to pull the pallets apart, let the pallet board drop nail down on concrete (it will pop up most of the heads) and remove the nails with the crowbar (more leverage and range, plus a block of wood to stick under the crowbar if the nail is really long to gain more range). and for the bent ones i use a hammer and some pliers. I hold the nail straight with the pliers and hit it with the hammer to pop the head out.
that's for people that can't handle a hammer accurately. Being a home builder from way back the guild for me would be about as handy as a rubber crutch.
When he said remove them efficiently I thought he was coming up with some genius way to remove them quickly, then I realized dude seriously over thought the project...
ryobi magnet bits holders are garbage for holding. repurpose it. this is genius for your labor guys. how many times has anyone tried to beat the bottom end of a nail just to have the darn thing fold hard on you? this looked like it held them straight through easy to grab the head and finish them. quick efficient no scarring the board like a cats paw would.
to take a pallet apart you need a table that you can clamp the pallet frame down on and make a cantilever type pry bar with a flat rocker plate on the top so that it pries the board up without twisting it. once you clamp it down it goes rather quickly. A couple of hooks that you can flip up to hold the pallet down are fast and work well to hold it down while you pry off the boards and the rocker plate keeps you from wasting boards because of twisting and splitting. those screw nails are tough and you will still tear some of them up.
My Brother has this tool he rigged up in his garage almost looks like a palm sander. He uses to get nails out of the pallets. He makes tables and other stuff with the pallets from his shop pretty cool .
I'e messed with pallet wood. The issue is hardwood boards get reused and when they rebuild the pallets they cut off flush all hte old nails which are now buried in oak. On top of that they wood they use is mostly garbage--cupped, warped, twisted...and knots in almost every piece. I have salvaged pine boards (must easier to get nails out of softwood) and used them for a few projects, but he hardwood is almost always junk unless you need small pieces and can cut around any nails..even then be careful because i've hit plenty of hidden nails on the chop saw.
thats what I though too..why not take them in the garage, and rest the wood on the edge of a more solid surface, like a small anvil. it wont bounce as much as the tailgate on his ute, and he wont have stray nails flying around that his tyres will pick up.
Man so many haters here. The guy just had an idea and everyone bashes him, look I know WE all have used a tool for other then its intended purpose some time or another that makes it more fun . I give him credit just for filming it !
I just pinch off all but 3/4" with crops then tap the stub flush. That leaves enough head to pry the nail. For recessed nails snip a bit longer. Bent, even flattened nails just need a twist from the claw to get enough straight shank before nipping. If I'm feeling lazy I use a 4" grinder with an inox 1mm disc instead of crops. And that way you needn't massacre a perfectly good tool. As my teacher used to always say some 40yrs ago. "The right tool for the job"
The pallets around here us coated staples thin wire nearly impossible to remove. I use the oak ones for fire wood and use a magnet to collect the staples nails etc. when cleaning the ashes out of the stove. Peace
...you are using your head to find a solution to a problem, that's far better than these jokers are doing who just show up in the comments to shit on your idea. Thanks for sharing.
this is a great idea! I don't have a lot for spending on the airgun to shoot out the nails - but this should help. I had a few stubborn nails and kept thinking there needs to be a better way
This assumes you can pull the wood off with the nails without the wood splitting! The ribbed nails usually used in pallets are designed not to pull out
could a bit driver be big enough to capture the head of the nail so after you pound the nail part way out like you do in your video you flip the board over and using a battery operated drill you then put the head of the nail into the bit driver so it captures it and then reverse it out so that way it doesnt drop out??? I have no idea if this would work or if a bit driver would be big enough to fit the nail head in...just curious to see if it might be possible???
i have a damaged eye and don't have good depth perception. this unit is easier to hit square and the nail doesn't just bend every time you miss vertical a bit. it does speed up the process for me.
I don't agree. once he has the tool made, this makes future hauls a lot easier to deal with going forward. A little time spent to make the tool is worth all the time saved de nailing the pallet wood.
bisquitnspanky Thanks for the response. Sometimes I get caught up in the net of UA-cam nastiness where sincere, well meaning comments like yours can be misunderstood. No need to apologize if the comment was submitted without guile. I do invite you to check out some of my other videos and hope to get as many years of experience under my belt as you do!
No need to apologize, period. Be nasty, be kind, be you. Never apologize because somebody else feels offended - as if they have more right to this world than you? Live your life, not theirs.
Ron, I get some beat up old pallets around here also. I work on them with some sand paper and can get some really nice pieces then use putty if I want to fill in any holes. Most of the time I leave the holes in the boards because it adds a bit different look to what I make. The hot tube company 7 miles away from me won't come off of their pallets. Some of them come from Japan and some times are made of Japanese woods instead of the wood they ordered from the U.S.
columbusindimedia Sorry dude...Just sayin...As a building contractor, I've cut up pallets for thirty years...Love the heavy equipment or motor ones, they're usually rough sawn oak...I use pallets for spacers and build ups...but that 1.5 or less inches out of the board won't be missed...I Usually run my saw right next to the 2X's And throw those out, unless I need them too...:)
Saw another video on pallet disassembly. what he did I thought was really clever. He cut the nails to 1/2 inch with a pair of bolt cutters, two whacks with a hammer an the nail heads where out enough to pry the nail out.
i was just about to say the same thing ..i run a skil saw right on the inside edge of the outer runners and only deal with the middle runner pulling nail wise..easier to do less likely to split , then just bust the wood off the runners only exsposing the left over nails then crowbar them out. the wood is cleaner this way and only holes in the middle of the board and you lost about 4"or 5" on each and gained about 4 hours of your life !! good luck but nice idea as well
Smart cookie!! I walk around our downtown NYC nabe, and even though there are are plenty of blue CHEP palettes 'on loan', other plain wood 'orphans' are lying around, often...discarded. I'll keep your great solution in mind.. thanks.
I use a special tool called a "pallet buster" basically a long handled pry bar with two articulating heads. I can take pallets apart with about a 95% success rate without splitting the wood. Here's a link if anyone's interested in looking at the tool I use: www.vestilmfg.com/products/ldsol/pallet_buster.htm
I just use a heavy sledge like a plunger, lift 6-9" and drop it once or twice assuring the pallet is slightly raised off the ground... obviously easiest when slats are staggered, otherwise a simple U-shaped jig to drive a slat directly below another.
I'm a beginner in the worst way... your video is one of the most helpful ones I've found so far! Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Thomas Lightle - Red Barn Woodworking
Sandra Dee
Do it that way and you'll be buying another
bit holder, because you'd have shattered
the magnet inside it!!
Learn how to use the hammer!
A couple of tricks n tips for you, scratch up the
striking face of the hammer with 40 or 60grade
abrasive paper, this will stop the hammer from
sliding off the nail when hit, and with the nail
head exposed, here's the clever bit, put the claw
against the nail but lever it sideways as if you
are laying the hammer down, you get loads
more leverage on nail this way, and when it frees up
enough you can pull the rest out in the usual way,
great for removing pallet nails, which are serrated,
and old well rusted ones. I've seen many tradesmen
struggle because they didn't know that.
DON'T do it with a wooden handled hammer you
may snap it where it joins the head.
Good luck, and I hope you find this helpfull.
ua-cam.com/video/TOrrz73Tj1Y/v-deo.html Here's another de-nailer. I've got one and it's awesome.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I'm flattered.
I clip the end of the nail, leaving about a half inch, or less. I then hammer the nail, giving a half inch to pull with on the other side. This eliminates nail bend, and reduces how much nail has to be pulled through the board.
That was going to be my suggestion. You beat me to it. The shorter the nail the easier it is to remove
You dont even need to clip it. Just an inch thick slab with a 6-8mm hole in the middle, you straighten the nail with the claw hammer, put the slab on it, then hit it. Next, you remove the slab and hit it again until it flush. This is realy not a rocket science, just need practice.
Reminds me when I was a kid my dad would give me a box of old used nails to straighten... I thought at the time he was just cheap... Now I'm nearly 50 and will have a go at any DIY jobs , 3 kitchens , 5 bathrooms, self build house, car repairs etc ... Where did these skills start.... Straightening NAILS,! Life lessons the old fashioned way
My dad did that too
That’s where we all started. There and the satisfaction of a job well done.
Hate to break it to you: he was just keep you busy.
@@thehotwombat out of trouble. Idle hands are the devil's workshop.
Like painting the fence. Up stroke down stroke. Old style teaching.
of note, plywood scrap elevates this from good hack to sublime genius! For all the people who say "well you are going to destroy your driver bit holder, wahhh!" I say i have many that have no magnet some are even stripped internally from using them to drive 1/4 inch hex screws. So by never throwing crap away I win. Love it.
i'm new to this whole hobby and this helped me out a ton. no more bent nails trying to work them out! thank you!
Brilliant! Over time those impact bit holders start to round anyway. Now they can still serve a function! I just got a free source of pallets and needed a way to speed up the disassembly. This is perfect, thank you for sharing!
I wish I had thought of that years ago when I was using pallets for building projects. I will suggest though that unless you need the full length of the boards to simply take a skill saw and cut off the ends just inside the nails. Then all you have to do is remove the few center nails. Oak pallets can be pretty tough to drive those cement coated nails out of so reducing how many you have to remove can speed up the job.
great idea but I cringed when nails went flying , my tires seem to know where all nails are that are left or fall ,
fishing magnet
Any strong enough magnet on a string swung around would do
Do it over a bucket
This is a great creative solution. I recommend trying the Air Locker AP700 denailer. It works on compressed air and will often shoot the nails out of the board, requiring no hammer. If the wood is soft enough, you could do all this wood in 5 mins. It pays for itself quickly in saved time. Often with white oak boards the nails wont come all the way out, and you will need to use the hammer to finish removing the nails. Good luck
Thanks for the suggestion!
Bought one yesterday, should be delivered this afternoon.
I'm thinking of picking up a tool like this. The gun itself is pretty cheap and simple, but what about the compressed air? I'm not sure how much capacity/PSI/cost it takes to drive one, and how much that adds to the sticker price if you don't already have an air compressor.
I always take my bolt cutter with me when i go to collect a load of pallets.When i take the pallets apart i cut the stem of the nails of 1/8 -3/16 from the wood.Two reasons,one its easier to load on my roof rack and two when i hit the nail to show the head and pull it out its too short to bend. Different folks different strokes, but we are all saving trees and money.
I’ll go for this idea 👍🏻
Came up with your idea on my own 😁
Guess you hold the patent for being first to publish !
Me too, the simplest ideas are the best.
Good thinking.
I was just about to comment this lol. I had the same idea as the video, but I wondered if I was trying to over simplify somthing that was already pretty simple. I grabbed my heavy duty wire cutters and went to town the other night on a few pallets and then just tapped the heads up with no bending like you said. Nails seem to pop put a lot easier too. Both of your ideas are a great example of the endless ways to do the same task. That's one of my favorite aspects of problem solving.
What a really great idea!
I use a lot of pallet wood myself and denailing has been the bane of my existence with my projects! Thanks to you, now not so much!
Thanks for sharing!
When I was a kid hardly anyone bought new lumber. It was a kids job to clean the wood of nails. It taught them how to use a hammer. I clean nails out of wood quickly still at 55. Easier now, I can listen to music and do the work in the shade. Pound all the nails from boards out of a whole barn and you get fairly good in a summer.
Thanks!
Red Barn woodworking,: thank you Very Much for this nail tip. I started pulling pallets last summer and getting the nails backed out has been a Major chore. I have damaged vision and hand eye co-ordination isn't what it could be. I tried the hammer whack method and I spent so much time re-straightening the nail... oh yeah. I had one of the those screw guides that I wore out driving deck screws. what a difference a tool makes. !! I can hit the nail guide with authority without smashing a finger. Johnson&Johnson was making a living on my Band-Aid purchases... I like using all the board length I can get so sawing the board off to save pulling nails is no useful. not only that but Izzy Swan showed how to ttake the nail to the crowbar in a vise and now I can re-use all those rusty nails I used to bend into pretzels. Saving money lets me spend on other things. In the meanwhile I am building planter boxes and freezing my fingers... spring will see more boxes in the yard this summer. Thanks for the tip. it saved me a lot of time and effort. go ahead and re-invent the wheel. some folks need to be shown the way. thanks for the help.
Thanks for the kinds words! I'm glad I could help!
Good idea you have! You can avoid the head of the nail splitting the timbers surface by positioning the nail over something to support the timber. I've got away with a vice closed up to about 3/8". Cutting the nails off to about 1/2" also helps to keep them traveling straight.
Thanks!
Good one! I'm going to try that.
I just tried this and dang!! This is so much easier than the tedious ways I’ve been doing it! Thank you so much!
Pallets I get have spiral nails that make it impossible to remove without splitting the wood. I’d love to find pallets like these
I use pliers and I crush the spikes in wards so they don't catch the wood when I drive them out with my hammer. It makes removing them SUPER easy! Another trick I found was to drive the nail out enough for the hammer to catch it then cut the rest of the nail off. The spikes are usually towards the middle and end of the nail.
Just use a grinder and grind the end off lol...
That might be inexpensive, but there is an air-hammer that sells for about $50 that would make each removal a single trigger pull.
It also makes a great hole punch for adjusting leather belts.
I don't like using my tailgate for a work bench and I might suggest using a battery impact drill in place of the hammer. It worked great for me when I tried your idea
Hammer drill; hammer-only setting.
I can see why it's one of your most popular videos. I have several of these tools and a mess of pallets to practice on. As an experienced carpenter I can also say that just using a hammer to knock that nail out works great if you just put it into a soft wood 2 X 4 but let that nail be in beaded in a hardwood pallet board and this tool will put you at a much better success rate.
I just rip the end with a skill saw, burn the scraps and collect the nails with a magnet. Takes maybe 10 minutes tops to do a load of scrap out of my truck.
Yep. This video is straight to DIWhy
I would like to commend you for your creativity and ingenuity with this idea. At least for me, it’s still much faster just using a hammer to remove the old nails or simply cut the ends off and only having to deal with the nails towards the center of the planks if the entire length of the stock is not needed. Everyone has their own techniques and you use what works best for you. I’ve learned a lot of different techniques from tradesmen over the years and adapt them to work for me.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you !! what a brilliant idea. Cutting the nail would prevent it from bending (probably haven't try it yet).
A good idea is like a good beer, it doesn't go straight to your head and you can share one with other people without embarrassment.
I de-nail a lot of pallets I use the heavy duty pallet pry bar to separate them to get them to this point if you set that on a concrete surface with the nail head up then steady it with your foot smack it once at each of the 3 nail clusters with a rubber mallet the head is exposed just flip it over and use a claw hammer to pull them out much easier and a lot faster than this method also a nice strong magnet on a long handle works great to retrieve all of the nails
Very cool idea. I just found a tool called an Air Locker that runs on an air compressor, it looks like a nail gun but it's meant to push the nails out of the wood in a similar way. If you do this a lot it might be a good investment.
That was excellent! I can't wait tp try this. One of the most simplist solution I've ever seen for a pain in the rear problem that's kept me from using pallet wood! Now if I can get a truck to start hauling all stuff my job throws away I'll be good. You seriously earned a new subscriber.
You found the only thing that bit holder is good for! Awesome
Cool video...liked the idea of how you made that job a bit easier. Me and my wife have been disassembling skids/pallets for years now and always come across the stubborn nails that just love to keep bending instead of driving straight out when being hit with a hammer. Hmmm now just need a video on how to easily remove those stubborn staples whereby their design makes it even more difficult to drive them out or get ahold of their 'head' and pry them out.
Thanks so much for the positivity. Cheers!
I just use a lightweight framing hammer for the waffle head. A pair of channel locks or vice grips to grab a bent nail. If I hit a nail and the waffle head slips, or the nail just wont budge, Ill grab the nail with the vice grips and give a solid blow to force it. Hammer in one hand, vice grips/channel locks in the other, it starts to go very fast when you find your rhythm. I also keep a cat paw and pry bar nearby but don't utilize them. I feel I would accidentally break this makeshift de-nailer, and I don't think I could go faster using it anyway. Also, I'm not worried about bending or breaking any nails(not sure if the purpose of this de-nailer is to salvage nails). Ill throw the good ones in a bucket of old nails but if I break/bend every one, that's fine. With so many pallets and reclaimed wood to clean nails out of I really just need the wood.
Smart Idea👍
I'm a Pallet connoisseur myself. Lol
I just built my first Storage/Flower Box to put on my Pallet Deck I'm working on. Removing those nails are tedious most times. 😣
Love Your little conventional invention/Idea!💯👍
Now THAT'S..using your Noggin 😉
Thank you so much for the tip👍👍
I will Definitely put your great idea to use. 😆
Cheers
Unlike many others, I would straighten out every one of those nails too. Thanks for the lesson.
I would burn the pallet. Throw the nails in the trash. And then admire my beautiful property that isn’t a junk yard.
Dont sound like an OLD COUNTRYMAN
Me 2 😂fort I’d be the only on sad enough to
@@oldcountryman2795 You're like the neighbors that think their house is supposed to be a museum. houses are to live in. Living is the operative word
Wow. Pure genius. There is no word to describe this brilliant idea.
Yep, and yet so simple. (except for the micrometer part)
www.google.com/search?q=vaneer+calipers&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS570US570&oq=vaneer+calipers&aqs=chrome..69i57.6071j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=vernier+calipers
cdn.meme.am/instances/400x/37832161.jpg
lol educational info bro nothing more or less.
Use channel locks. Put the locks right against the wood where the nail sticks through. Pivot the channel locks on their curved side. They will pull the nail straight through and you'll be stuck holding the nail and can toss it in a can or the garbage. One step and you don't have to pick up nails.
I. Have found this to be a great method as well.
Harder to do it this way. Nails in pallets generally have large heads to keep them from pulling through. Your trick works better for finish nails which have small heads.
I have a broken one with a chip out of it going to give that a try. Not sure why selling every thing off to wander the highways for a couple of years. If it works I will give it to the son so he can tear up some pallets :)
Nothing but a great idea Thomas. I also like your answers to all the negativity
Thank you, Bill. I'm glad you get it. A lot of people here don't...
When pulling out the nails, put a piece of 3/4" material under the head of the hammer to give more leverage. Really helpful when using a framing hammer with claws that are not curved.
Great idea... I usually cut the nails shorter but I'm still gonna give this idea a try. Thanks!
Well done!
I must admit I was frightened to see you drop those nails in the parking lot!
+Nissim Whba Good observation. I have a strong magnet on a stick that I use to pick up the nails. Thanks!
I use a short kid.
I have done a lot of pulling nails, many thanks for sharing this idea with us. Greetings from Africa.
Thanks!
Thomas, this is purely ingenious!! "Necessity it the mother of invention". Simple idea, simple execution...Done & Done:) Thank you for taking the time to film this.
At the steel mill in Pittsburg CA they used oak pallets for the rolling mill stock, 6"X6"X48" great firewood stock.
And the world is filled with love. Great ideal if no one else thinks so!
oh yeah, feeling the love lol
Looks like a good solution to the nails bending as you hammer then out. Thanks for sharing.
+24revealer thanks!
I'm so jealous that you get that size pallet.
Same here, where I work here Downunder, I can get throwaway pallets for work, but they're just the standard sized ones.
Nice! Any tips on how to remove staples from wood flooring? Thanks
If they are not embedded in the floor I would just use a screwdriver. A lot harder if they are embedded
His nickname is "lightening" never strikes twice in the same place 😂😂😂
😂
Creative and ingenious. I like Jamieson's palm nailer idea too.
Hey thanks. Lots of great ideas out there.
good idea, it is a pain getting the old nails out. I use old pallets, the best way to recycle ;-)
Thanks!
Very clever idea! i think I have to make one. previously I have been solving the nail bending problem by clipping each nail off with only 1/2" sticking up, so would not bend as easily. Works good, but is one more time eating step.
Thanks!
This is the BEST idea yet. No need for another jig, just an available wire cutter. I am amazed why so many people (youtubers who cannot wait to feature themselves) don't attack the problem by removing it ( i.e. remove the length of the long nail that bends when hammered), but go to great lengths to make complicated tools to half solve the issue.
Nice work. But how many of the nails ended up in your tires?
+Gary Meyer I get this question a lot. I use a magnet sweeper to pick up all the nails. Quick and easy clean up.
Great idea using that bit, if you have a rotary drill that you can turn off the drilling action and just have the impact part will speed up the process and you can get out of the cold. I have a Bosch rotary drill that does that.
It has always saddened me that huge quantities of such nice wood gets wasted by turning it into pallets that get discarded.
It's low grade wood. It has lots of problems like knots and grain run-out.
Awesome idea... because hammers are not a tool I use everyday and end up bending the nail over in the end anyhow... im going to fabricate one from metal then weld the tool on... since the wood would wear out after time... thanks for the great idea!
You are right. If I did this more often, I would substitute the wood for something sturdier. The wood wears out long before the bit driver ever would.
Did you get a flat tire popping all those nails haphazardly in your drive way?
I was thinking the exact same thing!!
Me too.
Likely
he has that covered.
You clowns don't have a pickup magnet. Basic stuff.
clowns don't use sweeper magnets they use own balloons and red noses. basic stuff
Thinks for posting looks like a winner. its ease, cheep and seems to work well
things like this help make the world a better place and any time you can reuse a item
it saves so much.
+Terrie Cotham thank you very much!
Sorry, but leaving the staples sticking up on your piece if ply made me cringe. Flatten or remove them.
I was thinking the same thing. If you are worried about safety, the staples should have been removed first.
I suspect he dismantled them at another location, an was tossing them in the truck bed to de-nail all at once, so storing them like this was safe nothing to cringe worthy
I thought the same thing, but at least he had on sturdy gloves.
Isn't that the whole idea of this video? How to drive the staples out?
Yea, that was humorous.
Neat idea, though its faster if you don't need to use it. I recommend a heavy solid block of wood under your nailed boards on a sturdy platform (not a tailgate). It makes hammering faster, less noisy and more effective. And for removing bigger nails, a 36" crowbar is much better than a hammer when pulling them out.
Great idea--b/c who doesn't have a few extra of those drivers clanging around in there drill bit cases!
Great idea. Just went down and made one. Works pretty well. Thanks for sharing
Getting the boards off of the pallets is the hardest part. The ones I get use twist nails and each board will have 5 or 6 nails in each end. I haven't found an easy way to get the boards off without splitting them badly. What's your method for pulling the boards?
+Ozark Ed I used a flat prybar. It was a lot of work, and I definitely need to find a better way!
Just cut the the timber with a circular saw, near the end of pallet leaving only the nails in the end piece of pallet, if that makes sense
use a cats paw and pull the nails from the head or put a pry bar between the pieces of wood then remove it and slap the wood with the hammer to pop the heads up out of the wood.
I leave the pallets in the rain. the wood softens and then use a crow bar and hammer
LOL!!!!
so great. i wondered if there was a good way to get out nails so they could be reused. Thank you!
There is an air driven gun that BLOWS nails out of wood. Air-Locker has them. Saves a whole lot of time. I have one.
Yup! pop 'em out quick!
Yes its a air locker nail remover
Nice tool! However not all of us can afford to buy an air compressor AND a fancy tool to save an hour or two!
Brilliantly simple! Thanks for sharing this video.
On another note, any way you can post a brief video of those stairs? I'm wanting to build stairs to the second floor of my workshop, but have limited space to do so. Those stairs look like they could be my answer. Thanks in advance (assuming you still read these comments after 2 years).
Those stairs are awesome. I got them from an industrial site that was throwing them out. That is the problem, though. You can buy stairs like these, but they are really, really expensive. Like $500-$1000 expensive per section. That is why most people opt to make them out of wood. Just as strong and super cheap.
I definitely need to build them (out of wood) to access my second floor. As it is, there's a "ladder" made of 2x4s nailed to one wall through which you enter the second floor through a very narrow square opening at the top. Do you know what the stairs' manufacturer is called? I'd like to look them up to see them better to have a better idea how to replicate them.
Thanks, again!
these are the exact units I used:
www.grainger.com/product/GRAINGER-APPROVED-5-Step-Aluminum-Stair-Unit-4XV21?searchBar=true&searchQuery=4xv21
The hardest part was the 3-stair turn in the corner which I did build out of wood. Unfortunately, I don't have any footage of that being built and I don't have access to the property any more.
Outstanding! THANKS!
Nice I'm liking using wood pallets to make window shutters for a barn,great idea to save time less hassle.☺️
Brilliant!! I've got a butt-load of pallet wood in my garage. Now I have a plan for the day. Thank you!
All that banging in the garage keeps the females in the house...
@@claudeirby1561
I don't know about that.
Depending what you're banging, can really piss them off.
😝
I have one of these spare, and a couple of pallets to take apart. I might give this a go as I never use it for it's main purpose. Thanks for the idea.
You're welcome!
I use two crowbars to pull the pallets apart, let the pallet board drop nail down on concrete (it will pop up most of the heads) and remove the nails with the crowbar (more leverage and range, plus a block of wood to stick under the crowbar if the nail is really long to gain more range). and for the bent ones i use a hammer and some pliers. I hold the nail straight with the pliers and hit it with the hammer to pop the head out.
squeeze the nail with a pair of channel locks or lineman plyers and bang it through. very simple and effective.
why not just hit the nail with the hammer then flip the board over and pull it out? I don't understand what the bit receiver was even for
exactly just what i was going to say, totally useless
that's for people that can't handle a hammer accurately. Being a home builder from way back the guild for me would be about as handy as a rubber crutch.
When he said remove them efficiently I thought he was coming up with some genius way to remove them quickly, then I realized dude seriously over thought the project...
james snook that would be to easy..work smart, not hard obviously isn't the case here
ryobi magnet bits holders are garbage for holding. repurpose it. this is genius for your labor guys. how many times has anyone tried to beat the bottom end of a nail just to have the darn thing fold hard on you? this looked like it held them straight through easy to grab the head and finish them. quick efficient no scarring the board like a cats paw would.
to take a pallet apart you need a table that you can clamp the pallet frame down on and make a cantilever type pry bar with a flat rocker plate on the top so that it pries the board up without twisting it. once you clamp it down it goes rather quickly. A couple of hooks that you can flip up to hold the pallet down are fast and work well to hold it down while you pry off the boards and the rocker plate keeps you from wasting boards because of twisting and splitting. those screw nails are tough and you will still tear some of them up.
My Brother has this tool he rigged up in his garage almost looks like a palm sander. He uses to get nails out of the pallets. He makes tables and other stuff with the pallets from his shop pretty cool .
I betcha it's a palm nailer. Does it run on air?
I'e messed with pallet wood. The issue is hardwood boards get reused and when they rebuild the pallets they cut off flush all hte old nails which are now buried in oak. On top of that they wood they use is mostly garbage--cupped, warped, twisted...and knots in almost every piece. I have salvaged pine boards (must easier to get nails out of softwood) and used them for a few projects, but he hardwood is almost always junk unless you need small pieces and can cut around any nails..even then be careful because i've hit plenty of hidden nails on the chop saw.
Actually not a bad idea. I may try it.
I de-nail pallet lumber by burning it and then using a magnet over the ashes.
Look at all those punctures just waiting to happen! :)
thats what I though too..why not take them in the garage, and rest the wood on the edge of a more solid surface, like a small anvil. it wont bounce as much as the tailgate on his ute, and he wont have stray nails flying around that his tyres will pick up.
Neat, clever and simple. Saves time and an enormous amount of money considering the air-tool alternative.
Old carpenter’s laugh at such silliness
No kidding and get a real hammer
Do you have a better/cheaper solution???
@@Liberallez hit the nail with the hammer, just don't get your head in the way...
lol. yes. This is a classic case of double handling.
Glad to see a few with a good reply learn how to use a hammer
Simple and effective! Excellent! Use a long reach mechanics magnet for picking up the nails and you're sorted!
+Kevin Chamberlain thank you!
Man so many haters here. The guy just had an idea and everyone bashes him, look I know WE all have used a tool for other then its intended purpose some time or another that makes it more fun . I give him credit just for filming it !
+pairaboots Thanks for the support!
I used a butt plug as a door stop once
Next time, remove the butt plug before reusing it. Are you still sitting there holding the door?
PRICELESS!!! LMAO
Way to think outside the box, I'm going to give this a try. Thanks for posting. -Matt
a Palm nailer would work slick with that also
Keith Mailhotte now that is a pretty good suggestion!
very good idea
So I thought until I Jamed a nail between the shaft and the sleeve. Took me two hours to get the nail out .
I just pinch off all but 3/4" with crops then tap the stub flush. That leaves enough head to pry the nail.
For recessed nails snip a bit longer.
Bent, even flattened nails just need a twist from the claw to get enough straight shank before nipping.
If I'm feeling lazy I use a 4" grinder with an inox 1mm disc instead of crops.
And that way you needn't massacre a perfectly good tool.
As my teacher used to always say some 40yrs ago.
"The right tool for the job"
easiest way to remove the nails would be to burn the wood
Brilliant
Totally agree that's what I do no problem at all.
So true 99.9% of them are only good for fire wood....
Hahahahahaha! Lmao
brilliant i say!
The pallets around here us coated staples thin wire nearly impossible to remove. I use the oak ones for fire wood and use a magnet to collect the staples nails etc. when cleaning the ashes out of the stove. Peace
...you are using your head to find a solution to a problem, that's far better than these jokers are doing who just show up in the comments to shit on your idea. Thanks for sharing.
+riflemanism Thanks for the support!
this is a great idea! I don't have a lot for spending on the airgun to shoot out the nails - but this should help. I had a few stubborn nails and kept thinking there needs to be a better way
thats what the inside of my truck looks like
Good idea but i don’t think it would drive the nails back that i’ve got on pallets with the serrated teeth gripping the wood..?
Ooh such "hammering skills". Who's writing these comments?people who dream of owning their own hammer some day?
At least he aint choking the hammer,
This assumes you can pull the wood off with the nails without the wood splitting! The ribbed nails usually used in pallets are designed not to pull out
easiest way to get nails is go to the hardware store and buy them safes a lot of time
could a bit driver be big enough to capture the head of the nail so after you pound the nail part way out like you do in your video you flip the board over and using a battery operated drill you then put the head of the nail into the bit driver so it captures it and then reverse it out so that way it doesnt drop out??? I have no idea if this would work or if a bit driver would be big enough to fit the nail head in...just curious to see if it might be possible???
I don't see why not...
good idea if you don't know how to use your hammer to get the nails out
I obviously don't know how to use a hammer. I must have been swinging the wrong end again.
I'd say it's way more efficient than just a hammer ... even in the most skilled hands
Lol yes your right... and they make a tool that does the same thing... i think its called a nail set
Trim nail punch....
i have a damaged eye and don't have good depth perception. this unit is easier to hit square and the nail doesn't just bend every time you miss vertical a bit. it does speed up the process for me.
It's amazing no one mentions the dangerous nails protruding from the scrap plywood he uses to hold the impact driver bit holder .
Seems more of a hassle than just using a hammer !
I don't agree. once he has the tool made, this makes future hauls a lot easier to deal with going forward. A little time spent to make the tool is worth all the time saved de nailing the pallet wood.
Hammer skills have all been exported overseas along with our jobs. We make do where we can...Mike Rowe talks about it a lot.
bisquitnspanky Thanks for the response. Sometimes I get caught up in the net of UA-cam nastiness where sincere, well meaning comments like yours can be misunderstood. No need to apologize if the comment was submitted without guile. I do invite you to check out some of my other videos and hope to get as many years of experience under my belt as you do!
No need to apologize, period. Be nasty, be kind, be you. Never apologize because somebody else feels offended - as if they have more right to this world than you? Live your life, not theirs.
It's a pleasure to see that some of the commentators here have manners -- and the education to submit grammatically correct comments.
Great idea, wish I could get nice pallet wood like that near me. All I get is crappy pallets
+Ron Hensley unfortunately, it was a one time deal for me.
Ron, I get some beat up old pallets around here also. I work on them with some sand paper and can get some really nice pieces then use putty if I want to fill in any holes. Most of the time I leave the holes in the boards because it adds a bit different look to what I make. The hot tube company 7 miles away from me won't come off of their pallets. Some of them come from Japan and some times are made of Japanese woods instead of the wood they ordered from the U.S.
Yeah, I just saw off those ends
There's one in every crowd. LOL
columbusindimedia Sorry dude...Just sayin...As a building contractor, I've cut up pallets for thirty years...Love the heavy equipment or motor ones, they're usually rough sawn oak...I use pallets for spacers and build ups...but that 1.5 or less inches out of the board won't be missed...I Usually run my saw right next to the 2X's And throw those out, unless I need them too...:)
I've done it too.
Saw another video on pallet disassembly. what he did I thought was really clever. He cut the nails to 1/2 inch with a pair of bolt cutters, two whacks with a hammer an the nail heads where out enough to pry the nail out.
Just chop off end of boards with the nails not loosing that much wood
I agree, it would take you 10 minutes.
2 mins
i was just about to say the same thing ..i run a skil saw right on the inside edge of the outer runners and only deal with the middle runner pulling nail wise..easier to do less likely to split , then just bust the wood off the runners only exsposing the left over nails then crowbar them out. the wood is cleaner this way and only holes in the middle of the board and you lost about 4"or 5" on each and gained about 4 hours of your life !! good luck but nice idea as well
Most pallets have three base boards. Are you planning to just end up with 12” boards for your projects?
yeup thats what i would suggest but you beat me to it, foiled again.......the end of the piece is no good anyway cause of ii the nail holes
Smart cookie!! I walk around our downtown NYC nabe, and even though there are are plenty of blue CHEP palettes 'on loan', other plain wood 'orphans' are lying around, often...discarded. I'll keep your great solution in mind.. thanks.
Yeah but the hard part is separating the boards in the beginning without splitting them.
Sabre saw and 6tpi wood/metal blade.
I use a special tool called a "pallet buster" basically a long handled pry bar with two articulating heads. I can take pallets apart with about a 95% success rate without splitting the wood.
Here's a link if anyone's interested in looking at the tool I use:
www.vestilmfg.com/products/ldsol/pallet_buster.htm
I just use a heavy sledge like a plunger, lift 6-9" and drop it once or twice assuring the pallet is slightly raised off the ground... obviously easiest when slats are staggered, otherwise a simple U-shaped jig to drive a slat directly below another.
2 pieces of 2 x 4 work pretty well too. 1 each side of the slat, and push!
being a welder, I can make this tool out of scrap steel for about 3 dollars
out here in southern cally, our pallets have those darn nasty twist nails, wonder if your idea would remove those.
twist nails are everywhere. Ohio too!
they all have twisty nails dude