A follow up to an earlier video, this method of breaking down Euro Pallets (EPAL) uses a small sledgehammer, a claw hammer, wooden blocks, a prybar and demonstrates the use of a car jack as an alternative to some of the hammer work.
This time I removed each nail as soon as the pointy end was accessible instead of removing them all in a single operation to reduce the risk of injury. Surprisingly this didn't seem to add much time to the job.
I would recommend doing as much of this job on a workbench as possible, I only did it on the ground as not everyone has one. Working on dirt or grass is a bit harder but not too bad, nails are easier to lose though.
Some things I have found helpful with this type of pallet:
Don't try to dismantle when wet as the wood swells and grabs onto the nails very tightly, required much more hammering and increasing the chance of boards breaking.
There are a number of alternatives to the prybar, often the chipboard blocks can be knocked off the nails, or a straight claw hammer or improvised lever could be used. Many pallets of this type have a large hole through the centre of each block, allowing them to be levered off with an appropriately sized pole. Always loosen them with a hammer first though.
Have three containers for the different sized nails on hand, each pallet has at least 78 nails.
a Europallet weighs at least 20kg/50 pounds, don't move them any more than you need to.
most planks have chamfered edges so keep this in mind for projects.
The timber is usually fairly good from what I have seen, and roughly half of the planks are reasonably straight.
In my local area these pallets are not returned, and businesses are generally happy to give them away.
23 авг 2018
