A follow up to an earlier video, this method of breaking down Euro Pallets (EPAL) uses a small sledgehammer, a claw hammer, wooden blocks, a prybar and demonstrates the use of a car jack as an alternative to some of the hammer work.
This time I removed each nail as soon as the pointy end was accessible instead of removing them all in a single operation to reduce the risk of injury. Surprisingly this didn't seem to add much time to the job.
I would recommend doing as much of this job on a workbench as possible, I only did it on the ground as not everyone has one. Working on dirt or grass is a bit harder but not too bad, nails are easier to lose though.
Some things I have found helpful with this type of pallet:
Don't try to dismantle when wet as the wood swells and grabs onto the nails very tightly, required much more hammering and increasing the chance of boards breaking.
There are a number of alternatives to the prybar, often the chipboard blocks can be knocked off the nails, or a straight claw hammer or improvised lever could be used. Many pallets of this type have a large hole through the centre of each block, allowing them to be levered off with an appropriately sized pole. Always loosen them with a hammer first though.
Have three containers for the different sized nails on hand, each pallet has at least 78 nails.
a Europallet weighs at least 20kg/50 pounds, don't move them any more than you need to.
most planks have chamfered edges so keep this in mind for projects.
The timber is usually fairly good from what I have seen, and roughly half of the planks are reasonably straight.
In my local area these pallets are not returned, and businesses are generally happy to give them away.
