Sometimes at the disposal of the summer resident are used (used) so-called. euro pallets. This, of course, is not about shower trays, but about wooden pallets, made to make it more convenient for loaders to turn over some kind of load that is laid on pallets. They are assembled, I must say, in good conscience, on ruffled or screw nails, so that they would not figure it out on their own during operation. The wood there is mostly birch. But it is an excellent material for making garden furniture or using it as ancillary products. For example, formwork, light railings, garden furniture, benches, deck chairs, etc. One of my acquaintances did this in general - he made a fence from second-hand pallets. And not bad, I must say, a fence.
The main problem when disassembling euro pallets is their high-quality assembly. But this is if you approach them without a flight of thought. I have met discussions on several forums on dismantling pallets for building materials. And alas, he noted that the stereotype is working. "Knocked down with nails? “We need to use a nail puller.” But the thing is just that the nails are non-removable! Nails ruffed or screw. Therefore, an attempt to extract them ends either with a breakdown of the board into which they are driven, or with the use of a saw to cut the pallet into firewood.
Meanwhile, there is a way to disassemble the pallet, even to the finish, and quickly and with virtually no damage to the material. And from the tools you only need ... a small hatchet. Now I'll tell you how it's done.
Often, the summer resident does not need to disassemble the top plate itself is full. It is a product in itself, very applicable in the economy. And you just need to get rid of 3 boards to which this die is attached.
Please note that these three boards, which serve as a support for the pallet, are attached through 9 wooden blocks. On one side, 3 boards are nailed to them, on the other, the pallet plate itself. Moreover, in 99 cases out of 100 nails are hammered across the fibers of the tree! (And this is normal. Who clogs along ... Although there are such pallets.) And this means that a short bar is extremely easy to split. He's almost pierced by nails already. It remains only to finish the job with a light blow of the hatchet blade. 3 hits - and the board with the remnants of the bar itself is separated from the pallet plate. So we separate all three boards of the pallet.
Now we need to get rid of the remnants of the bar on the die. Nothing complicated either. Proportioning the force of impact, with the tip of the hatchet blade we prick the remains of the bar. The extreme pieces fly off immediately, the middle ones still resist and hold on to the nails. We pierce them too. Don't be afraid to hit a nail with a hatchet. In this case, you are not hitting across the nail, but along. Therefore, serrating an ax blade is quite problematic. It simply glides over the nail, chipping the wood.
We get rid of the remnants of the bar with a few blows of the butt of the hatchet. At the same time, we prepare fuel for a samovar or barbecue.
That's actually all. We have at our disposal a die with completely intact planks and 3 more planks separately with the remnants of the bar, which can be disposed of in a similar way.
As you can see, all the fears when disassembling the pallet are greatly exaggerated. A little ingenuity and you have mountains of practically free building material at your disposal. Parsing one pallet takes no more than 3-5 minutes.
The first question that comes to mind when considering products from a pallet is where to get the material? The answer is simple: at almost any wholesale base or household goods warehouse. Most likely, they will give them away for free or for a small fee. You can also get hold of wooden pallets and wooden gratings from rubber and car windows in car dealerships.
It is better to use the so-called. euro pallets, but keep in mind that they are more difficult to disassemble than domestically produced containers. Pay attention to the width of the boards. Standard - 120-125 mm, thickness - 12 mm.
How to properly disassemble pallets?
Dismantle, don't build. However, in this case, you will have to be patient and time. After all, if you use pallets not for rough wall finishing, but, for example, for furniture, you need to get even boards without significant flaws.
As the forum users note, it takes 15-20 minutes to disassemble the pallet. It seems - not much, but it is - if you are going to make, say, a garden table. How about a whole house? Here is where you think about it. You can speed up the process - if you develop the appropriate skills and stock up on the right tool.
You will need: a nail puller (preferably longer and with a flat end at least 3 cm wide), a hammer, pliers, pliers, and possibly an ax. It is better to work with cloth gloves. Also prepare the container: immediately sort the nails of different sizes into jars. Straight and slightly curved nails (after they can be straightened) will certainly come in handy on the farm. The rest can be poured into the concrete solution when pouring the foundation or building a garden path.
Dry the pallets well before dismantling. Most often, pallets are made from pine, aspen, birch boards. Less common are oak or exotic hardwoods: quebracho, hevea. Pulling out rusty nails from such boards is more difficult: the nail puller tears off the hat, and the pliers bite the nail. Carefully inspect the pallet from all sides, turn it over. If the nails are punched through, recessed or bent, it is better to postpone such a product. Most likely, when disassembling, you will break the cross board.
If there are a lot of bent nails, there is nothing to do, you have to work with them. Forum users are advised to remove such nails as follows:
- Take a thick nail (120-150 mm) or an M6 bolt. Place it on the head of the nail to be knocked out and hit with a hammer so that the head of the latter sinks slightly and the bent end comes out of the board.
- Straighten the bent tip with pliers or cut it off, for example, with a grinder.
- Drive the nail back out by hitting the straightened tip.
Straight nails are easily pulled out with a nail puller for a slightly raised hat. To lift it, gently pull on the board and then kick it back into place.
So, let's start disassembly! Turn the pallet over and stand on it with your feet. Hammer the nail puller at an angle to the cubes, pull towards you. If you want to keep the cubes, push away from you. If it is hard to pull, lengthen the lever. Does not work? Then split the cubes with an axe. Remove the center board along with the cubes. Keep in mind that some of the nails will remain in them or pull out with hats through both boards.
Put the resulting shield on another pallet. Straighten the bent nails and knock them out with a hammer.
Slightly bent nails are convenient to knock out through pliers.
Furniture
Forum member Vened uses pallets in different ways. He saws the bad ones for firewood, and makes furniture out of the good ones. A whole collection of such products has already gathered at home: chairs, stools, a bench, armchairs, shelves (in the bath and dressing room), a box for dirty linen on wheels. The furniture was assembled on self-tapping screws, covered with stain and parquet varnish. Curly cuts were made with an electric jigsaw.
Armchairs treated with enamel for outdoor use. I covered all the sauna furniture with sauna varnish, except for the parts that come into contact with the body. Coated them with shelf oil. First, I processed all the details, then I assembled the product and, already in finished form, covered it again.
flowerbeds
Treat the pallet with sandpaper, treat with protective compounds from decay and insects. Then wrap the sides, bottom and back of the pallet with clingfilm or landscape fabric. Leave the top open. The film can be attached with a construction stapler. Backfill with earth, tamp lightly. Now you can plant plants. Curly, for example, ivy or bindweed, will look spectacular in a vertical flower garden. Suitable stonecrop, alissum, loosestrife, young, thyme and other ground covers.
Do not rush to put the flower garden upright immediately after planting. Wait a couple of weeks for them to take root. Water the flower bed from top to bottom.
Raised garden beds can also be made from wooden pallets. Then it will be easier to care for crops.
garden house
A fence, rough wall upholstery, a dog house, a chicken coop, a gazebo, a toilet - where only members of the forum did not use it! But Koblukha built a whole house! At first it was used as a change house, over time (when the main house is ready) it will become a guest house. The size of the building is 5x4 m. In addition to pallets, we also used timber - “weave” (for the lower and upper strapping), insulation, siding, metal tiles, floorboards, broken tiles (for the basement).
The house was built in almost a month and for about 40 thousand rubles - along with interior and exterior decoration. For comparison, construction trailers cost 70 thousand "wooden". They are not pleasing to the eye with their appearance, but here they are cheap and beautiful!
Summer residents have been living in the house from May to November for three years. In summer it is cool, in early spring and autumn the building is heated by oil batteries. The house withstood even strong hurricanes, while the neighbor's roof was blown off. A little later, the living space was expanded: the owners added a veranda and a kitchen, and in the future they plan to add a bathhouse.
According to the materials of the participants of the forum "House and Dacha"
To disassemble a large number of pallets quickly or, for example, to replace the wooden floor in a house, you cannot do without improvised means.
Usually, a nail puller with a hammer is used for this, but even with these tools, work is sometimes time-consuming.
To make a homemade product, you will need a metal pipe with a diameter of 87 mm, a pipe with a diameter of 25 mm, a steel plate 5-6 mm thick and a building corner 32x32 mm. You will also need nuts and bolts.
Main stages of work
First of all, we cut off a piece 125 mm long from a steel pipe with a diameter of 87 mm. Then, from a piece of metal 5-6 mm thick, it will be necessary to cut two levers.
After the levers are cut, they must be sanded. Further, at the ends of the blanks (in the center), the author drills holes and cuts threads for the M8 bolt.
At the next stage, both levers must be welded along the ends of a piece of pipe with a diameter of 125 mm. Welded seams will need to be cleaned with a grinder.
From the building corner, the author cuts off two blanks 10 cm long. In the center of one of the shelves of the corners, one hole with a diameter of 8 mm must be drilled. Further, using bolts with nuts, the corners will need to be attached to the levers.
For details on how to make a device for dismantling pallets and wooden floors with your own hands, we recommend watching the video on the website.
Sometimes at the disposal of the summer resident are used (used) so-called. euro pallets. This, of course, is not about shower trays, but about wooden pallets, made to make it more convenient for loaders to turn over some kind of load that is laid on pallets. They are assembled, I must say, in good conscience, on ruffled or screw nails, so that they would not figure it out on their own during operation. The wood there is mostly birch. But it is an excellent material for making garden furniture or using it as ancillary products. For example, formwork, light railings, garden furniture, benches, deck chairs, etc. One of my acquaintances did this in general - he made a fence from second-hand pallets. And not bad, I must say, a fence.
The main problem when disassembling euro pallets is their high-quality assembly. But this is if you approach them without a flight of thought. I have met discussions on several forums on dismantling pallets for building materials. And alas, he noted that the stereotype is working. "Knocked down with nails? “You have to use a nail puller.” But the thing is just that the nails are non-removable! Nails ruffed or screw. Therefore, an attempt to extract them ends either with a breakdown of the board into which they are driven, or with the use of a saw to cut the pallet into firewood.
Meanwhile, there is a way to disassemble the pallet, even to the finish, and quickly and with virtually no damage to the material. And from the tools you only need ... a small hatchet. Now I'll tell you how it's done.
Often, the summer resident does not need to disassemble the top plate itself is full. It is a product in itself, very applicable in the economy. And you just need to get rid of 3 boards to which this die is attached. 
Please note that these three boards, which serve as a support for the pallet, are attached through 9 wooden blocks. On the one hand, 3 boards are nailed to them, on the other, the pallet plate itself. Moreover, in 99 cases out of 100 nails are hammered across the fibers of the tree! (And this is normal. Who clogs along ... Although there are such pallets.) And this means that a short bar is extremely easy to split. He's almost pierced by nails already. It remains only to finish the job with a light blow of the hatchet blade. 3 hits - and the board with the remnants of the bar itself is separated from the pallet die. So we separate all three boards of the pallet. 
Now we need to get rid of the remnants of the bar on the die. Nothing complicated either. Proportioning the force of impact, with the tip of the hatchet blade we prick the remains of the bar. The extreme pieces fly off immediately, the middle ones still resist and hold on to the nails. We pierce them too. Don't be afraid to hit a nail with a hatchet. In this case, you are not hitting across the nail, but along. Therefore, serrating an ax blade is quite problematic. It simply glides over the nail, chipping the wood.
We get rid of the remnants of the bar with a few blows of the butt of the hatchet. At the same time, we prepare fuel for a samovar or barbecue. 
That's actually all. We have at our disposal a die with completely intact planks and 3 more planks separately with the remnants of the bar, which can be disposed of in a similar way.
As you can see, all the fears when disassembling the pallet are greatly exaggerated. A little ingenuity and you have mountains of practically free building material at your disposal. Parsing one pallet takes no more than 3-5 minutes.
Konstantin Timoshenko.
Court Butterfield
How to disassemble a wooden pallet without cracking?
I'm trying to salvage wood from some wood pallets but with no success. I drove closer to where the nails were, and then pulled out the nails; however, before the tree gets far enough to remove the nails, it usually breaks in half. Any suggestions would be most helpful.
Shirlock at home
pallets are built from raw wood with tons of flaws. why are you even worried? Cut the boards at the ends before the nails and save the rest.
Michael Karas ♦
Rubbish is sometimes someone else's wealth. There are people who have built entire little buildings out of pallets!!
Jay Bazuzi
Pallets are great for many projects, but in my opinion it's better if you can use them whole. If you are taking them apart, you should buy lumber instead.
Answers
Michael Karas
They make several styles of tools that are made specifically for pulling nails. One tool called "cat's paw" looks like the picture below. (You may find a similar tool under other localized names). A hammer is used to drive the hooked end under the head of the nail so that it can be leveled later.
Another type of nail puller is also very effective in that the tool is used by itself without the need for a separate hammer. The handle on this type of nail puller is used to slide up and push down to insert the jaws around the head of the nail. Pulling sideways in the direction of the "foot" causes the jaws to press firmly against the nail and pull it out.
Mike
These are good tools for regular nails, but for coated wire nails, commonly used in pallets, the cat's paw will rip the head off and the jaws on the sliding hammer puller will cut the shank.
Ed Beal
I used a jack nail, second photo, to remove twisted square nails on oak pallets, yes the wood is poor quality, I wouldn't waste time on soft wood, but oak can be cut through a planer and is still used.
DMoore
For the first few corners, you need to cut your nails in half once you have them a little. A Dremel diamond tipped tool might work. If you take out too many of them, they will break.
HerrBag
I would use a receiver with a 12" bi-metal or carbide blade
DMoore
I think it's funny that my answer was downvoted when I did this before and a lot of people have a dremel or something that could cut a nail. But how many people (cheap enough to want to keep a box) have a cat's paw... whatever. And I don't understand how a cat's paw or any other nail puller won't damage the tree.
HerrBag
I +1 to counter the anonymous downvote. Downgrading without comments does not follow the suggestions of our site. I think -1 should be reserved for a BAD, dangerous, misleading answer, so it needs to be commented out.
DMoore
I don't mind upvoting if my suggestion is either unsafe, doesn't work, or there is a much better solution. I just thought it was weird that the solution I tried and didn't work got a bunch of upvotes. If you pull the nails too far, the wood will split. @Herr, both of your chopping suggestions are correct and possibly better than mine. Just tossed out what I did from experience. I use pallets for my barn walls... 2-3 more pallets and you're done.
Ed Beal
Nail Jack might start pulling and if he stops moving he will clip the nail and you might get another bite or use a flat bar or miracle bar to pry it out.
Stephen Zhang
I usually collect pallets from the street because my parents won't buy me wood to make things for my things, they only buy them when I make their things. The first time I did it, it was such a complex and hard job that I had a whole day of sour muscles, but 80% of the solid wood from the pallets broke. I recalled the memory of having done this and found that perhaps I should use a chisel and drive it between two nailed nails, using the pole principle to separate them, and then use the tip of a hammer. and use the same pole principle to pull it out. After removing dozens of pallets, I also had the experience of pulling each nail a little each time so that the wood doesn't bend and therefore break. Never use a hammer to try and knock it out, you will damage the wood and break it. Drive in the chisel and spread it. Here are some examples of wood that I removed: 
Ed Beal
They are like most of the free pallets I fixed, time is cheap when you don't have a job.
Dano0430
I have been very successful with a simple 1x6 mark reduction. This notch is for the pallet boards on the underside of your pallet, so make sure it's large enough to accommodate the widest plank. Then I would take this 1x6 and set it between the boards and next to the "2x4" that all the boards are nailed to. This would lift the pallet off the ground + - 1". I would then take the mini sled and push down on the pallet. This would create additional pressure points that would separate the boards from the 2x4. I would then move my 1x6 to the middle and opposite end section This loosened 95% of my boards without splitting (which usually happens with a hammer and a crowbar) I would then use the crowbar to pull just the nail It may sound hard but it's not the only hard part was the constant sound from the blows . 
Dan Padilla
I used a FEIN saw with a metal cutting blade and then a punch attached to an air hammer and it ripped out the nails very quickly. Very fast pallet removal job without damage, except when the nails were pressed into those that were sunk into the wood.
Tester101
FEIN is a company, not a type of saw. Could you elaborate more on the type of saw you are using?
Tyler Durden
Obviously you can use specialized hardware as Dan Padilla suggests, but I'm assuming you don't have such hardware.
You have to pass through both sides of the nail, which is hard to do with a hammer. Use a nail puller and squeeze it into the crack where the board is nailed to the beam.
If that doesn't work for you, take a hacksaw and cut the seam where the two pieces of wood meet. Once they are separated from each other, use a set of nails (a small metal pin) to knock out the nail.
Harris McGuire
If you manage to create a gap, a space, in whatever way, between the boards and the 2x4 structural members (to which they are nailed) - in such a way that you can insert a saw blade for cutting metal (a hacksaw or a reciprocating power saw) then you can trim your nails carefully, closer to the bottom of the board, leaving a small headless "nail" on the 2x4 surface.
Then use the ViceGrip pliers to carefully pull out the remaining embedded nail. Clamp the "shank" of the nail tight enough that the pliers are not squeezing the metal shaft, rather than loosening and breaking it; but firmly enough that the teeth of the pliers can successfully hold a grip that does not slip off the stem. Practice and intuition will get you through this successfully. Using the curved head of the ViceGrip pliers in a rocking motion not unlike the bending of the head of a forked hammer, with a soft but firm motion, the nail has a good chance of falling out. Again, using wedges, as with the forked hammer head, will also help. The goal is to apply sufficient traction to the nail shaft without causing it to detach as it is removed from the wood.
fixer1234
Let me add a couple of other options to the list.
- For nail heads not fully embedded in the wood, you can use carpenter's pliers.
You bring the jaws to the bottom of the nail head and then squeeze the handles to get leverage to get the jaws under the head. From there, you can easily pull the nail far enough to pull it out with a large tool, cut it off, or move the pliers to pull it out. Some pliers have a hardened head and allow you to trim softer nails if you have a lot of hand strength.
- Another approach, if you do this a lot and have an air compressor, is to use a pneumatic nail remover. They are not necessarily expensive. One of the first ones I noticed on Amazon was for under $50 and I wouldn't be surprised if Harbor Freight has a $20 version. :-)
You use this to remove nails after the boards have been torn. You slide your muzzle over the protruding nail (you may need to straighten the nail if it is bent). The ram knocks the nail back out of the wood. Here is a video demonstrating its use, starting at 3:00 am, by address : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEejvcNBoCg.
The smart guy made a hand held version with a punch bit holder. Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWeEbYYySLw This video is much longer than it needs to be. The relevant part starts at the minute in the video, and how to use it starts at 3:30 (you can figure out the first part if you watch from 3:30).
Zeek
Use 2 strong boards + 2 strong support boards:
BMitch ♦
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