Pallet Wood Tips & Tricks 

Who knew something that could be free could be such a hassle! Thank you so much for the information on those hidden little wires and nails.

I've watched a few pallet videos, but never heard your free tips. Thanks so much. And loved the cats!

Just bumped into your channel. Got the roof done and they were throwing away the pallets and I said why not, lumber is crazy high right now. Ready to jump into a project and look for ideas and never thought about how to actually break down the pallet to work with it correctly. Thanks for the free tips, they work.

Been using this wood saving method for 40 years. I Lund it way faster if the slat board are only wanted. Just get a skill saw and cut both ends off 2” and the center board is saved and you don’t waste splitting the nail ends . Btw that was wise to mention possible chemicals in wood. The ends can be used to heat the shop.

Excellent video with lots of valuable information! I'm new to the "reclaimed pallet wood scene" and had no idea about the leftover wires from pneumatic nails or the stamp abbreviations.

Excellent video and voice instructions , ( hate videos that use any methods beside voice instruction and complete demonstrations ). Very useful , even for amateurs. Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---------------Ernest E. Johnson

😂 the "another one" segment of this had me laughing so hard. Great info, I have learned all these lessons a while ago as pallet wood is my main source of wood for projects but this is totally worth watching as a reminder as well.

100 % AWESOME VIDEO . Thanks for making .

Looks like a great tool. For me after taking apart many many pallets, the best tool was my reciprocating saw with at least a 9in blade that cuts embedded nails. With that I can take apart a pallet in just a few minutes. Blade eats through the nails no problem. Just get the blade on the back of the board. Before that no matter how I pried or what crowbar I used, I always ending splitting or cracking some boards, just like what can happen with the tool in this video. Often ring shank or spiral nails are used on pallets (they want them to stay together), so they can be tough to get out. Only took me like 60 pallets to figure it out. Plus if you are doing a rustic look, leaving the old nail heads makes a nice touch.

WOW!! Didn't know about those stamps, and that's some very good and very important information. THANKS FOR POSTING THAT!!

When he said, nother one, I felt that!

Great video! I believe in saving wood any way we can!

Thanks for the tips. Kansas

A good pallet air nail remover is the Air Locker ap700.

Excellent advise. Thank you.

Great video, with tons of great tips and advice! Thanks so much for making this! Great job!

I don't even bother with the ends, jut cut off about 2" on each end and it does away with those nails. I have a Zircon metal detector which has saved many of my planing knives... the most valuable tool when working with pallets.

Good tips! But that dollar-store hammer has got to go. A hammer with a short handle is only good for poking a nail into Sheetrock. You need leverage (a longer handle) to get that head speed. Spend $15 for a proper hammer and it will do the work for you.

Great job explaining in detail all of the little things that could go wrong if you don't take the time to dismantle the pallet properly. Thanks for the tips.

Excellent info. I didn't think about the the leftovers from airgun nails. A few drill bits are way cheaper than a planer blade for sure. I am fortunate that there is at least one company nearby that routinely disposes of their pallets to the public. I'll be using these tips in the near future.

A man that loves cat's yayyy!! there beautiful! I love that piece of furniture not sure if it's a dresser or buffet but it would make a beautiful bathroom sink! I would rather use a Reciprocating saw and a punch to take my pallets apart!

Cool cats. But you should probably get one of those air powered nail pushers. Seriously it really speeds up the process. Plus it leaves cleaner wood.

A lot of pallets are made with green wood which sometimes warps and splits. Allow PLENTY of drying time for nicer projects made of pallet wood.

Lots of little gems in there. I did not know about the wires in the nail holes, also I was worried about nasty wood treatments but you cleared that one up for me. Great stuff. Thanks a lot!

There's this guy SPE (initials ?) that has a video dismantling a pallet in about 10 minutes with 3 pieces of wood and a shop hammer and it's clean easy, with no damage to the pallet. You gotta check it out.

"...another one..." very funny and entertaining with the cats.

I love your shop "helpers" :)

now days a pneumatic nail remover works great and is relatively cheap

maybe a tip for those nails that are too deep in the wood, or in hardwood . I usually take an angle grinder cut most of the length away but keep a small portion standing about a quarter inch or a wee bit more than give it a whack with the hammer and the nails won't bend almost never As a matter of fact I cut down all the nail with the angle grinder first seems to work the fastest for me And all I need for tools are the grinder with a very thin blade and a Hammer Hope some one can use the tip kind regards Hans

I hammered nails out for years; until I discovered a pneumatic tool specifically made for the job. It fits over the nail snugly, and with a squeeze of the trigger, it blows the nail out. It saves hours of hammering and prying.

Get yourself a pneumatic nail punch. They're cheep and work great. Pine isn't cheap here in 2021.

Great tips. Thank you. Subbed and liked.

I cut the bail down a little more then half way with a pair of nail sheers then hammer it out

WOW - WAYYYY useful! Thanks & subbed!

You make some great points..one thing I feel cuts the time in half is, go back to minute 2:28... I'll grab a rubber mallet, and HIT the wood back down. You do this 2 inches away from the closest nail to you. This drives the wood down and the nails stay put. You know have recessed nails, beckoning an extraction. So true on not forgetting to pullout all nails, then having a pile of boards with a fricken line all the way across from them. .or a mean ole extract on my cast iron table saw. Will strongly disagree with you on drilling a larger hole to extract a stubborn nail on the end or the tiny piece from the nails from a nail gun.. Honestly, if I'm gonna have a big ass hole there, I'd rather not waste my time messing with it and run my circular saw a quarter inch away from the nail and cut that end..ur only losing 1 inch and a 1/4 OF THE BOARD ANYWAY.. Which then got me thinking..if I don't care about 1 1/4", is losing 2 1/2 "s that much worse? Nope, it ain't..So instead of extracting the nails on the ends..I run my circ saw straight across all the boards on each end. Leaving the nails on the middle still waiting to be extracted..usually you can just pull one end towards your midsection, if you're standing on top of the pallet, then squeeze my bar in there and Recess the board..then hit the board and drive it back down and pull the center nails out . This however, does make it extremely difficult to take the nails out of the 2 bottom boards due to having no board leverage to work with and a small piece of wood attached to 3 stingy ass nails.. Those bottom boards are usually Oak too, making it a pain the f... A$$ that I no longer find worth dealing with.. Besides, those bottom boards ( usually a hardwood) are usually in really shitty condition and have that weird cutout, which I personally don't find too many applications for those pieces on future projects. Thank you for the video, you bring up excellent points. I hope you take my friendly comment only as an explanation of how I extract the nails...cuz I'm too fkng lazy to make a video.. thanks again.

do you find yourself often using the entire length of board? It almost seems a better idea to just cut off the ends, and just use the wood for smaller projects? Seems like its a 50/50 if you are going to get a full length piece of usable wood out of it.

Hey thanks for the tip about the chemical treatment. I've watched a good amount of pallet projects and never has anyone mentioned a chemical within the wood

The Lone Woodman, not so alone with his two cats to su-purr-vise his work ;)

awesome sauce by not getting any wood with [mb] stamped on it so we all dont get cancer from our wood.i didnt know that information behind the stamped letters on wood but i will pass it on to others now that i know.so thanks for the warning.you where plenty helpful.awesome sauce 2 thumbs up.

I a newbie, how do you tell what kind of woods are in the pallets???

Your tips are time, and money saving. I was scared about ruining a planer blade, I am glad I double checked all the boards! Thankyou!

Thank you for those tips. I’m looking at starting a pellet recycling business hobby thingy, sort of! BTW, those drill bits you use to drill the nail holes out, are they magnetic? Or do the metal nail tabs just stick to the normal bits?

lol...your cats are great! They love you!

+1 for the cats

Interesting to hear (not only from you) that in the US you have oak and other hard wood pallets. Here in Europe, all what I've seen is pine (even sometimes the small blocks which hold the planks together I've seen being made of particle board or other inferior material. Pine is OK with me but for sure hard wood is better.

Nice video! Thanks to share. I'm found interesting your tool to disassemble. Did you design that or bought? If designed, could share it closely?

pine pallet = firewood. thanks for your tips.... really like the one using drill bit to get out those wires!

Thank You ! Ive been going crazy having trouble w/wood after i pulled all the nails out so carefully,i never even thought that it might be the nailstrip connecting wires.

1 thank you for al the great tips. I am new to working with any woods and started a allotment and want to build raised beds and a pretty composting station and a toolbox from reclaimed pallets. And this helped out so much. It might be a pain to drill everything but it's better then ruining your tools. And waste money them I could have just bought the wood. And 2 your amazingly sweet with your cats. Kind regards rose

Well, Thank you for the heads up on the dangers of pallets I didn't know! I guess now I have to just let all my old pallets set there do nothing with them because now there all brown and old probably can't see any kind of a stamp!

What is yeh tool your using to pull the pallets apart

save yourself some time and just cut the 1 inch ends that contain nails, fight with the ones in the middle instead. most of the time the ends are always cracked or will crack when you try to pry on them.

Where can you get hardwood pallets

How do you treat those dense oak stringers with the twisted nails that the heads so often break off of when you try to pull them?? I have one "round claw" hammer with a good sharp nail claw that I can drive onto the remaining nail shank so it "bites" the shank. Driving the hammer on seems to enlarge the nail hole somewhat and careful application of force on the hammer handle "usually" breaks the nail loose. Those that remain can sometimes be coaxed out with nippers or a angle head pair of diagonals. What about you??

The cats did a really good job of supervising the entire project. Time for a reward of cheesy biscuits I think. Just found your channel and my cats like it so I've subscribed.

I see another use for pallets motorcycle crates I bet there big enough to make shipping crates for them

Where do you get that tool that you used to pry off the boards and what is it called?

pick up a trailerful of pallets when you can. they're great for projects but OSHA does not approve of a forklift trying to lift 4000 pounds on anything but the best, best pallet. manufacturing facilities have tons of them, it's best to call around and find someone who can help you out. they don't want them anyway, they take up space and might accidentally be used by the new guy who doesn't know any better

Glad this video popped up! Like many, Im getting more into wood projects and going to be on the smaller side so I thought pallet wood would be perfect seeings how a friend has literally hundreds of pallets I can take whenever (most if not all are pine) but had no idea about the overseas stamps and the wire holding the nails. I already grabbed about 10 so we'll see how long this process takes and see if it's even worth doing. I know this video is 7 years old but a 1x3 or 1x4 x 8 is around 6-8 bucks.

use a car jack and slowly apply the pressure.

Great and easy techniques, these helped loads when we had 40 pallets to break down for our first video :) Thanks!

I like your cats, but if you work your labor out at $10 an hour, plus purchase of tools and electricity for heating and lighting etc, how much does each pallet cost you? No disrespect to someone trying to recycle intended. Some pallets are pressure treated using cyanide etc I wondered if you knew?

Such a good video. I learned a lot I did not know. Like the wire left behind from the nail gun used to assemble pallets. Thank you for that info, as I am getting ready to plane a lot of pallet wood for flooring and these wires would have ruined my blade and surprise me completly. Thank you again.

In Ottawa, Canada the price of Pine is high because it all comes from the US according to the people I spoke to at Home Depot. Maybe the extra work is worth it.

Methyl Bromide was outlawed in 2004 or 2005. The chances of finding one now, 15-16 years later, is slim.

I'll tell you where you can get pallets. For me here in slc, it's newspaper agency Corp, but, floor and decor gives them out usually on Thursdays and Saturdays here, and there are 3 stores, and they all do it on those days.

Great tips.. Thx! Btw, kitty legs aren't handles, you can seriously injure them. Cute kitty!

Don't mean to brag but I work for a pallet company and when I need some wood my boss is ok with me taking some no nail holes just good old boards or stringers or some particle boards too

it cant be... is that... carpet? why?? your making a splinter floor it might as well be lava. you cant never sweep that either and the amount of dust it will collect....

You have beautiful cats and you are very lucky buddy!!!.. I'm a subscriber now and Nice video.

I love the carpeted floor!! I've found that if the pallets get rained on the nails tend to pull a little better. I have the same pallet buster and can usually knock down a pallet in about 5min. Save those nails too, they can come in handy on some pallet wood projects. The drilling out the holes is a great tip..... my planer wishes I thought to do that before I nicked a blade.

I've cut a board that had a nail in it on a tablesaw and the last thing I was worried about was my stock bosch blade, I was more concerned about finding a tiny hole in my chest, metal was flying away like a bullet.

if you take a carriage bolt and a piece of pipe that just fits the bolt put on nail can drive them out even bent nails get bolt about 6-8 long and pipe about 4 inch work good and cheaper then power nail remover

When a problem comes along You must whip it Before the cream sets out too long You must whip it When something's going wrong You must whip it

Those companies should appreciate n grateful people like u to clear their waste n recycle them. Infact they should pay u to clear for them

there is a company that will deliver free pallets to you only catch is you must take 100 pallets they have thousands to get rid of .

good to know I have pallets I have not dissassembled yer will be buildig a chicken coop out of it.

theres bilions of them where I live all for free

Are you using a deadlift jack? Better question: can you use a deadlift jack?

Nice video! Started off a little monotone but glad I watched the whole thing. You drilling the holes in FF finding wires was hilarious. Thanks for the tips.

When do I get the bill for the tips that aren't free? Do you need my address? And, what the heck do you do with stringers?

if you get small steel pipe 3/8 or so and get bolt that just fits in it inch or 2 longer can use to drive nail out with out bending it

GREAT ADVICE 😆 Thanks a bunch

Thanks for the tips. Loved the voice effects...another one LOL

what is the gadget called your using? love the cats so loving

Lots of useful information for those just getting into working with pallets. I love that your cats want to be with and that you love them back. Thank you.

wow , great information , thanks

pine wood might be cheap in the store but some of us are unable to purchase even that on a regular basis so pine works

Awesome channel! Very informative. You're sharing all your experience so we can save time, tools and stay safe! Thanks for letting the kittehs 🐈🐈 get screen time!

My pallet list.... BAD MB Methyl Bromide-NOT GOOD EUR- Maybe Bad? Fumigated? Painted Pallets-Orange, Blue (You never know-leased ) GOOD- DB- Debark KD Kiln Dried HT Heat treated EPAL-ok unmarked pallets are usually ok

pine might have been cheap back when you made this video , but not in 2022

Good information. Love your cats 🐈

Wait! Kitty doesn't have his eye protection on!

I have picked up shipping crates that have given me a lot of wood

Hey...great vid...very useful info...there are two other stamps I've encountered: kd (kiln dried)...spf(spruce pine,fir)...thx for the vid...gotta get one of those pallet "crowbars"

Hi lone woodman, what is the name of that blue hand tool used to pry the pallet wood?

I saw one video where the guy used a 1/4 inch plug cutter to disassemble the pallet, and then put dowels in the holes. So, in effect he drilled out all the nails. No need for a pallet pry bar.

I want a shop like that!! You're a funny guy. Thanks for the free tips!

I have seen them with ring nails in them which are extremely hard to remove!

I'm digging this intro music, very relaxing