Nail Tough Jobs – Fast

A nail gun, nailgun or nailer is now the tool of choice for fixing nails and fasteners into wood and most other materials for many builders, carpenters and roofers. The humble hammer which has been around in one form or another for centuries, may have finally met it's match.

Different models can be powered by electromagnetism, compressed air (pneumatic), gases such as butane or propane, or, for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Nail guns have in many ways replaced hammers as tools of choice among builders.

Nail guns do not often use individual nails or fasteners. Instead, the fasteners are mounted in long strips or collated in a paper or plastic carrier, depending on the design of the nailgun.

Some full head nail guns, especially those used for pallet making and roofing, use long plastic or wire collated coils.

Some strip nailers use a clipped head so the nails can be placed closer together, which necessitates less frequent reloading.

Industrial nailers designed for use against steel or concrete may have a self-loading action for the explosive caps, but most require nails to be loaded by hand. Nail guns vary in the length and gauge or thickness of nails they can drive.

The smallest size of fasteners are normally 24 to 22 gauge, generally have no head and are used for attaching beadings, mouldings and so forth to frames and furniture, etc. Lengths are normally in the range ⅜ to 1¼ in.

The next size up is the 18 gauge fixing, often referred to as a brad nail and you can get specialist brad nailers for their use. These fastenings are also used to fix mouldings but can be used to used in the same way as the smaller 22 to 24 gauge fastenings.

Their greater strength leads to their use in trim carpentry on hardwoods where some hole filling is acceptable. Lengths range from ⅝ in to 2 in.

The next sizes are 16 and 15 gauge and are generally referred to as finishing nails. They come in lengths between ⅝ and 2½ in. and are used in the general fixing of much softwood and MDF trim work, such as baseboards, skirtings, architraves, etc.

The largest sizes of conventional collated fastenings are the clipped head and full head nails which are used in framing, fencing and other forms of structural and exterior work. These nails generally have a shank diameter of 0.11 to 0.13 in.

General lengths are in the range 2 in to 3+¹⁄₃ in.  Shank styles include plain, ring annular, twisted, etc and a variety of materials and finishes are offered including plain, galvanised, stainless steel, etc depending on the pull-out resistance, corrosion resistance, etc required for the given application.

These sizes of fastenings are available in stick collated form or coil form for use in pallet and roofing nailers, depending on the application. Full-head nails have greater pull-out resistance than clipped head nails and are mandated by code in many hurricane zones for structural framing.

Another type of fastening commonly found in construction is the strap fastening which is roughly equivalent to the large head clout nail. These are used in conjunction with a strap shot nailer to fix metalwork such as joist hangers, corner plates, strengthening straps, etc to timber structures.

They differ from conventional nailers in that the point of the fastening is not sheathed so it can be exactly positioned before firing the nail gun.

Other specialist nailers are also available which can drive spikes up to 6¼ inches long, fix wood to steel, etc.

A variation on the nail gun is the palm nailer which is a lightweight handheld pneumatic nailer that straps to the hand. It is convenient for working in tight spaces where a conventional nailer won't fit and is flexible enough to drive either short nails into metal straps or six inch nails into timber.

By repeated hammer action, of around 40 hits per second, the fastener is driven into the material by a more constant palm pressure, as opposed to a conventional nailgun which drives the nail against the inertia of the nailgun itself.

As you can see there are a myriad of different nail guns for countless different uses and it is not uncommon for builders to have 3 or 4 different types with which to accomplish all the necessary jobs.