woodworking

I need to dismantle some heavy duty pallets, 2" thick timber, held by ring nails. After reading about drilling out broken taps with a hollow drill I had an idea. Drill out the ring nails, only I can't find a suitable hole saw. I need at least 2" deep plus clearance, 1/2" or so diameter. Any ideas on making one for use in a battery drill ? Needs to be quick and easy. I'm only doing this to recover the timber.

A 12mm hilti or rawlbolt - the type with a sleeve & a tapered end. Cut "V"s in one of the sleeves to replicate saw teeth. Then get the bolt & place it part way in the sleeve & weld or pin it in place. The bolt goes in the chuck of a drill.

Then put a hole in a bit of ply the size of the hole. Place this over the nail. Stand with one foot on the ply to stop it moving. This stops your set up skating around. Then drill through the hole into the pallet.Really needs a very fast mains electric drill. but I have drilled holes through blockwork using bits of conduit with teeth cut in the end& you can get through wood but an electricians hole saw would be better. just remove the centre drill & use the bit of ply to start you off

You will soon get fed up & revert to a nail bar though.!!!

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 22/07/2017 11:44:06

Hi Gorden,

as a 1 off, get a peice of steel tube ie, conduit or whatever is to hand and file some teeth into the end, weld a suitable spigot in the other end for the drill, bit of Hex bar would be best.......

it wont last forever especially if u touch a nail....a touch up of the teeth during the job will help, when it's stops cutting give them a touch up again and keep pulling the saw out of the hole to clear the dust........it must not get to hot..... remember a proper hole saw will blunt if pushed to hard......

it's not a race so take ur time and go fairly slow.....u'll feel the best cutting speed.....

good luck clogs

Air hammer with a punch nose fitted and knock them clean through the section you want to save, leaves a smaller hole and is far quicker than drilling.

- Nick

oop's sam beat me to it........hahaha...clogs

Wow! That's fast. Just back in after raking about, found an old 1/2" saw, will try welding an ext. tube on it and a shank. If that fails will try making one from tube. My mistake was thinking I would need a clearance so I could poke the wood plug out, of course the nail will hold it, cut of later with angle grinder. Sadly I don't have an air hammer, just a saw and wrench. I have a big crowbar and they won't shift, breaks the wood. Must rush, haver an offer of a lift to the pub and back, I need the vitamins.

You could also make one from a bit of stainless steel tube.

Hand cut teeth should last a while on the sort of softwood pallets are made of.

GHT would have made a hole drill out of steel tube, ground and case hardened for the teeth.

Duplex would do the same, but hand scrape it all over before using it.

Neil

I suggest a two stage process. Grind off the head with a die grinder stone then you only need a smaller hole saw with less strain on the battery and less damage to wood. Make hole saw from silver steel drilled and filed teeth before hardening.

Remove nail heads and drill down two sides (at about right angles?), close to the nail, and prise off timber? Should be enough to loosen the grip of the nails.

Hope that they have been nailed straight and not 'on the tosh'.

Edited By not done it yet on 22/07/2017 15:46:34

On a similar task, although maybe my pallets weren't quiet as heavy as yours, I found a long handled pallet breaker did the deed. Being too tight to buy one used found bits to make my own ending up with a nearly 4 ft long handle cos thats how long the most suitable piece of material was. 5 or 6 ft of scaffold pole should shift anything!

Friend Roddie cheats by chainsawing the joined parts out and raking the nails out of the ashes after burning.

Clive

Along similar lines, I've just had the need to remove some sawn off woodscrews in plastic plugs, from a sandstone door jamb. I didn't want the screws to rust heavily, expand, and crack the stonework.

My solution was a section of military radio aerial, with roughly files teeth in the end; a bit like the aforementioned rawlbolt idea.

Tank radio aerials are made from thin wall, copper plated, spring steel tubing, so ideal as fine core bits.

Drilled down the plastic plugs, between the screw stubs and the stone, leaving a clean hole and a metal filled plastic plug.

Next job is to drill myself some fine stone dust and mix it with epoxy as a coloured filler.

Have the same problem (disposing of old pallet). My mother would like to have a garden seat, so this is my proposed two birds with one stone solution.

google pallet wrecking bar, you need to make one or buy one! demos on youtube, pulls the timber apart for re-use, ring nails or no!

As is, I foresee a problem of splinters in the nether regions.

Well- my trip for essential vitamins was not wasted- got 1/2 sheet of MDF for w/shop cupboard doors and 1/2" or so core drill. This one has a hex on top about 1/2" a/f. Will pick up later , find a deep socket and try it. BTW I have tried wrecking bars etc. I have one about 5 ft long and all they do is break the wood. Maybe the nails are rusty. I need these boards in best condition I can, going on a car ramp and used as jack base and seating etc. If that fails will try rawlplug modifying as never done before.

I found out years ago that trying to save timber from pallets was a waste of time. The people who make these things must get the nails for nothing.Bearing in mind the bit of timber you might manage to save,it,s not worth the effort. Sometimes I get old pallets to cut up for firewood,and even that,s not worth doing. I would never think of trying to re-machine any such timber,I think more of my machines. No wonder you see them dumped all over the place.

Larry- you are right, but these pallets are heavy duty, I think were carrying concrete lintels. Where we live is a 15 mile round trip to buy anything, so save what we can. In the depths of darkest winter you will be thankful for those bits of naily pallet.

I had a similar problem with screws on a window hinge that sheared. The only hollow drills I could find were from USA at a high price. Somebody on a woodworking forum suggested using an old golf club shaft. By chance I had one that I broke earlier.

I ground some teeth and it did a great job but I would think they would not last to long!

Hugh

Can't agree with you on any of this.

I have made garden benches, garden tables, a crane rated to 250 kg, every bench in my workshop, a window wall for said workshop, a trolley capable of moving my Norton 6 DB flypress. Finally, in the workshop, I made a lathe stand from pallets. Then in the house, I have planed the planks to make wainscot boarding for our study, 150ft of bookshelves, and a shelf case.

If you use the Euro pallets, the ring nails are a pain, but you can if careful get up to 30ft of usable wood from the 36ft in a pallet. When being adequately careful, you'll take 30-45 mins per pallet. If all else fails I chisel the blocks apart away from the nails before hammering the nails back through the planks. The remaining 6ft of planks will be good firewood.

Regards,

Richard

First off, to Gordon W.

As regards burning them,I do,and that,s all I do with them ! I too live in the sticks,but only a ten mile round trip.

I think they may have more value for the scrap metal rather than the timber.

To Richard,

I have more respect for my woodworking machines than to put that rubbish through them. A ll you need is one missed nail,not too difficult,and your blade or planer knife is ruined. Not worth it for the sake of a few boards. I suppose it,s a case of whatever takes your fancy,but good blades and knives do not come cheap.

They do,however,make good firewood.