Sometimes a summer resident has used (used) so-called ones at his disposal. Euro pallets. We are, of course, not talking about shower trays, but about wooden pallets made to make it more convenient for forklifts to turn over some kind of cargo that is laid on pallets. They were assembled, it must be said, conscientiously, on rough or screw nails, so that they would not come apart on their own during operation. The wood there is mainly birch. But it's a great material to make. garden furniture or use it as auxiliary products. For example, formwork, light fencing, garden furniture, benches, deck chairs, etc. One of my friends actually did this - he made a fence out of second-hand pallets. And it’s not a bad fence, I must say.
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 seen discussions on several forums about dismantling pallets for building materials. And alas, he noted that a stereotype was working. “Nailed down? “We need to use a nail puller.” But the point is that the nails are irremovable! Rough or screw nails. Therefore, an attempt to remove them ends either in breaking the board into which they are driven, or in using a saw to cut the pallet into firewood.
Meanwhile, there is a way to disassemble the pallet even to the bottom, quickly and with virtually no damage to the material. And all you need is... a small hatchet. Now I’ll tell you how it’s done.
Often, the summer resident does not need to disassemble the top die itself is full. It is a product in itself, very useful in the household. And you just need to get rid of the 3 boards to which this die is attached.
Please note that these three boards, which serve as support for the pallet, are attached through 9 wooden blocks. On one side there are 3 boards nailed to them, on the other - the pallet itself. Moreover, in 99 cases out of 100, nails are driven across the grain of the wood! (and this is normal. Who hammers along... Although there are such pallets.) And this means that a short block is extremely easy to split. It's already almost pricked with nails. All that remains is to finish the job with a light blow from the hatchet blade. 3 blows - and the board with the remains of the block itself separates from the pallet die. So we separate all three boards of the pallet.
Now we need to get rid of the remnants of the block on the die. Nothing complicated either. Using the tip of the hatchet blade to measure the force of the blow, we chop off the remains of the block. The outermost pieces fly off immediately, the middle ones still resist and are held on by nails. Let's prick them too. Don't be afraid to hit a nail with a hatchet. In this case, you do not hit across the nail, but along it. Therefore, it is quite problematic to notch an ax blade. It simply slides along the nail, splitting the wood.
We get rid of the remnants of the block with several blows of the butt of the hatchet. At the same time, we prepare fuel for the samovar or barbecue.
That's all. We have at our disposal a die with completely intact planks and 3 more separate planks with the remains of the block, which can be disposed of in a similar way.
As you can see, all fears when disassembling a pallet are greatly exaggerated. A little ingenuity and you have mountains of practically free stuff at your disposal. building material. Dismantling one pallet takes no more than 3-5 minutes.
Personally, I try to make all the buildings and crafts at the dacha from scrap materials and save on obvious things.
Pallets or pallets - consumables, which is easy to find in the backyards of shops, near bases and warehouses, simply abandoned. And here you don’t even need special skill to give these boards a second life. Using craft pallets as a source of free, high-quality material is very simple. And with the right approach, the tree will last for years to come.
So, what is a Euro pallet?
Or, as it is officially called, a pallet? A lattice made of boards nailed together with three special longitudinal legs-supports, which are needed for transporting and moving it using stackers, loaders or a manual forklift. Pallets are used almost everywhere where you need to move and store any cargo, boxes, etc.
The most common standard size pallets - 120x80 centimeters. Often there are also pallets 120x100 centimeters. There are also square (small) 80x80 cm. There are also non-standard ones, both smaller sizes - 70x80, 60x80 and even 30x80 centimeters, and large sizes, up to two meters in length. But custom pallets are usually custom-made for the specific load they will be used with. I will consider the most commonly used pallets, standard 120x80 centimeters, as the most common and, therefore, more easily accessible for crafts.
A standard pallet of 120x80 centimeters consists of three 120 cm long boards used as supports, and 5-6-7 of the same boards on the loading area. Between them there are spacers measuring approximately 10x10x10 centimeters. To stiffen the frame, three transverse boards are used, the length of which is equal to the width of the pallet - 80 or 100 centimeters.
Draw your attention! In this article, I do not consider at all the so-called construction pallets used for transporting bricks. The fact is that they, as a rule, are made from residual birch slabs. The boards in them are “killed” by a lot of ingrained brick crumbs; in general, you won’t be able to make any crafts from construction pallets, except for barbecue coals.
Usually standard pine wood is used on pallets. edged board 10 centimeters wide and 2 centimeters thick. There are also exceptions to the rule. Rarely, you can come across pallets made of boards 12 and even 14 centimeters wide. Approximately 3-5 percent of pallets are made not from pine, but from birch boards. But birch, unlike pine, is too short-lived and practically unsuitable as a building material, so such pallets are only good for kindling. And several times I came across pallets from European countries made from BEECH! Can you imagine what beauty can be made from well-processed beech boards!?!
It is very easy to distinguish a pine board from a birch board: firstly, birch has looser wood, and secondly, the texture of the wood is more clearly defined on a pine board, it is more wavy, the annual rings are brighter in color, and there are knots. Pine boards are yellowish-brown. Birch is more whitish and uniform. Another difference: after being exposed to air and coming into contact with water, pine boards darken and turn gray, while birch boards turn blue.
This difference is clearly visible in the photograph - there are three pine boards on the left, and one birch board on the right.
We disassemble the pallet into components
Disassembling the pallet into boards is not easy, but very simple. For this we need:
- Regular hammer
- Crowbar nail puller
- Pliers
If you have a special claw hammer on your farm, which has a butt on one side and a curved nail claw on the other, the first two points can be safely combined into one. But it is more convenient to work separately with a hammer and a crowbar-nail puller, since sometimes it becomes necessary to hammer the crowbar into the gap between the boards.
So: we place the pallet with the loading platform down and the supports up. First operation: remove the support legs. To do this, we drive the nail puller under the spacer bar, that is, between it and the cargo platform, and, swinging it, we first tear off the spacer from the platform from one edge, then the middle one, and finally from the other edge. We repeat this operation on the other two supports. Now we have a separate pallet platform and three supports with spacers. We knock the spacers off the support boards. To do this, just place the support board vertically and knock it off the board with a few hammer blows on the spacer. I haven’t figured out what to do next with these spacer-booms, I tried to make end pavement, but they rot in the ground quite quickly, so I use them for firewood.
So, three support boards were freed. Now we take out the nails from them. This is where pliers come in handy to straighten bent nails, otherwise it is very inconvenient to knock them out with a hammer.
Important: during all the work of disassembling the pallet, do not forget that nails are sticking out of the boards. In the heat of work, you can get carried away and get injured - step on a nail! Constantly monitor your movements in the area of the lying disassembled pallet. And don’t forget about protective gloves for your hands - even half-planed boards are full of splinters, and you often have to turn the pallet during disassembly.
We set three ready-made boards - former supports - aside and dismantle the site. To do this, you just need to remove three short transverse boards. Here the order of work is arbitrary. You can remove the middle one first, it is easier to remove. You can start with the two extreme ones, and then the middle one. This is more convenient for anyone.
And finally, final stage- free all boards from nails. If you plan to subsequently process the boards with a plane, then very carefully inspect the surface of the boards, especially in the area where the nails are attached. Sometimes it happens that when assembling a pallet, a nail breaks and only the head remains in the wood. If you don’t notice it, you will have to change the plane blade. It often happens that thin wires remain in the places where nails are driven - remnants from nail clips used in automatic hammers. Also carefully check the lower surfaces of the support boards - it happens that small pebbles get stuck in the unevenness of the board. This can also damage your plane.
Board processing
So, we disassembled the pallet into boards and got 9 boards 120 centimeters long and three boards 80 centimeters long. “Why was all this necessary?” - there will definitely be some who will ask this question. I will answer this question at the end of the article, but for now let’s move on to the next stage - processing the boards.
First, we will reject unsuitable boards - those with cracks, deep chips and other severe damage; they are unlikely to be suitable for crafts.
Before planing, it is better to go over the surfaces again with a stiff brush, removing dirt and dust. This operation will significantly extend the life of the plane knives.
Then, in fact, we plan, achieving the required smoothness of the surfaces.
Pallet boards have one drawback - nail holes remain on them at the ends and in the middle. Depending on the further use boards, these holes can be filled with wood putty, then they will be completely invisible. However, if the boards are planned to be used for auxiliary country houses or crafts, the holes can be left as is - after impregnation or painting of the boards they become almost invisible.
And finally, the last, third stage is wood protection.
Here, every country master uses his favorite and proven remedy. The most common and free thing is to smear the boards with waste, that is, used machine oil. I don’t like this option - it’s unaesthetic and dirty. If you do it beautifully, then do it to the end.
I use bioprotection for wood "Barrier-BIO". An inexpensive, effective composition that also beautifully colors the wood and effectively enhances the structure of the board. Its cost is around 35 rubles per liter, sold in 5- and 10-liter cans.
The surface treatment technology is simple: apply with a brush, roller, or spray to the surface in three layers, with intermediate drying of each layer for approximately 20 minutes. The period depends on the temperature at which the processing is carried out. The main thing is not to allow the surface to dry completely before applying the next layer, that is, apply the next layer to a slightly damp surface.
If the technology is followed, the composition impregnates wood to a depth of 1 to 2 millimeters (I checked it personally). And the color after processing becomes very beautiful. The cost of the impregnating material is simply ridiculous - in terms of one board it takes 50 grams of liquid, that is, less than two rubles.
The photo clearly shows all three stages of board processing: on the left are freshly disassembled blank boards, in the middle - already planed, and on the right - the final result - impregnated protective composition boards ready for country house construction.
Stupidity or frugality?
And now, as an epilogue, I will answer the question that was asked earlier: “Why was all this necessary?”
Well, I’ll answer: “Let’s do some arithmetic.”
Cost of one cubic meter of edged pine boards at the nearest construction market - 6,750 rubles. One board from a Euro pallet has dimensions of 1.2 x 0.1 x 0.02 meters. It turns out that the volume of one board is 0.0024 cubic meters. We multiply by the cost of a cubic meter - 6750, we get the cost of one board from a Euro pallet - 16 rubles 20 kopecks. From disassembling one pallet we have, on average, 9 boards. This is 150 rubles per pallet for 15 minutes of disassembly and 15 minutes of planing.
I agree, it’s easier for someone to go to a lumber exchange, buy 6-meter boards there, cut them on the spot and take them out in their car. Or hire a long truck for an additional fee. Each country master chooses what is more convenient for him.
Examples of using boards from europallets for country crafts
Fence
Last fall, a fence was built along the facade summer cottage. Length - 20 meters. It took 130 boards, which were once Euro pallets.
The savings on the picket fence amounted to 2,100 rubles.
One of the neighbors, seeing this fence, spent a long time asking me where I bought it and who built it for me. He is one of those summer residents who find it easier to buy and hire workers than to do something himself, so he asked me to make him a low border 40 centimeters high from the same picket fence for his garden paths.
From this order, I also earned more than 2 thousand rubles in a week, which allowed me to acquire a long-desired and necessary jigsaw without compromising the small family budget.
Compost bin
On August 17, 2013, a two-year cycle compost bin was built for two containers with a volume of 1.8 cubic meters each. For its construction, 70 boards from Euro pallets were used, which saved 1,130 rubles.
Table with benches
But for these two soft benches and a table with two large drawers, built for summer kitchen, I didn’t even have to disassemble the pallets into boards. All this is made from solid fragments. This is the kind of country furniture set I made from pallets.
Only two large drawers in the table are made of boards. Here I even find it difficult to talk about savings, because a set of a table and two benches cost me absolutely free.
Birdhouse
And for the soul and beauty, you can make small architectural forms from fragments of boards:
A house for feathered dacha orderlies.
For such living space, they will thank you by destroying all pests on your beautiful plantings.
Bird feeders
Feeder for them so that they survive the harsh winter
I made and hung the feeder after there was a story on the TV news that out of 10 tit birds, only one or two survive until spring...
Bench
A small soft bench that takes the stress off your back while weeding the garden.
Formwork
And finally, brutal formwork for making foundation blocks for the future barn at my favorite dacha.
These are just a few examples of the works and crafts I have made for Lately from free building material obtained from Euro pallets. A separate detailed article with drawings and photographs will soon be published about each of them.
There are a lot of plans ahead. To implement them, I continue to collect Euro pallets and disassemble them into free, but high-quality building material for my beloved dacha.
Ideas for crafts made from pallets can be downloaded.
If you plan to dismantle pallets on a regular basis, either occasionally or in a mass production setting, you will find it useful to have necessary tools for work. There are many options for disassembling pallets, including rods, hand-held power tools, and equipment for high-volume recycling operations. They are discussed below. If you are going to remove multiple pallets, it can be done without any of the special tools discussed in this article.
Pry Bars
The stand is designed for manual removal of pallet boards. There are two main styles of pin designs. These styles include duck and double fork. A duck counter works well for picking up lead board from the edge of a pallet without having to disassemble the wood during removal. The jaw of the tool is positioned above the board, and then the handle is raised up. Double fork tray is used to remove internal deck plates. Its effectiveness depends on the heel of the bar resting on the stringer and then using a lever, the forks are raised under the next board and pulled out of the stringer.
The accompanying image for this article shows a combination panel that has a duck bill trim on one end and a double fork on the other.
Power hand tools
Power tools can be removed most effort from dismantling the pallets. Two general approaches for hand tools Powered ones include a reciprocating saw, often called a Sawzall, as well as a Nail Kicker.
A reciprocating saw is used to cut nails at the joint where they join wood components. The Nail Kicker is similar to a pneumatic nail tool, except that instead of driving the nail into wood, it is designed to push nails into wood, or at least push them deep enough to release easily deck boards from the pallet.
For more information visit www. nailkicker. com.
Pallet removal machines
Machines that disassemble pallets are the workhorses for successful high-volume pallet recycling operations. There are two main categories of commercial demolition machines. These include the pressure type, often using round cutting heads, as well as the popular band saw dismantling.
1. Pressure sensors. Dismantling devices high pressure first appeared in the 1970s. Typically this approach involves free-standing rotating discs with an adjustable tabletop. The pallet is fed through discs that slide the fasteners at the point where the deck plates meet the pallet stringer. The speed of the operation is determined in part by the number of heads. With three cutting heads, only the top and bottom passes of the pallet are required to achieve disassembly. One criticism of this style of equipment is that while it can be very fast, up to 30 percent of the pallet's components are damaged during disassembly. In addition, the nails must be removed or flattened.
2. Bandage dismantlers. Belt dismantlers have become the workhorse of pallet dismantling. They use a band blade that runs at a height above the table, which will allow it to cut through the bottom boards where they meet the stringer.
Recyclers value superior lumber restoration as well as a clean cut that leaves no nails.
Any type of device can be reinforced with additional equipment such as conveyors to ensure the flow of disassembled parts out of the device for sorting and stacking or further processing, e.g. cutting saw for cutting pieces to shorter lengths.
There are several pallet dismantling equipment suppliers available to meet the needs of your pallet recycling business. Some of these providers include:
Pallet production group
Smart Products
Tracing equipment
Sometimes a summer resident has used (used) so-called ones at his disposal. Euro pallets. We are, of course, not talking about shower trays, but about wooden pallets made to make it more convenient for forklifts to turn over some kind of cargo that is laid on pallets. They were assembled, it must be said, conscientiously, on rough or screw nails, so that they would not come apart on their own during operation. The wood there is mostly birch. But this is an excellent material for making garden furniture or using it as auxiliary products. For example, formwork, light fencing, garden furniture, benches, deck chairs, etc. One of my friends actually made a fence out of second-hand pallets. And it’s not a bad fence, I must say.
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 seen discussions on several forums about dismantling pallets for building materials. And alas, he noted that a stereotype was working. “Nailed down? “We need to use a nail puller.” But the point is that the nails are irremovable! Rough or screw nails. Therefore, an attempt to remove them ends either in breaking the board into which they are driven, or in using a saw to cut the pallet into firewood.
Meanwhile, there is a way to disassemble the pallet even to the bottom, quickly and with virtually no damage to the material. And all you need is... a small hatchet. Now I’ll tell you how it’s done.
Often, the summer resident does not need to disassemble the top die itself is full. It is a product in itself, very useful in the household. And you just need to get rid of the 3 boards to which this die is attached. 
Please note that these three boards, which serve as support for the pallet, are attached through 9 wooden blocks. On one side, 3 boards are nailed to them, on the other - the pallet itself. Moreover, in 99 cases out of 100, nails are driven across the grain of the wood! (and this is normal. Who hammers along... Although there are such pallets.) And this means that a short block is extremely easy to split. It's already almost pricked with nails. All that remains is to finish the job with a light blow from the hatchet blade. 3 blows - and the board with the remains of the block itself separates from the pallet die. So we separate all three boards of the pallet. 
Now we need to get rid of the remnants of the block on the die. Nothing complicated either. Using the tip of the hatchet blade to measure the force of the blow, we chop off the remains of the block. The outermost pieces fly off immediately, the middle ones still resist and are held on by nails. Let's prick them too. Don't be afraid to hit a nail with a hatchet. In this case, you do not hit across the nail, but along it. Therefore, it is quite problematic to notch an ax blade. It simply slides along the nail, splitting the wood.
We get rid of the remnants of the block with several blows of the butt of the hatchet. At the same time, we prepare fuel for the samovar or barbecue. 
That's all. We have at our disposal a die with completely intact planks and 3 more separate planks with the remains of the block, which can be disposed of in a similar way.
As you can see, all fears when disassembling a pallet are greatly exaggerated. A little ingenuity and you have mountains of practically free building material at your disposal. Dismantling one pallet takes no more than 3-5 minutes.
Konstantin Timoshenko.
