Definitely worth trying and glad you shared!Initial results of using the Air Locker AP700 to drive nails deeper into the planks...
I am happy to report that my experiment in using the Air Locker AP700 to drive nails deeper into the planks to make removal of the planks was a complete success - in terms of the experiment yielding answers to my questions. Unfortunately, the results were less than satisfactory. Here is what I discovered.
1) Punching the pallet nail heads deeper into the pallet planks most often split the plank wood at the ends. The broad nail head acted as a wedge and when driven deeper into the wood, it would most often split the wood at the ends. This is unacceptable for my purposes. As you know, a little split can often work it's way further up the wood, and in one case, it split off about 12 inches of the board.
2) Driving the nail heads deeper into the pallet planks actually made the planks HARDER, not easier, to take off. Since the broad heads were pounded deeper into the planks, it only made the plank tighter against the 2X4 stretcher and I had a harder time removing the plank, even with a flat bar.
In conclusion, I found that using the Air Locker AP700 to punch nails deeper into the planks to make plank removal easier was a bust. I am much better off using the other methods of pallet disassembly such as using a circular saw to cut off the planks in shorter pieces, using a reciprocating saw with a long demolition blade and just cutting through the nails, or using my pallet buster on those few pallets that it seems to work on. Even a hammer and crowbar works better than trying to punch down the nails deeper into the planks.
Well, I thought I was on to something to speed up pallet disassembly, but the results proved the opposite. However, the Air Locker AP700 is a great tool to de-nail all those pallet planks once the planks are pulled off. I'm OK with that. That is what it was designed to do.