Wood pallet assembly jig - GIF

[Altair]

Wood pallet assembly jig.




Previously:

Reclaiming pallet wood - GIF
Pallet disassembly machine - GIF
Pallet flipper - GIF
1958 Japanese pallet crate securing clips - GIF
Forklift pallet rotator - GIF

[hemmjo]

He keeps doing it over and over, but the pile never gets any higher...

It is amazing how much really nice wood is used in pallets. I picked up 10 nice pallets with almost clear face plywood on the top side. I got 10 pieces of nice 1/2" x 40" x 48" plywood. there are some nail holes, but they were not too difficult to get apart.

[odd one]

I thought it was some type of devils gun that drove those nearly impossible to remove nails. That looked like some normal coil gun. If houses were built with those nails, I doubt that hurricane ties would be needed in windy areas. Years ago I built a tool out of a trailer screw jack for taking pallets apart that has gotten quite a bit of use.

[hemmjo]

Typically pallets are assembled with wire collated nails rather than plastic or paper collated. Wire collated can come in coils which hold more nails than sticks to reduce reloading time. Also the broken wires tend to grip tighter to resist pull out.

That guy is really good with that gun

[odd one]

It is not just the wire collated nails, but the ones that I have taken apart typically have been twist nails. Those are a bear to pull apart.

[Frank S]

When I had a marina and boat dock building company, I used ring shank nails where construction didn't require screws the ring shank nails had a tremendous amount of pull-out resistance in the softer treated woods twisted nails held better in hard wood and didn't have the tendency to bend as bad. when using a hammer to drive nails in common construction even smooth nails will hold better if the carpenter can drive and sink them in the fewest amount of strikes A rule of thumb was set drive sink. or set then in a single blow drive and sink, especially if using cement coated nails to cause enough friction to melt the glue coating would create a better bond. All the more reason why nail guns are used whenever possible. In addition to their obvious speed nails will hold better when shot in with a gun. Try nailing a 2x4 to a steel pipe with a hammer. It will never happen but pickup a DX 350 and you can shoot the specially designed nail through 1/4" steel with a 27 cal. blank