Nail Gun Safety

[Glennbear]

I had a near miss the other day while nailing oak edging on a recently built workbench so I thought I would post a reminder. I was using 2" pneumatic finishing nails to secure the edging and had my left hand on the benchtop while nailing horizontally with my right hand. One of the nails hit some grain which deflected it and it made a vertical turn to exit through the benchtop protruding between my fingers I averted injury this time but I will be keeping my hands well clear in the future. :wsmile:

 

[Ray Martin]

Glenn,

Good reminder. Thanks. I always try to use the '3 X' rule. If I'm driving a 2" nail, the other hand has to be 6" away.

On worksites, I never let the volunteers use framing nailers. I will use finish nailers for some of the trim work, particularly for light stuff like shoe molding, but am VERY careful about who I'll let use any nailer and will keep a very close eye on them.

 

[RandyJ]

Glad this story turned out to have a happy ending Glenn.:icon_thum Thanks for the heads-up.

But, I don't remember seeing any pictures of this invisible workbench. Did I miss something??:gar-Bi

 

[DaveO]

Another thing to remember is that most "clips" of finish nails are thinner in one dimension than the other. Generally the thinner dimension is on the side of the "clip" so the nail will more easily follow the grain if the gun is held parallel to the grain. I always shoot my nails with the gun perpendicular to the thinnest dimension of the stock being nailed.

Dave

 

[timf67]

Where was this post about 5 years ago? I could have saved myself a hole in the finger! :swoon:

I learned this lesson the hard way. BTW, DaveO has a great point that I will use in the future! :icon_thum

 

[Glennbear]

Glad this story turned out to have a happy ending Glenn.:icon_thum Thanks for the heads-up.

But, I don't remember seeing any pictures of this invisible workbench. Did I miss something??:gar-Bi

The workbench can be found in this thread complete with two sets of pictures: :wsmile:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/f81/workbench-wip-completed-31168/

 

[RandyJ]

Wow! Nice bench Glenn!
I did miss that post and I apologize for calling your bench "invisible".:gar-Bi You done good.:icon_thum

 

[FlyingRon]

Yep, I've seen both finishing and framing nails go off on bizarre paths. Keep my hands well away from anywhere they could bend to.

 

[Gotcha6]

Once when I was a young fool I was framing a house alone. Shooting 16d nails into floor joists through the rim band, I was holding the joist steady with my left hand. Overshot the rim band with the gun. The safety caught the rim and allowed the gun to fire - directly into the base of my thumb and sinking the nail up nearly to the head below the skin parallel to the bone. Did I mention I was alone? Oh, yeah, I did. Pulled the nail out with my teeth. Odd thing about this injury, though... it was my knees that started hurting and going weak.......
Nail guns are very unforgiving.
Glad your incident was only educational, Glenn.