# WOOD PALLETS: 2 Minute Tear Down



## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

Pallet demo seems to give people grief. Most wooden pallets are nailed together with rim shank nails which are designed to prevent "backing out" or easy to pry out. It's not impossible but extremely difficult. There is a way to shrink demo time from hours to minutes. The only drawback is that if you don't have a reciprocating saw, you have to buy one. They are obviously great for other things too and every household should have one - corded or cordless, it doesn't matter.

Stuff you need:
- reciprocating saw (aka Sawzall)
- metal cutting sawzall blade
- pallet

What you do:
- Get the metal cutting blade in the saw.
- stick the blade in between the deck boards and the blocks. 
- start cutting all nailed locations.


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## Kraken (Sep 7, 2012)

Actually great info as I have a nice stack in my driveway that my wife wishes I would do something with!!


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Not always THAT easy either ... guess they build pallets a little different here in Md. Its still taken me an hour or more to get 1 pallet apart.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I have had 4 pallets sitting in my drive for the past year and a half. They are going away this weekend. Unfortunately mine are not as easy as yours. These were used to ship in heavy equipment for a data center. 1 inch ply on top, 2x12s underneath with 4x4s under that. lagbolted together with 6 inch lags. I am tired of having them sit so I am chainsawing them up and burning them this weekend. 

Otherwise you are spot on for a normal pallet.


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## dudeamis (Oct 16, 2011)

thanks! I have a bunch of pallets I've wanted to tear down but haven't had the chance, or time.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

We Urban Amish just feed our beaver a lot of Mountain Dew, and then set him loose in a pen full of pallets...he's usually all done in about an hour.


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## randomr8 (Oct 24, 2009)

Lord Homicide said:


> Pallet demo seems to give people grief. Most wooden pallets are nailed together with rim shank nails which are designed to prevent "backing out" or easy to pry out. It's not impossible but extremely difficult. There is a way to shrink demo time from hours to minutes. The only drawback is that if you don't have a reciprocating saw, you have to buy one. They are obviously great for other things too and every household should have one - corded or cordless, it doesn't matter.
> 
> Stuff you need:
> - reciprocating saw (aka Sawzall)
> ...


I got 12 inch blades for my Sawzall today. 10 minutes a pallet!


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

randomr8 said:


> I got 12 inch blades for my Sawzall today. 10 minutes a pallet!


You must be stopping to talk to someone every now and then .

I can rip through one in a couple of minutes.


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## Tokwik (Oct 12, 2011)

If you don't mind shortening your boards by a couple inches...

I take a circular saw with the blade set at the depth of the boards and make a cut down both sides just inside the nails. Follow that with the sawzall down the middle support like Lord Homicide suggested and you can have a pallet stripped in a couple minutes.

So instead of having to cut three rows of nails, you are only cutting one.


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

That's how I do mine as well, Tokwik. But I will grant that LH's method works well, too.


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## randomr8 (Oct 24, 2009)

Lord Homicide said:


> You must be stopping to talk to someone every now and then .
> 
> I can rip through one in a couple of minutes.


Blade change at #8. Depends on the wood and how tight the nails are. Some are 4 minutes some are a PITA. Bought the furring strips today. I'll see how many feet 13 pallets give me.


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## randomr8 (Oct 24, 2009)

I also found setting 'em on end with the slats horizontal to the ground. Goes faster that way.


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