Replies

1. 
   Telemike | May 07, 2004 07:47am | #1

   After seeing ONE nail in an Xray of a guy's head, I switched all my nail guns to restrictive triggers! The PC FR 350 was the one that convinced me to do so with its tendency to double fire. That first nasty Xray was a guy that was using and FR 350 that double fired and the second nail tried to go into the head of the first. It couldn't, and went back and up instead!!

   Well, my FR 350 double fired too much too. It split boards with two nails. I ordered PC's restrictive trigger kit and now use it exclusively. Also, the coil roofing nailer now has a restrictive trigger.

   I'm mostly keeping up a couple of rental houses and "This Old House" (and barn and outbuilding and greenhouse etc), not building apartment complexes, so restrictive triggers aren't much of a problem.

   I see using "bump" triggers as being like cornice jumping in the backcountry. Dare the odds enough, and you may just lose!

2. 
   BenA | May 07, 2004 03:24pm | #2

   In July of 2003 OSHA ruling that all LARGE body nail guns be manufactured with sequential triggers. By now, 10 months later mostly all nail guns sold in the US should be sold with sequential triggers. I still know many framers who replace the triggers with contract trip for more productivity. I wonder how old the nail gun was that shot the nails in that guys head.

1. 
   BarryO | May 07, 2004 09:06pm | #3

   I still know many framers who replace the triggers with contract trip for more productivity.

   I think just about all of them do.  They're definitely more dangerous.  There was a guy on the radio yesterday morning that reported an emergency room doctor told him nail gun injuries were very common, although it usually was the hand that got hit (esp. with a double fire, where the second one ends up in the hand holding the wood).

   I guess one lesson from this story is, at least, you should not work directly overhead someone using a bump trigger gun.

1. 
   SCFrankland | May 07, 2004 11:24pm | #4

   They had that story on the Discovery channel last night. They interviewd the guy who fell and the doctor who removed them. He was a very lucky guy.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

3. 
   workingwoods | May 08, 2004 06:31am | #5

   Well, where to start on this one. I have had some bad luck with nail guns. When I first started working construction, I had a bostitch ns-80 framing nailer, and when I was nailing a top plate to a stud while the wall was laying down, my gun double fired and the second nail missed the board and ended up in the back of my finger!  OUCH! If you are familliar with bostitch nails, they are metal wire coallated, and when one is passed through skin, the peice of wire left on the nail acts exactly like a barb on a fishing hook, it took about 45 minutes of me sitting on the foundation filing the little pc of wire away to get that darn thing out, by the time it was, there was a very nice hole clear though my finger, I used a garden hose to wash out the metal filings, it would squirt right through. 

   The next incident happened to my wife, she was helping me frame a swimming pool deck, and was leaning over a 2x8 beam shooting it onto a 6x6 when the same gun double fired and shot the second nail right through her hand. So there she was as calm as a cucumber attatched to a deck, and I was running around the yard like a moron! Well a neighbor at the customers house heard me yelling and came over, he was an EMT.  We cut the 2x8 off to the left of the post and to the right of her, and then used a pry bar to remove it from the post.  My truck and trailer were covered with the rest of the wood for the deck, so he took her to the hospital for me, its quite a sight to see your wife drive away attatched to a 2x8 sticking out the window of someones truck.

   Do you know what the first thing they asked her at the emergency room was???  Are you in an abusive relationship? LOL  She was a trooper, she never cried until the had to cut her wedding and engagement rings off befor she went into surgury. 12 hours later we were on our way home.

    

   To this day, she won't even pick the gun up to hand it to me. Thanks goodness I dont do any of that any more, now I just use nice safe 3hp table saws and finish nailers LOL

   John

1. 
   BarryO | May 08, 2004 09:04am | #6

   Do you know what the first thing they asked her at the emergency room was??? 

   Same thing happened when I took my wife to the emergency room about 14 yrs. ago with a broken nose as a result of a horse riding accident - horse was tied to a 2x6 rail, spooked, and pulled the rail right off the post and whacked her in the face with it.

   As soon as I go out to the car to move it away from the front door to the parking garage, they start giving her the 3rd degree about what really happened.  They wouldn't believe her.  When I came back inside, they started grilling me, too.

   Fellas, if you're in the same situation, you may be better off seeing if there's a female neighbor around to drive your spouse in.  'sounds bad, but it may save you from a night in jail.

   Edited 5/8/2004 2:06 am ET by BarryO

1. 
   SCFrankland | May 08, 2004 09:05pm | #7

   Barry I know what you are saying and I know where you are coming from. I brought my son in to the children’s hospital one afternoon after he had ran and fell into the tv stand and drove his tooth through his tongue and lip. The hospital asked me some pretty strange questions but I understood why they where doing it and supported them 100% as any kid or wife or any other human being deserves to be helped if they are in a situation that they may not be able to help themselves out of. Being a police officer I have also been called by hospital staff to attend the hospital to ask men about spouses that ended up in emergence with injuries that were supposedly from accidents in the house or what ever when they turned out to be domestic abuse. Sometimes it is what it is and you fell bad for the couple you have just grilled but more times than not someone ends up coming with me for a ride down the detachment and facing domestic assault charges and all the good stuff that goes with it. It all boils down to the fact that I don’t mind finding out what is truth and what is fiction for the sake of someone else personal safety and well being, the unfortunate part of it is that you sometimes have to make innocent people feel uncomfortable to weed out the truth.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

2. 
   forestgirl | May 08, 2004 11:43pm | #9

   "horse was tied to a 2x6 rail...."  Major Mistake!  Tying a horse up to 2x stock is just asking for trouble.  Back to the topic, though, glad you were able to convince them you weren't the culprit.  I stand in major opposition to any kind of domestic violence, but for heaven's sake, nobody  is going to make up a story like that?!  Ouch!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   SCFrankland | May 09, 2004 02:20am | #10

   I had a guy tell me about a shooting he went to. Two guys where walk out of the woods at dusk after a day of moose hunting. They seen a guy across a clearing so the guy in front raised his hands and waved them to attracted the attention of the other hunter. The other hunter seeing movement across the clearing, thought it was a moose with a full rack feeding. Up came the rifle and down goes the hunter. The guy survived and no charges where laid but the shooter felt pretty bad.

   Half of the nails in this guys head came from his buddy who reached out to try and catch his fall and ended up shooting him instead. As a wise man once told me "The best mistakes to learn from are those of others. They don't hurt or cost you anything".Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

2. 
   BarryO | May 11, 2004 09:57pm | #13

   Major Mistake! 

   No kidding.  In her defense, that was a long time ago, and she was a novice rider.  It's one of the stupid things she looks back at now and shudders about (like riding without a helmet).

2. 
   forestgirl | May 08, 2004 11:38pm | #8

   Wow!  She really is a trooper!

   I can identify with the tears over the rings -- that's make me cry too.  My main reaction to being nailed to a 2x8 would probably be up-chucking!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

4. 
   WayneL5 | May 09, 2004 04:39am | #11

   This is an excellent article to print out for the crew.  In my experience, seeing an article like this can be more effective over time in changing bad habits than boring, dry safety training.  Just posting it and letting the crew talk amongst themselves during the day without supervisors' intervention or comment works well.

1. 
   forestgirl | May 10, 2004 12:29am | #12

   Good point, Wayne.  I'll have to look and see if I have the paper-version of the article.  The X-ray shot in that was taken from the side (profile view) and it's even more, uhhhhhh, shall we say "gut wrenching" than the frontal view.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)