Dan Yoder can remove nails from old barn wood fast with his power denailer. Buried nails can really lower the value of old wood but getting them out can be time consuming.

“We got tired of pulling nails pretty fast,” says Yoder. “I told a local machinist what I wanted, and he built it. It cuts our time by a third.”

A bed of rollers makes it easy to move even big beams into place. An overhead carriage equipped with denailing jaws uses both hydraulic and air power. It travels 10 ft. up and down the bed and in and out 14 in. It has up to 14 in. of clearance over the bed to accommodate even large beams. Hydraulic arms clamp the beam from both sides and the top to hold it in position.

“We position it right over a nail and lower it hydraulically,” says Yoder. “The jaws open and close with small air cylinders. When we activate the large hydraulic cylinder, it can penetrate 1 1/2 in. in hard wood. Once the jaws close, the cylinder pulls the nail out.”

The rollers are wood, which allows Yoder to use a metal detector when he thinks he is finished. He inspects each beam or board before removing it from the denailer. The combination of labor saving and added value has sold Yoder on his denailer.

“I think my employees would probably quit if I sold this thing,” he says. “They wouldn’t go back to chiseling out nails.”

Yoder plans to sell his current denailer because he’s having a replacement built. It will have 4 top clamps instead of the 2 now. It will also have a slightly bigger hydraulic cylinder and a heavier bed frame.

“I want one that will go even deeper and give less when it does,” says Yoder. If others want them, we will make them to order.

Yoder got into the old barn wood business by accident. He moved a wood kiln onto his Ohio farm to take advantage of free natural gas from a well on his place. A farmer in the area brought him some old barn wood to be dried. Taking down old buildings and buying old wood to be dried soon became a big part of his business.

“While old wood is much drier than fresh, it still needs to be dried down for use making furniture,” explains Yoder. “Drying it also eliminates bugs that can live in and nest in the wood.”

While he sells most of his wood in the local area, he has shipped barn wood to North Carolina, Alabama and as far west as Colorado. “We always have a good stock on hand with many semi loads sitting in storage,” says Yoder.

Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Yoder Dry Kiln, 29881 Route 643, Fresno, Ohio 43824 (ph 740 623-2006).