I shot my finger yesterday while nailing with 15g. I had my finger too close to the spot I was nailing and the nail blew out. My finger is fine, didn’t hit bone,nerves or tenon. So, my bad.
Anyway I remember reading about blow out and I think there was a way to line up the nailer with the wood so the nail stays in wood. I was holding a butt joint 3/4 ply into 3/4 ply and was holding nailer(PC DA 250) at a 90 degree angle to joint. If I had been holding it inline with joint would the nail curved into wood?
Yea, I will keep myself out of the path of the nail in the future- ;>
Marion
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Finish nails have a chisel point. If you nail into curving grain, especially in hardwoods like oak, and if the edge of the chisel aligns with the grain, many times the nail will bend to follw the grain. Hard to explain. More prevalent with thinner nails cuz they bend easier.
Look at a strip of nails. Both edges have been ground off to form a chisel. The line of the chisel is parallel to the magazine. If you see that the grain is going the same way (it usually is) and it has a pronounced curl, then turn the gun 90 degrees.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
You said it better than I would have. I was going to say that I think inconsistencies in the wood have as much to do with blow-out as anything gun angle or anything else. A decent knot in the endgrain of a 2x will make a framing nail curl out at you like it was an 18g brad. The only real remedy I've ever come up with was to keep yer damm fingers out of the way! ;)View Image
you've only shot yourself once?
I've done it several times, all while doing something stupid. Fortunately, no permanent damage.
Some day I'll learn.
Hmmm and I thought the cure was to shoot yourself once, but I guess not.
What can I say- I'm a slow learner.
LOL. Here is another nail gun story.
I was over at an ole' buds house. He wanted a new interior door installed. I brought my impulse and a few other tools over and started to go to work on the door. This was in a bathroom to the master bedroom. His son was maybe 8 yrs old in the same room playing a video game on the tv while we were working.
Cold beers were flowing, hey, we were at an ole' buds house. I tell ole' bud to hold the door in place while I get ready to tack it in place. I go to shut the door and the damn door won't close so I can check the reveal, so I try harder swinging the door back and forth. Funny thing was every time I tried to close the door I would hear a grunt. His dam fingers were in the jam! He didn't say sh!d while his fingers were getting crimped! I laughed my arse off! We drink another beer or two laughing our azz off before we get back to work.
So I am nailing when as soon as I pull the trigger his son starts screaming bloody murder. Man, you never want to know that feeling! So I ran in, grab him, throw him on the bed and asked him where it hurts, he said his back, I am looking for an entry wound, squeezing, looking for blood. His breathing was good. Ole' bud is looking all over the floor for the nail and found it. Whew! The nail had went through the trim around the door and hit him side ways slapping him. Dam we were lucky. Needless to say we quit for the day. I drove home shaking from that incident.Semper Fi
Sorry to hear that.
Problem is, it is near impossible to predict how and when a 15 ga nail is going to blow out.
Lining up the chisel point so it going across the wood grain will help to prevent splitting, but in my experience, the nail can still blow out.
It's never happened to me, but I have read about cases where the nail curled around, and blew out in a guy's face. Which is why it's not a bad idea to wear your safety glasses when using a nailer -- but hardly anybody does.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
I have had 16g ones do a complete 180 following the grain of a treated picket. One right through thumbnail from the bottom.
Only way to be fairly sure is be outside the range of nail.
Early in my framing of this home I shot a 3 1/2 inch framing nail into my thumb (same kinda deal bounced off a knot) and nailed my thumb in place.. It went thru the glove I was wearing and held my thumb in place untill I could cut off the glove and then pull out the nail. Patience while in pain isn't on of my strong suits but it had to be then..
I'm timberframing so I shoot few nails most are temporay or into the SIP's I left the blood on the nail gun to remind me to be carefull..
I did something similar.
I stood on a step ladder and held some lumber together with one hand while using the framing nailer with the other hand. The nail got deflected by a knot and penetrated my left hand(between the thumb and the index finger). Not the best thing to do when your up on a ladder and stuck to the top plate. I did a loud scream and a bunch of swearing, lowered the framing nailer to the ground and pulled the nail out with the claw of my hammer.
Little bit of blood was lost, but nothing that you can't fix with some duct tape and a hanky. No damage done to the bone or tenons, I was very lucky. The wife was surprised why I didn't work long hours that day, I never told her about it.
What FastEddie said. You just need to keep out of range of the nail, which can be hard in really curly wood. 15 gauge nails have a real habit of following tricky grain. Smaller nails are even worse, but I don't use many long brad nails. Framing nails can curve around and blow out too, if they're close to the edge. It wakes you up to have 3 1/2" framing nails ricocheting around.
zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
I've had a 16D Common do a complete 180 in a pt post. Luckily I was hand nailing (post to post base). I swear there was concrete in the middle of those doug fir 4x4's. Sure glad I didn't have a gun or it would have been like a war zone - LOL.
I was framing dormer walls on the first floor deck while the HO was talking to me.
pop pop. I'd nail the stud and move on to the next one, looking up at the HO every once in awhile just to let him know I was listening.
pop. pop. look up.
Well, for whatever reason, one of those shots blew through the 2x and drove into my index finger.
I stood up and wondered why I couldn't move my middle finger out of the way - you know, to see if the nail went all the way through my index finger.
Well, the reason I couldn't move my middle finger was because I had managed to nail the fingers together.
I latched onto the nail with my claw, pulled it out and said "Now THAT is why I don't talk to home owners while I'm working."
HO didn't say much, just got in his car and went back to work.
The good news is that you will only put your finger in the way once. Bad news is that you will have a nail curl many times again. The really bad news is that one day it will blow out of a piece of stain grade trim, on the last shot of the day, when you're running tight on having enough material to finish.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I think the worst news is when you nail solid into your fingers and a geyser of blood goes gushing on the stain grade trim and ruins it.
one of my fears is that a customer might like the color of my blood on the wood.
Yeah, I need plenty more. I've got 300 lf of 9" base and 50 doors and windows trim to do. New meaning to the phrase "bled dry".
95% of the time a finish nail that curved off track won't travel farther than it's length in any direction, but that direction may be a full curl back to where it started. Stay a nail's length away and you're in good shape.
The other thing to watch out for is having your hand any distance behind where the nail is penetrating. It's easy to want to hold something behind a board to help squeeze things together, but too often a nail will completely penetrate for some reason and fly into your hand. We had one experienced finish carp do that the very first day we were working together.
Even though I'm primarily a finish carp I've never taken a finish nail in the finger.
However, one guy I worked with had a 15 g bump-fire into a rib. The 2-1/2" nail angled down and they found it in his colon. Lucky, or unlucky depending on how you view that one.
If you are in a situation where you have to put a nail in at an angle that is very likely to bounce off, simply take a 1/16" drill bit and make a pilot hole of sorts. Shooting into the hole has less resistance and is much less likely to bounce off. It can also reduce splitting significantly.
Another trick is using a small nail set and simply make a dimple in the surface. Shoot the nail into the dimple and you're in good shape.
In the advanced tricks department, sometimes it would be perfect if the nail would curve one way or the other. Putting a very slight bend in the tip of the nail will curve it in the direction of the bend. I'll drill a 1/16" pilot hole to help get the bent nail started more easily and carefully hand nail. Normal finish nails work better, but we always have gun nails handy.
If a nail does come up through the surface simply cut it flush with the surface of the wood with your filed down end nippers, tap with a nail set and it looks no worse than a nailhead. You have filed down your end nippers so they cut flush haven't you? :-)
Happy Holidays
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