Nail and staple gun operation
Audio for slide 1 (mp3 |6|KB)
Nail guns and staple guns are designed to fire fasteners into timber or wood-based products.
The most common power sources are compressed air and gas.
Set out below are the basic procedures for using a pneumatic gun.
Audio for slide 2 (mp3 |6|KB)
Basic operating procedure
- Make sure the gun is disconnected from the air supply and check that the moving parts and magazine are free from loose particles, dust build-up and anything else that might cause a jam.
- Load the magazine with nails or staples. Connect the air supply to the tool.
- Push the nose into the work to allow the safety mechanism to depress.
- Pull the trigger to fire the gun, keeping the following safety considerations in mind:
- always keep your free hand away from the discharge area while you're firing
- don't fire fasteners at a sharp angle or too close to edge of the material.
- never fire towards yourself or in the direction of other people.
- always disconnect the gun from the air supply before carrying out maintenance, clearing a jam, or handing the gun to another person.
Learning activity
Audio 3 (mp3 |6|KB)The basic operating procedure described above refers to a trigger action called 'single shot mode'.
In this action, you need to push the nose into the work to let the safety mechanism depress and then pull the trigger to fire the gun. To fire a second nail, you must go through the whole process again.
Some guns have two operating modes - 'single shot' and 'bump fire'. When the bump fire action is selected, you can keep the trigger depressed and simply bump the nose of the gun onto the work each time you want to fire a nail. Bump fire is handy for jobs where you need to fire many nails in quick succession.
What do you think would be the extra safety problems associated with bump fire mode? How would this affect the way you use the gun, or position yourself before you start firing?
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