Pulling Boards from a Pallet (without rendering them useless)

Hello all,

I have been working with pallets a lot lately and I thought to myself "what if folks want to do this too?"

So I decided to share what I found to be the best way to remove a board from the pallet without destroying the pieces.

Step 1: Cut the boards off of the top of the pallet.

From the edges as close to the brace boards as possible, cut the top boards (top because there are more boards on top usually) with a laser circular saw or hand saw if you have none.

Step 2: Pry the
board from the center brace.

Using a flat edge crowbar or heavy duty claw hammer, remove the top boards from the pallet braces. Warning! too much force could break the boards and nails will be exposed when you remove the boards. Best to pull the nail out with a claw hammer and either set them aside for use (some are great for recycling in projects) or discard of them safely.

Step 3: Turn over the pallet and repeat Steps 1 and 2.

Step 4: Remove the stubs from the braces.

I found the braces to be useful so to remove the chopped stubs go ahead and hammer the stubs to break them from the side angle and then pull the nails for recycling or discarding.


Finished
After completion you should have a set of pallet boards that you can use to turn into just about anything.

See my latest pallet creations at:

Blogger:
http://blogspud.blogspot.com/2012/07/pallet-wood-patio-table-recycling-at.html

LumberJocks:
Blog = http://lumberjocks.com/craftedbyethan/blog/30975
Project = http://lumberjocks.com/projects/68601