Nail gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A nail gun or nailgun is a type of tool used to drive nails into wood or some other kind of material. It is usually driven by electromagnetism, compressed air or a small explosive charge. Smaller nail guns are often called brad, or pin nailers. Nail guns have in many ways replaced hammers as tools of choice amongst builders.
Nail guns also have many advantages over hammers, as they drive the fastner instantly, without splitting the wood, and consistantly setting the nail head below the surface.
For safety, nail guns are designed to be used with the muzzle touching the target; they are short-range and wildly inaccurate if a user tries to use one as a projectile weapon. Explosive powered, or "powder actuated" nailguns fall into two broad categories: direct drive, or high velocity devices; and indirect drive, or low velocity devices. These categories differ in as much as the direct drive nailer uses gas pressure acting directly on the nail to drive it, and the indirect drive system uses gas pressure acting on a heavy piston which drives the nail. Indirect drive nailers are safer because they cannot launch a free-flying projectile even if tampered with or misused, and the lower velocity of the nails are less likely to cause explosive shattering of the work substrate. All kinds of nailguns can be dangerous, so safety precautions similar to those for a firearm are usually recommended for their use.
Either type can, with the right cartridge loads, be very powerful indeed, driving a nail or other fastener into hard concrete, stone, rolled steelwork, with ease. Perhaps the most famous manufacturer of indirect-drive fastening tools is Hilti of Liechtenstein.
Some areas of the world may require registration, secure storage or other measures to regulate the possession and use of nailguns.
 Pneumatic nail guns require air hoses to fire |
 Nails come in clips for use in nail guns |
 Cartridges, used in nail guns |
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[edit] Other uses of term
Various fictional projectile weapons in stories and video games have been called nail guns, most prominently in the Quake series [1]. When electromagnetically-powered, they sometimes merge into the categories of railguns and coilguns.
[edit] Nail Guns in Pop Culture
Nail guns have been featured in these movies (and games), among others:
- The nailgun is a hyped weapon in the Hitman game series. It could be activated by cheats, as a joke, in the first game, but is an actual weapon in the latest, Hitman: Blood Money.
- Quake: Two of the weapons to feature in the computer game Quake are a nail gun and a rotary nail gun.
- Date Movie: A construction worker shoots and kills himself with a nail gun to avoid seeing an unattractive lady dance.
- Final Destination 3: At a home improvement center, a redhead Gothic girl trips over her own feet after being sprayed in the face with saw dust, and falls onto a nail gun, injecting nails into her head.
- Stay Alive: A girl unsuccessfully attempts to shoot the villain with a nail gun she has found.
- Lethal Weapon: Mel Gibson chases down a contractor as he dodges nails being shot from the first cordless nail gun, the Paslode Impulse.
- Casino Royale: During a fight in a collapsing Venetian construction site, James Bond dispatches an opponent by shooting him in the eye with a nailgun. The same opponent had earlier on accidentally shot his guard with the same nailgun.
- Nail guns also feature prominently in several episodes of CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, and also play a very important role in the violent computer game Manhunt.
