I just thought I’d mention the best safety trick I always teach my new apprentices…
when nailing a plate to a stud when building walls – ALWAYS nail the bottom nails (next to the floor) first and then take your hand away BEFORE nailing that last top nail. CAUSE if you don’t …eventually you will shoot your left hand (lefties shoot their right..) with the nailer when you double shoot and it misses the plate. seen it happen – it was uggggly!
Replies
Done it myself a few times in fact, and seen it done a few more. Here's a picture someone here posted a while back. I've saved it cuz it's a good quick safety refresher course...
still waiting for that to load... ;<)
Shot myself in the left pointer finger on Friday with the 15 ga finish nailer.
The nail shot out of the other side of what I was holding. Only penetrated a 1/2" or so, scared THE LIVING CRAP out of me. I knew I was shot, but didn't know how bad, didn't want to lokk ya know?? Frigging crybaby!!
Be careful out there!!
EricEvery once in a while, something goes right!
FB,
Yeah, that came out big. I'm still getting the hang of Irvanview. I resized it to 640X480, but don't know how to get the MB's down to a more appropriate size. My bad.
Under options:
set file associations
check jpg
be dead on or that quarter inch is going to haunt you
Edited 9/18/2004 12:35 pm ET by rez
Thanks Rez.........I don't even wanna see that!!!!
EricEvery once in a while, something goes right!
Ahhhh....
Thanks rez
That one's gettin printed, laminated, and glued inside the cover of the site box the guns are stored in....
(Too bad there's not more blood and gore showing; some people are only impressed if it looks like TV, duh....)
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Ever notice that the real bad nail gun boo-boos actually DON'T bleed? Think that's from the glue on the nails?
No, it's actually very typical of puncture wounds, and is one of the main reasons for leaving the penetrating object in the wound until arrival at the hospital where a sudden hemhorrage due to 'pulling the plug' can be dealt with better than in the field.
When we encounter victims with objects incarcerated in the wound, if the whole object is too heavy or long to carry with the victim (or if it's fixed to a structure) we are obliged to cut it off short enough so that what's left can be stablized in the wound site and the victim transported.
This can get tricky when the object is something like a rebar poking up out of a partially poured a foundation, and the victim has fallen on it chest first....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
That's something you've actually witnessed I assume, huh? Shudder to think.
I've been lucky enough to have missed that particular scenario in the flesh--mostly skiers tend to spear themselves on either their own or someone else's ski poles, or on tree branches we can whack off with a floding buck saw--but imagine how you'd handle it if the ambulance tech asked you to cut that rebar off for your buddy? What are ya gonna use? A circ with a masonry blade? 4" angle grinder? Sawzall with a diamond-grit blade? OxyAcetylene cutting torch?
Jeez, I keep this up I could give myself nightmares in the afternoon....
My preference would actually be a wanded Dremel with a cutting disc (well, several, actually) because it would cause the least amount of vibration to be transmitted into the wound. But on the other hand, it's slow...and if the guy's bleeding out badly, there's no time for that kind of sh!t. So up to a 4" grinder...if there's room for the tool in there....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
"ambulance tech asked you to cut that rebar off for your buddy?"
Actual situation -- the retaining plug blew while post-tensioning cables in a retaining wall and two of the strands nailed a guy to the side of the excavation through the muscles of his thigh and arm. These cables are high tensile steel and require an enormous set of special bolt-cutters. They cut the guy loose and sent him off to hospital with the cables still through him. Later the hospital phoned and said they needed to cut one of the cables to remove it so someone set off to take the bolt-cutters to the operating theatre. He marched into the crowded waiting room, plonked the cutters on the desk and said "They're waiting for these in theatre"
IanDG
"...one of the main reasons for leaving the penetrating object in the wound until arrival at the hospital..."
Another reason is you get beetter service at the ER.
Show up with a tiny puncture wound, and you have to sit down to fill out forms.
But come in with something sticking out and you're a novelty. You're ushered right in and dealt with quickly.
At least that's my experience...I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. [Chinese proverb]
Another reason is you get beetter service at the ER.
Funny, but true. I've shot myself twice. The second time I went to a walk in clinic and had a seat. About twenty people in front of me. Woman comes in, looks at my boot with the 16d nail sticking out of where she is sure my big toe should be and cringes. Happens twice more and suddenly I'm patient number one. Skip to the head of the line.
Actually, the ER triage nurse is supposed to prioritize on a fairly strict basis, which I would assume is standard both here and there.
First priority is always given to any patient with an airway problem.
Second is anyone with breathing difficulties not caused by an obstructed or compromised airway.
Third is anyone with circulatory problems, which include hemorrhaging (either internal or external), cardiac arrhythmia or arrest, or catastrophic pressure rise or drop.
If you don't present with one of those basic life-threatening problems, you generally get to fill out a bunch of forms before they will start paying too much attention...unless you're a very sick child. Children that present with high fever (over 104F) and unexplained gastrointestinal distress (jet vomiting, for instance) usually get shuffled up to as near the head of the line as possible. There is just too much chance that what the kid has could turn really nasty with no warning....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Headaches also get high priority. Used not to but a series of people keeling over dead at ERs changed that.
Shot myself the hand once and took a richochet in the shoulder once.......all because of the bump and rush.........it's kinda cool shooting on automatic, but on my jobs I won't let anybody do it and I check their gun safetys to make sure they're working.............
besides it wastes nails............like the kid using thirty nails to apply a trimmer stud. .........
aim, squeeze the trigger, and train yourself not to jerk or flinch .......... you'll kill the board not yourself.
Kind of cool shooting on automatic, huh? I think there should be a law against those kind of nailguns! Assault nailguns! Probably was black, wasn't it? (I am kidding!)
When matched with other signs and symptoms, a headache can be considered diagnostic of stroke. Some of the other signs would be age, sex, apparent physical condition of the patient; indicative symptoms would be things like blood pressure, capillary return, blood O2, pulse rate: all the things they measure as soon as they clip that little gizmo on your fingertip while they're still asking you your name and address....
An experienced triage person will have a sixth sense for this sort of thing. But it's an art....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
"Actually, the ER triage nurse is supposed to prioritize on a fairly strict basis, which I would assume is standard both here and there."
I've never been to a hospital big enough to HAVE a triage nurse. (-:Humor is tragedy plus time [Mark Twain]
Sure you have...but s/he's not wearing a nametag that identifies her as such, and s/he probably has to do three or four (or five or six) other tasks in addition to stacking the deck for the doc....
In fact, there's a growing tendency to give this semi-medical task to semi-medical personnel (like me, for example). It can theoretically be done 'by the numbers' and under most circumstances does not present a problem or danger for the patients presenting at the ER.
It's when someone presents with a really weird set of signs and symptoms that do not match standard 'protocols' that things can go awry.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Ouch!
Oh man --been there-- almost, building a shed for myself to store the cycle and other summer stuff and "forgot " to nial the bottom first and got a double tap out of the gun--1st on into the stud--2nd into my left index out the top and into my middle , My fingers were pinned about 1/4 inch apart just enough to reach in with side cutters and split the nail . Ever try to cut a nail on purpose? Adrenaline---amazing stuff. But hey look and the bright side --it was only a 3" nail so it wasn't long enough to get to the next finger......
I never seam to forget to nail the bottom first anymore..funny how that works, Mike
For the record...that was a picture I got from this forum a while back. Don't want to be taking credit for someone else's misery!
You said that you never forget to nail the bottom of the stud first. That's great practice. I've found that, with my guys, NONE of themhave ever made that a practice until they shot themselves at least once. I've got to admit, I fall in that category as well. Sad but true. We are strange creatures.
What I have done is gotten into another good habit. This spring I traded in all my old Hitachi framing guns for the new ones. The new ones have a slide switch near the trigger that changes the gun from bump-fire to sequential firing. The only time the guns are allowed to be on bump-fire is when we are sheathing decks, walls, and roofs. It's not perfect, but it was a compromise. I would have lost the guys if I jumped right into all sequential triggering. Maybe someday. For now, it seems to be working out and I've got to believe that it will reduce those type of "accidents" in the future.
Oh how very true we are creatures of strange habits..
I also have switched triggers on my gun and although it is a pain sometimes to switch. It is far less then the pain I felt in my fingers.
Each time I am about to do something that makes my "spider sense" tingle--You know what I am talking about --I think to myself that nails like flesh much more than wood. Softer , warmer, and they are assured of being pulled out.
A bit goofy I admit but I am self-employed and my family depends on me to be smart enough to work another day.
And on a side note I took the two pieces of that nail and hot glued them to the peg board above my work bench. Mike
Like i said, did that myself, but what scares me more is being around other guys when they're using a nailgun. The guy I work with now was on other side of wall and missed anything meaty somehow and nail went on through, whizzing by my ear. He said, Ooops!" and laughed. Don't think he knew how close it came to me.
Heard about a carpy who was nailing a post and the post was soft or something and shot his friend right in the heart. Then did everything wrong--tried to take him to hospital himself, ran out of gas and all sort of bad things, finally got an ambulance to take the guy. The guy lived too.
Remember Clint Walker "Cheyenne"? He fell on his own ski pole and put the tip into his heart and lived. Atround here, a pregnant woman fell off a second floor deck or stage or something and impaled herself on a microphone stand. She lived and a couple weks later delivered a healthy baby.
don`t feel bad i accidently nailed my big toe to ply wood up in a newly framed attic 21/2 stories upright thru the boot with one of those old senco framming guns that had a hair trigger on it sometimes we have to wiggle around when framing in rafters and sometimes we get a little to cocky an forget to take the finger of the trigger when moving around in an out of rafters.Any way the doc pulled it out with a pair of pliers out of his tool box he had in the storage room (true story) the nurse was watching him start to grab the head of the nail and he gets a hold of it and she squints, me i`m watchin her squinttin and yells to him `` Yank it`` an he put all he had in to to get it out the old bugger...... mean while when it was out man was i relieved , not easy to get around with a 12 d spike all the way thru your boot and big toe at the same time........now we use a new type ( pasload framming gun)( much safer) that won`t let you shoot your self unless of course your really tryin to that is
I was nailing the bottom plates to the floor deck once and was sort of scooting to a new position while still crouched down. I still had my finger on the trigger of the nailgun and kicked the nose of the gun (a Pasload). Blam, shot a 16 penny just under the ball of my foot and imbedded the nail to the head in the side of the sole of my boot. That time the boss just about freaked. Made me take my boot off to prove the nail had missed--by about an eightth of an inch. Glad i wasn't wearing tennis shoes that day!
Gentlemen, this is getting scary. If anybody from OSHA or CSST saw this thread, they'd probably ban nailguns outright...or make us all take a guvmint-approovd trainin' curse and pay an annual fee for an operator's license....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Nailgun nails shall be issued one at a time and only after filing reams of forms. All nailguns will be equipped with interlocks demanding the use of at least four hands and a high security key available only by mail from a central governmental office of safety experts and a second key available only from your insurance company before the gun will fire.
Nailguns will be declared WMDs unless loaded one nail at a time and used with four hands and two keys. A signed note from your mother may also be required.
"To whom It May Concern:
"Please give my little boy his nailgun back. He promises to be good and not to shoot at any more squirrels.
"If he screws up, let me know and I'll whup his skinny butt.
"Very Truly Yurs,
"Ma Barker"
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I shot myself a couple of times. I shot my hand just like you said and had to pull it out with the claw of my hammer. That one missed bone and didnt hurt much at all. I taped it up and finished out the day. I finally bought a new nailer the next day.
Another time I stapled my hand to a drawer inside a storage locker I was renting. I had to drive home with the drawer resting on the seat of the truck because I had no tools to remove it with. That one hurt.
That's exactly how I shot myself--only I was holding the gun in my left (I am right handed, but because of the way the wall was and not enough room, etc., I had gun in left) and it double shot. I had a feeling just before it happened and had pulled other hand about a foot away, and I was wearing gloves. Nail only went into the back of my index finger between second and third knuckle and stopped a soon as it hit the bone, so I just pulled it out. Showed the boss when he asked if it got me. The blood hadn't come back into the "impact crater" yet, so when I showed him, he said, "Oh, it ain't even bleedin'." I did take the time to put a bandaid on it, wimp that I am.
I learned to frame walls the old fascioned way, with a hammer. My question is this. When we framed we would use both feet to lign up the plate and the stud. Then we only had to lean over enough to set the nail and after that we could relax a little by straightening up and use our long handled framing hammers to send them home. Shouldn't you use your feet in the same way with a framing gun? My back doesn't like to bend! Especially with a nailbelt on.
last year I tried to shoot myself in the hand with my framer ...
loaded with 16's ....
for some reason ... all slow motion, of course ...
I just felt something wasn't right ....
as I pulled the trigger with the right hand ...
I left og of the lumber with the left ... real quick like ....
the nail blew out the side of the stud ...
and just nicked the tip of my middle finger ....
being that sometimes I'm Man of Steel ...
naturally, the speeding bullet bounced off!
I actually redirected the shot!
was thinking ... man ... how lucky .... feeling all good about my self ...
then ... the finger tip started throbbing and turned purple ...
realized I was more man and less steel?
Hurt for about a month ... middle of winter ... remembered it each moring as I pulled my gloves on ....
Jeff
Buck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry