Nail gun

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Nail gun in use.

A nail gun or nailgun or nailer 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, for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Smaller nail guns are often called brad nailers, bradders, 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 fastener instantly, without splitting the wood, and consistently set the nail head below the surface. Most nailguns can be set to operate in either of two modes:

In one mode, the nail gun must first be pressed against the workpiece and the trigger then depressed. One nail is then fired and the trigger must be released before the next nailing cycle can commence.

In the other mode, the triggger is depressed before the nail gun is brought into contact with the workpiece. Then, each time the nail gun is pressed against the workpiece, a nailing cycle commences and one nail is fired. By repeatedly "bumping" the nail gun against the workpiece, any number of nails can be rapidly fired. This mode is very fast, although less precise than the first mode.

Nail guns do not use conventional nails. Instead, the nails are provided mounted in long strips (similar to a stick of staples) or in a plastic carrier coil. Each style of nail gun will be either stick- or coil-loading, although it may operate with nails of a variety of lengths. The gauge (thickness) of the nail is usually fixed for any given model of nail gun.

1 Safety
2 Other uses of term
3 Nail guns in pop culture
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Safety

All kinds of nail guns can be dangerous, so safety precautions similar to those for a firearm are usually recommended for their use. For safety, nail guns are designed to be used with the muzzle touching the target; they are short-range and inaccurate if a user tries to use one as a projectile weapon. Explosive-powered ("powder actuated") nailguns fall into two broad categories:

Direct drive or high velocity devices. This uses gas pressure acting directly on the nail to drive it.

Indirect drive or low velocity devices. This 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.

Either type can, with the right cartridge loads, be very powerful indeed, driving a nail or other fastener into hard concrete, stone, or rolled steelwork with ease. Perhaps the most famous manufacturer of indirect-drive fastening tools is Hilti of Liechtenstein.

Some areas of the world may need 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

[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 several movies (and games), some of which are listed below. They are rarely depicted as being used for building purposes.

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. It is likely the term is used here as a fictitious slang for flechettes in a dedicated futuristic military application, not as anything related to the contemporary construction tool described in this article.
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 construction site in Venice, James Bond dispatches an opponent by shooting him in the eye with a nailgun. Earlier the same opponent accidentally shot his guard with the same nailgun.
F.E.A.R.: A nail gun is available as a weapon in the computer game F.E.A.R. in both single-player and multi-player gameplay.
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.
Arachnophobia: The use of a nail gun appeared twice. Once to show the poor state of the cellar joists and once more significantly in the death of a large spider.
The Island: During a chase scene Scarlett Johansson's character uses a nail gun to shoot several nails into a man's hand, securing it to a wall.
American Psycho: The Nailgun is a favourite of the fictitious serial-killer Patrick Bateman. It is seen once in the film (about to be used in an aborted attack)- but was referenced more heavily in the novel where he uses one frequently 'in anger'. It is considered an iconic part of the character's arsenal; one is included as an accessory with the 7" action-figure.
The Wire: Snoop buys a fully-automatic .27-caliber powder-actuated nailgun from a hardware store. The gun costs $600, yet she pays the elderly clerk $800 in cash and walks out of the store.