If you are a fan of wooden pallet crafts, you must have come across the age-old question when planning a project:
You can use a hammer and crowbar, but the process is time consuming, labor intensive, and often accidentally splits some boards, meaning you may need to take apart a second pallet to get all the scrap wood you need.
I prefer the blade removal method of a reciprocating saw. However, this has its drawbacks and you may find that this is not really your method. Here are the pros and cons of using a demolition blade in a reciprocating pallet demolition saw:
Cons: Removing blades and reciprocating saws is more expensive than crowbars and hammers. However, there are plenty of cool heavy projects that you can use a demolition blade for, and of course a reciprocating saw for many more.
Pros: Pallets are easier to remove with a detachable blade than with a crowbar. It’s also faster! Note that this does not mean that removing the blade is 100% easy to use: a reciprocating saw is very heavy and the hand will vibrate a lot when using it. For whatever reason, whether it was due to the muscle he brought to the project or his shape, my husband was able to see through the pan faster than I could. It may take me a few minutes to cut a hole in the nail holding the board in place, while he can take the whole board off in the same amount of time.
Still, I would take half a day to disassemble the same pallet with a hammer and crowbar, so here it is.
Pros: Removing the blade keeps the wood in better shape. This is very important to avoid waste as I rarely use split pallet boards in my wood pallet projects:
Cons: Removing the blade leaves nails in the wood. In fact, this is very important, and may well be the reason why you decide to remove the tray manually. You see, the demolition blade went through the nails holding the pallet together, which meant the pallet fell apart, but the nails were still where they were. When you use these boards later, you must remember that there are nails in there that will affect where you place the new nails and screws. It’s not necessarily dangerous for me for the kind of work I love to do – I’m not worried about my circular saw bouncing off it and cutting my face or anything – but it can be done if my equipment can be seriously damaged if I wasn’t careful.
For this reason, I am not inclined to put pallets along with scrap that children can make on their own; when they use pallets, I need to be there at least at the start of their project marking possible nails for them. and Remind them how to solve these problems.
So you have it! Again, one tool is not always the best tool for every situation. If you have pros or cons feel free to give your opinion in the comments below. I’d love to hear your favorite way to remove pallets too!
I am a writer, craftsman, zombie preparedness planner, and mother of two homeschooled kids who hope to one day transition to using their genius for good instead of the nefarious plot and mayhem they currently obsess over. I’m interested in recycling and natural crafts, food safety, STEM education, and the DIY lifestyle, but in uniform, making your own underwear out of T-shirts? finished. Teach yourself to play the guitar? Do it now.
Visit my Craft Knife blog to see our very strange life of home crafting and my Pumpkin + Bear etsy shop for a really odd number of iridescent beeswax beauties.
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