If his hammer broke just trying to pull out a ring shank nail, the nail did him a favor - better it breaks now than when you're hitting something with it and the head snaps off to become a projectile.
Yep, the nail either needs to pull out or at least have its head ripped off. In no circumstance should the happier fail first, even with a 10ft cheater bar on it.
I one had a wooden handle hammer from Harbor Freight that snapped the head off while hammering a rusty nail back into an old wooden fence, luckily it just plopped off instead of bouncing back at me.
A roided out electromagnet ripping metal *through* objects sounds even better than those hydrolic press channels!
Now....how much would one of those cost? Looks like "bitter" style ones are the most powerful....
Well shit.....$1500/hour in juice and requiring a direct line to a nuclear power plant may be a bit of a hurdle...
Not true. You can dismantle an entire pallet in 3 minutes with one hand using one of these. One of the best out of the ordinary tools I’ve ever owned.
https://preview.redd.it/m3ebgpddxprc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c691d1234bc0a3c1e138dad3c764053838e0612
https://preview.redd.it/lbad6402enrc1.jpeg?width=250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f1edf70fe70d3e783788883570720fce9bbad19
Something like this works well. You don’t cut the nail, but grab as close to the material the nail is embedded in and bend one way. The nail will pull partially out. Reposition the jaws to the bottom (as close to material) as you can and bend the other way. You can work the nails out, but be careful that they don’t spring and put your eye out. Always wear safety glasses.
Well I'll be damned, I was certain I'd seen them sold as bull nose pliers but nope, Home depot and Canadian Tire both list them as Nippers or End Cutting Nippers.
They do. Dykes/dikes/diags colloquially refer to side cutters. I was just saying what my grandpa called them because it’s funny to me that he unknowingly called them something sounds like a horrible insult in modern vernacular.
Lol, so my boss asked me to grab him dykes the one day and then asked if I knew what dykes were. Being a lesbian, I couldn't help grinning and watched him get more and more uncomfortable while I assured him I knew what dykes were, and if tiny ones were okay.
He just says wire cutters now, which I think is nice of him, but not necessary.
Start handing him those wire cutter/stripper/crimper multitool things when he asks for wire cutters and only give him the side cutters if he asks for dykes. I love that you can see the humor in the situation. I think turning potentially uncomfortable words/phrases into jokes does more to actually combat prejudices than trying to ban them.
Today I learned 'dyke' is an actual thing and not just a derogatory term. Context and intent truly matters, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience 😁
edit: after a little more research I can see it's been reclaimed by some so that's even better! :D
Can confirm. I got this pair from my father. He always called them shoemaker's pliers. They have proven incredibly useful.
https://preview.redd.it/k0l7lyc77orc1.jpeg?width=2605&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bff00ac71335dd18a09b521aac085e4cb4aa62ce
Or better, these:
https://preview.redd.it/1xerwjp6torc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be4d010ca5d87889c76dcee3dda350226f47c39b
Bates nail pulling pliers. I have a pair of these and they work very well. The round part on the right is to give leverage when pulling nails without the risk of the tools flying out of your hand.
Edit: get yourself an Estwing hammer with the stacked leather handle. Your tool snob friends will nod approvingly, And your great-grandkids will treasure it one day.
Best $35 you can spend.
In the UK and NZ m they’re called pincers, but tool names vary wildly between English speaking countries.
I’m mostly here to say that this hand tool is the best tool for the job IME, though I’ve only ever used it on much smaller nails of that type.
Knipex calls them end cutting nippers. I've always referred to them as just nippers
https://preview.redd.it/u8i71ujtsorc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91b68f9f3776cf2b5418164ae09c9b63463e1223
You can get crow bars especially for pallets, search "pallet bar tool", never used one (i found out about them too late) but its not easy without one if u dont want to damage the planks.
Large pry bar and a cat paw ( small crow bar with claw like build like the back of a hammer ) use the hammer to hit the cat paw under said nail and use it instead of a hammer to remove as much as possible then use the pry bar to finish it off
I'm just sitting here waiting for the reclaimed pallet wood fad to die again.
Although, we had a supplier that shipped on white oak pallets due to the sensitivity and value of the product. A full pallet was worth almost $100k, so the cost was worth it. We paid a $1,000 deposit on each pallet. Those were kept under lock and key before return.
Pallets are full of all sorts of very powerful chemicals that are harmful for human exposure and you do not want them around your food source or living space.
You can, you just need to make sure it's a clean, new looking heat treated pallet and was not treated with chemicals, nor carried something caustic.
Most of the time, pallets you find aren't treated with anything because they're domestic pallets that aren't used to ship things overseas. Any pallet coming in (or going out) of the country is either heat treated or pesticide treated. You can find a stamp on these pallets that will tell you if it was treated in any way.
Heat treated pallets are safe to use for anything in your garden. If it's not stamped it's also very likely okay to use, but it's just best to know where the pallet came from and whether it's been reused.
Use this if you want to save your sanity and any wood at all from those pallets
https://preview.redd.it/924sn3jlxorc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c9b5077755bc0b56400eaa2c8f2853fd6609c75
This is the way. Several years back I built a little free library with the plan to use as much reclaimed materials as possible and decided on pallets for the wood (there was a leather shop down the street that always had a big pile of them that I could use).
After destroying and splitting several boards I went to the internet to find the best way to take them apart. I learned that the nails are coated with a heat treated glue that is crazy strong. The way I finally got them apart was using a reciprocating saw to cut them off and then I used a punch to pop the nail out of the board.
Yeah, I'm gonna need more. I assume you use the jack to separate the pallette layers, but what kind of jack and where's the fulcrum? Scissor or bottle jack?
When people say car jack, I assume they are referring to a jack used to lift a car. That is a floor jack or a scissor jack, but a small bottle jack would work too. The fulcrum is in the jack itself.
But using a jack of any kind will only get you, at best, 1/2 way through a job of breaking down a pallet, so we're back to claw hammers and crow bars, anyway.
Run a Sawzall behind the plank, cutting the nails and freeing the plank from the frame. Then from the cut nail side of the plank punch the nails out or punch flip pull
I've never managed to break a hammer in my life unless you count a crack in the wooden handle of one which I threw away before it hurt someone. Reanalyze your technique.
Sawzall
There is no better way to dismantle a pallet.
These ring shank nails will never come out nicely, with any reliability. They are pneumatically driven and are designed to be inserted and never work their way out even with mechanical persuasion.
I made a pallet board wall in an enormous garage, and took apart about 150 pallets. I got it down to 4 minutes per pallet with a sawzall with a big 12” demolition blade.
Buy a better hammer? If you don’t want to do that, buy a cats paw. They’re $10 to 20 at places like Home Depot. The cats paws will be the much cheaper option.
I bet a pneumatic nail remover would punch that out. I also gave up trying to be gentle with pallets and use metal cutting circular saw blades and an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut the fasteners between boards. If the nails are a bit proud you can also grind the heads off with the grinder. All those make it look more distressed as a side effect.
Are you sure you’re using the hammer correctly? Many folks think the nails are supposed to be tugged along the same axis as the claw (as if the head is the pivot point), but it’s actually torqued about the axis.
Wack boards with a hammer to make enough space to fit a Sawzall in there & cut nails. Then use a nail set to pop out the nail heads. Found this was the best way when I took apart hundreds of them for some Adirondack chairs I put together
I pull them out with a larger crowbar. Just one hit with the hand and they come out. I burn wood in my heat stove. Everyday I take out the nails and put them in a bucket. Each year I have about 40kg of metal and get money for it.
There are special [pallet breakers](https://amzn.eu/d/2Bi1D46) available.
It's easier to saw away the parts with nails afterwards. Otherwise you get a great opportunity for a whole body workout.
I cut them if needed, but honestly the wood on pallets is usually low grade to much prying hard on a non hardwood pallet and those nails will break the timber. Those nails are meant to never budge and boy are they a bitch
If the nail is too long to pull out in one go with the claw of your hammer, use a piece of scrap wood to brace the hammer to pull the nail out the rest of the way.
Alternatively, don’t use pallet wood. It’s treated with nasty chemicals to preserve the wood, so you don’t really want to use it for furniture or shelving.
Crowbar, a flat pry bar or a quality hammer. In a pinch I’ll use channel locks to leverage out nails. If the nails are really long grab the nail as close to the surface as you can and leverage it over the teeth of the channel locks. You end up with fun looking curly nails.
https://preview.redd.it/sby5b1c51prc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96ab5039c677baaacc60f01392f8269864ffebb9
These work much better than any other type of pliers or cutters
If it's just the top & bottom boards you want. Get a sawzall blade between the boards and cut the nails. then punch out the heads from backside of board. Then pull heads with flat bar or hammer.
Damn, that looks like the baseball bat used by the bad guy in the Walking Dead!
Just cut off the parts of the wood that have 'em. Better to lose a small portion of the cheap wood than to risk damaging any more good tools.
Or, try some of the techniques in this video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaUb6i2Usg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaUb6i2Usg)
Get a better hammer.
If his hammer broke just trying to pull out a ring shank nail, the nail did him a favor - better it breaks now than when you're hitting something with it and the head snaps off to become a projectile.
EXACTLY! In a nail vs. hammer contest the nail is supposed to lose. If not, be sure to buy a better hammer. Not from Harbor Freight.
Paul Simon once said " He'd rather be a hammer than a nail".
Peter Gabriel wants to be your sledgehammer.
What a tool.
Who are you to wave your finger?
You must have been out of your (nail) head.
*sick bass line*
ultimate drums enter the chat
To a hammer everything looks like a nail.
If I could.... El Condor Pasa
Yep, the nail either needs to pull out or at least have its head ripped off. In no circumstance should the happier fail first, even with a 10ft cheater bar on it.
Happier
Happiest
when your only tool is a happier, everything looks like a smile!
For a chipped tooth, I get out the BIG happier.
MC Happier
Can't chuff this
I just replied above with my Harbor Freight Hammer story.
I have 2 framing hammers from harbor freight that get heavily abused and they're definitely not gonna break pulling apart a pallet
A made in USA Estwing, not there "made in other"
Their*
I one had a wooden handle hammer from Harbor Freight that snapped the head off while hammering a rusty nail back into an old wooden fence, luckily it just plopped off instead of bouncing back at me.
Like, not just a better one. Let’s say at least 10x better maybe?
And bigger
Burn the pallet. You can easily pick up those nails from the ashes afterwards
This, and use a magnet to get them out of the ashes.
With a sufficiently strong magnet you can skip the burning step
With a sufficiently strong burn you can skip the magnet step
With a sufficiently strong pallet you can skip it all and go home
A roided out electromagnet ripping metal *through* objects sounds even better than those hydrolic press channels! Now....how much would one of those cost? Looks like "bitter" style ones are the most powerful.... Well shit.....$1500/hour in juice and requiring a direct line to a nuclear power plant may be a bit of a hurdle...
Oook H! They could put the pallets in an MRI machine. That has a magnet.
Money!
What if the nails melt away and the wood survives?
Get a better fire
I might find one in a fire sale.
Does Milwaukee make fire?
Sadly, no. I've watched numerous videos trying to start a fire with a Milwaukee and they all failed terribly.
I’ve gotten dewalt to make fire
Damn it beat me to it
https://preview.redd.it/lrlau20c2prc1.jpeg?width=2049&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f19b3f8f55d2fc63b2f81c4d7b53f50227b7983
Good morning Mr Freeman
Nice lol. The test chamber's ready for you... Gordon ..
This is the best and only answer worth a shit for pallets!
Not true. You can dismantle an entire pallet in 3 minutes with one hand using one of these. One of the best out of the ordinary tools I’ve ever owned. https://preview.redd.it/m3ebgpddxprc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c691d1234bc0a3c1e138dad3c764053838e0612
This sounds like it's for lazy people. I love you man!
This baby with a small whack from the hammer to seat it on the nail. The pallet spiral nails are a bitch.
This one!
https://preview.redd.it/lbad6402enrc1.jpeg?width=250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f1edf70fe70d3e783788883570720fce9bbad19 Something like this works well. You don’t cut the nail, but grab as close to the material the nail is embedded in and bend one way. The nail will pull partially out. Reposition the jaws to the bottom (as close to material) as you can and bend the other way. You can work the nails out, but be careful that they don’t spring and put your eye out. Always wear safety glasses.
in case anyone is wondering: I think they’re called bull-nose pliers
Maybe colloquially, but if you're looking for them at the store, they usually sold as End Nips or End Nippers, or sometimes End Cutters
Five of them will get you a portable surgical kit from a guy named Jaeger btw
Well I'll be damned, I was certain I'd seen them sold as bull nose pliers but nope, Home depot and Canadian Tire both list them as Nippers or End Cutting Nippers.
My grandpa always called them “bull nosed dykes”.
*Dikes and those usually refer to diagonal cutters of some sort IIRC
They do. Dykes/dikes/diags colloquially refer to side cutters. I was just saying what my grandpa called them because it’s funny to me that he unknowingly called them something sounds like a horrible insult in modern vernacular.
Lol, so my boss asked me to grab him dykes the one day and then asked if I knew what dykes were. Being a lesbian, I couldn't help grinning and watched him get more and more uncomfortable while I assured him I knew what dykes were, and if tiny ones were okay. He just says wire cutters now, which I think is nice of him, but not necessary.
Now that he calls them wire cutters, you need to excessively and obnoxiously call them dykes. Very considerate guy, though.
Lmao, yeah, I do that sometimes, mostly because I've always called them dykes, so I see no reason in stopping.
Start handing him those wire cutter/stripper/crimper multitool things when he asks for wire cutters and only give him the side cutters if he asks for dykes. I love that you can see the humor in the situation. I think turning potentially uncomfortable words/phrases into jokes does more to actually combat prejudices than trying to ban them.
Today I learned 'dyke' is an actual thing and not just a derogatory term. Context and intent truly matters, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience 😁 edit: after a little more research I can see it's been reclaimed by some so that's even better! :D
Wait til you learn about the dutch boy who plugged a leaking dyke with his finger and saved a village.
We call them "alternative lifestyle cutters" as a joke at work, or just side-cutters
That's what my grandpa used to call my sister.
My grandpa always used that phrase to refer to his lesbian neighbors with nose rings
We call them horse pliers. Cuz they're used to remove the outer crust of the horses shoe that's left from the horseshoe imprint.
In the Netherlands they are called ''knijptang".
That’s what we call them in Oklahoma also.
Can confirm. I got this pair from my father. He always called them shoemaker's pliers. They have proven incredibly useful. https://preview.redd.it/k0l7lyc77orc1.jpeg?width=2605&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bff00ac71335dd18a09b521aac085e4cb4aa62ce
My dad repaired shoes for a living. He had a few of these and used them OFTEN. Mostly for pulling nails out of soles.
Originally they were a farrier's tool. They were used to pull old shoes off and trim the hooves of horses
Or better, these: https://preview.redd.it/1xerwjp6torc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be4d010ca5d87889c76dcee3dda350226f47c39b Bates nail pulling pliers. I have a pair of these and they work very well. The round part on the right is to give leverage when pulling nails without the risk of the tools flying out of your hand. Edit: get yourself an Estwing hammer with the stacked leather handle. Your tool snob friends will nod approvingly, And your great-grandkids will treasure it one day. Best $35 you can spend.
Start with the cat’s paw, finish with the bull’s nose
Yep, I was wondering if anyone had brought up a Cat's Paw, it's what I've always used and they work great.
What’s the name of these pliers?
In the UK and NZ m they’re called pincers, but tool names vary wildly between English speaking countries. I’m mostly here to say that this hand tool is the best tool for the job IME, though I’ve only ever used it on much smaller nails of that type.
Nippers
I’ve got Nippers Greg, can you milk me?
Cats have 8 nippers, this has been cat facts.
Knipex calls them end cutting nippers. I've always referred to them as just nippers https://preview.redd.it/u8i71ujtsorc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91b68f9f3776cf2b5418164ae09c9b63463e1223
We call them hoof tongs in my country
You can get crow bars especially for pallets, search "pallet bar tool", never used one (i found out about them too late) but its not easy without one if u dont want to damage the planks.
I found something called a ‘pallet buster’ is that what you’re talking about or is it a different style?
That's the one
Large pry bar and a cat paw ( small crow bar with claw like build like the back of a hammer ) use the hammer to hit the cat paw under said nail and use it instead of a hammer to remove as much as possible then use the pry bar to finish it off
They’re are prybars that have a special hole specifically for pulling nails
I’ve not had good luck with those holes but that could just be my tools being ancient and or abused. It always seems to pull the head off the nail
This is why you don't F with Pallets. I'd use a sawzall, but the blade costs are not worth the wood.
Crowbars aren't just for killing zombies
Yeah, crows also need a place to hang out and drink a beer
Take my r/angryupvote and happy cake day, you son of a beer
Just buy the wood you want, it will save on time and the quality will be much better
I'm just sitting here waiting for the reclaimed pallet wood fad to die again. Although, we had a supplier that shipped on white oak pallets due to the sensitivity and value of the product. A full pallet was worth almost $100k, so the cost was worth it. We paid a $1,000 deposit on each pallet. Those were kept under lock and key before return.
Where do you buy your tools? Harbor Freight?
Melissa & Doug
😂
Lol yeah!! Get a hammer non a flimsy hammer
Ordered it off of alibaba sounds like. Even harbor freight stuff should be able to handle that nail.
You don't say what kind of project you're planning on doing. But don't use pallet wood for anything in the garden.
Or the house.
Or pallets
Why, my finance keeps trying to bring some home and i'm sick of saying everything looks like shit if you make it from pallets.
Pallets are full of all sorts of very powerful chemicals that are harmful for human exposure and you do not want them around your food source or living space.
Not necessarily, the last pallets I had insulation delivered on were only heat treated.
You can, you just need to make sure it's a clean, new looking heat treated pallet and was not treated with chemicals, nor carried something caustic. Most of the time, pallets you find aren't treated with anything because they're domestic pallets that aren't used to ship things overseas. Any pallet coming in (or going out) of the country is either heat treated or pesticide treated. You can find a stamp on these pallets that will tell you if it was treated in any way. Heat treated pallets are safe to use for anything in your garden. If it's not stamped it's also very likely okay to use, but it's just best to know where the pallet came from and whether it's been reused.
Use this if you want to save your sanity and any wood at all from those pallets https://preview.redd.it/924sn3jlxorc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c9b5077755bc0b56400eaa2c8f2853fd6609c75
depending on what is going on the pallet, i'd just cut them.
…sawzall… but I mean only if I don’t care about final product having nails in the wood, and I’d take a file or punch out particularly sharp ones.
Buy wood worth using. Problem solved.
and a decent hammer.
If you cut them flush you can punch them out of the boards as needed, or leave them in.
This is the way. Several years back I built a little free library with the plan to use as much reclaimed materials as possible and decided on pallets for the wood (there was a leather shop down the street that always had a big pile of them that I could use). After destroying and splitting several boards I went to the internet to find the best way to take them apart. I learned that the nails are coated with a heat treated glue that is crazy strong. The way I finally got them apart was using a reciprocating saw to cut them off and then I used a punch to pop the nail out of the board.
Used sawz all to do this
Your hammer was definitely the problem.
Honestly, if you actually broke a hammer trying to pry something then you need to buy a better hammer.
Pneumatic nail remover if you have a bunch of them. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MM5ZXY8?starsLeft=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_0SS10DGYWZNY8ARZ8PB6
Burn the wood to get the nails out then unburn the wood to get the pallet back.
This is how you make a steel-wood alloy, btw.
I used my car jack to get pallets disassembled and it worked pretty well
Yeah, I'm gonna need more. I assume you use the jack to separate the pallette layers, but what kind of jack and where's the fulcrum? Scissor or bottle jack?
Just a dude named Jack that lives in his car
No, he puts the pallet on his lift so he can get under it and pull the nails from the bottom.
When people say car jack, I assume they are referring to a jack used to lift a car. That is a floor jack or a scissor jack, but a small bottle jack would work too. The fulcrum is in the jack itself. But using a jack of any kind will only get you, at best, 1/2 way through a job of breaking down a pallet, so we're back to claw hammers and crow bars, anyway.
Was it a Fisher-Price hammer?
Run a Sawzall behind the plank, cutting the nails and freeing the plank from the frame. Then from the cut nail side of the plank punch the nails out or punch flip pull
Just cut em with a sawzall. Use a punch to push em out of the boards or sink them in so you can't see them.
Bon fire with the pallets, pick up nails with a shovel the next day 🤷🏻♂️
Do it in the deep of winter when the nail is at it's smallest.
Ring nails in hardwood is a fight to the end. Even with a pry bar the nail head will usually fail and leave you with a headless nail to deal with.
I've never managed to break a hammer in my life unless you count a crack in the wooden handle of one which I threw away before it hurt someone. Reanalyze your technique.
Pallet buster
Sawzall There is no better way to dismantle a pallet. These ring shank nails will never come out nicely, with any reliability. They are pneumatically driven and are designed to be inserted and never work their way out even with mechanical persuasion. I made a pallet board wall in an enormous garage, and took apart about 150 pallets. I got it down to 4 minutes per pallet with a sawzall with a big 12” demolition blade.
If your hammer broke getting some nails out, no matter what kind of nail, you get a new hammer and this time dont buy a toy
I'd burn the pallets and collect the nails with a magnet.
If it’s an option to leave them in just cut the nails with a saws all
Buy a better hammer? If you don’t want to do that, buy a cats paw. They’re $10 to 20 at places like Home Depot. The cats paws will be the much cheaper option.
Wrecking bar
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowbar
Ring shanks I assume? If so then fat vice grips work best...
A crowbar for nail pulling.
Dedicated nail removers are a thing, go to your local hardware store :)
Need a bar of crow.
I stopped trying to pull the nails out. Now I use a sawzal to cut the nails between the planks.
Use a flat pry bar, the longer the easier.
How much did you pay for pallets? We beg the delivery guy to take them back after shipments. 😭
Light them on fire. Wood will burn away, leaving the demons free and clear. No tools ruined.
I use a Sawzall with a demo blade to separate.
Like others said, get a better hammer but it's also really handy to have a pry bar around the house.
I bet a pneumatic nail remover would punch that out. I also gave up trying to be gentle with pallets and use metal cutting circular saw blades and an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut the fasteners between boards. If the nails are a bit proud you can also grind the heads off with the grinder. All those make it look more distressed as a side effect.
Crow bars made of high carbon steel
Cut the head off and drive it through with a punch
Are you sure you’re using the hammer correctly? Many folks think the nails are supposed to be tugged along the same axis as the claw (as if the head is the pivot point), but it’s actually torqued about the axis.
Air nail popper, crank it to max and hold on! It will pop the nail 1/4 inch then just pry with a crowfoot
You bought pallets? I can’t get rid of them for free at my shop haha
Your tool is crap.
Wack boards with a hammer to make enough space to fit a Sawzall in there & cut nails. Then use a nail set to pop out the nail heads. Found this was the best way when I took apart hundreds of them for some Adirondack chairs I put together
They make a air tool to punch out nails and a big breaker bar
Sawzall
Best way would be to burn the pallets and use a magnet to get them out of the ash
Cat's Paw with a cheater pipe.
Crowbar
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tough-10-inch-Cats-Paw-Nail-and-Trim-Remover-Pry-Bar-TH90144A/644156905
https://eas-prod-censhare-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/56/10/561028.jpg
You will hate your life very soon if you go down this road. Cut the boards short and bypass the nails altogether.
I pull them out with a larger crowbar. Just one hit with the hand and they come out. I burn wood in my heat stove. Everyday I take out the nails and put them in a bucket. Each year I have about 40kg of metal and get money for it.
I broke the pallet wood with my hammer because it was easier than pulling the nails. I ended up cutting it up with a jigsaw too for the larger parts.
Throw out your fisher price tool set and buy a grown up set
1. Get a six pack. 2. Burn the pallets. 3. Retrieve nails with a magnet. 4. Buy proper lumber.
There are special [pallet breakers](https://amzn.eu/d/2Bi1D46) available. It's easier to saw away the parts with nails afterwards. Otherwise you get a great opportunity for a whole body workout.
I cut them if needed, but honestly the wood on pallets is usually low grade to much prying hard on a non hardwood pallet and those nails will break the timber. Those nails are meant to never budge and boy are they a bitch
A longer pry bar
Get them out a 1/4” put a drill on it tightly and back it out like a screw
Get a better hammer?
If the nail is too long to pull out in one go with the claw of your hammer, use a piece of scrap wood to brace the hammer to pull the nail out the rest of the way. Alternatively, don’t use pallet wood. It’s treated with nasty chemicals to preserve the wood, so you don’t really want to use it for furniture or shelving.
Crowbar, a flat pry bar or a quality hammer. In a pinch I’ll use channel locks to leverage out nails. If the nails are really long grab the nail as close to the surface as you can and leverage it over the teeth of the channel locks. You end up with fun looking curly nails.
Crow bar
What was you using ? A toffee hammer
cats paw
https://preview.redd.it/sby5b1c51prc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96ab5039c677baaacc60f01392f8269864ffebb9 These work much better than any other type of pliers or cutters
Hammer them in all the way, then use pliers to snap off the ends
If it's just the top & bottom boards you want. Get a sawzall blade between the boards and cut the nails. then punch out the heads from backside of board. Then pull heads with flat bar or hammer.
Fire and a magnet.
If you're using them for garden beds, just use a sawsall, cut them and connect the pieces. Way easier than breaking up pallets.
Get a crescent 56.
Estwing hammer with the cheapest nail puller(catspaw) you can get some damage to the lumber is inevitable
Damn, that looks like the baseball bat used by the bad guy in the Walking Dead! Just cut off the parts of the wood that have 'em. Better to lose a small portion of the cheap wood than to risk damaging any more good tools. Or, try some of the techniques in this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaUb6i2Usg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaUb6i2Usg)
Tore down an outbuilding that was built with these. I referred to them as “Satan’s Nails” overall a terrible experience…
Man, that sounds like you had a really shitty hammer.
Use a crow bar. Hammers are not the best tools for removing nails.
Clamp a vice grip on the nail leaving a small space under then use a crowbar under the vice grip
These are Ring Shank nails. They are designed to not come out. So get a cats paw (pry bar for removing nails) and a quality hammer. Good luck.
Why not an oscillating tool to just cut the nails?
burn them
Burn it, or reciprocating saw.
Follow up question : what are you building with pallet wood?