pltwryan

I am currently an engineering student working in a small group on our senior project. We are attempting to improve nail gun safety features to prevent accidental injuries caused by incidents such as nails u-turning or accidentally firing into the skin.

To help get a feel for what the consumers would like, it would be greatly appreciated if a few of you will fill out the survey below in a reply to this thread. Any personal input or comments are also greatly valued.

Thank you. Also, if you are interested, we can keep you all updated on what we're doing with the project and possibly add pictures/videos.

(Please Copy, Paste, and Answer in a reply)
1.How many times have you used a nail gun?
a.Never
b.1-10
c.11-25
d.25-40
e.40+

2.Have you ever witnessed an injury caused by nail gun use?

a.If yes, please explain(what was the person doing, where were they injured, how?):








3.What type of nail gun do you use and what safety features, if any, does your nail gun have?







4.How much additional money would you pay for a nail gun that would prevent these issues?
a.$0-15
b.$16-30
c.$31-45
d.$46-60
e.$61-75

EPD

(Please Copy, Paste, and Answer in a reply)
1.How many times have you used a nail gun?
e.40+
( maybe the question could be changed to "how often do you use a nail gun? never, daily , weekly , monthly, yearly"

2.Have you ever witnessed an injury caused by nail gun use? yes

a.If yes, please explain(what was the person doing, where were they injured, how?):
inexperienced guy sneakily toe nailing a partition backer shot two fingers together with a 3 1/4 first shot

3.What type of nail gun do you use and what safety features, if any, does your nail gun have?
we run almost every type, mostly paslodes and hitachi's almost all of my guns have a bump trigger, a few brad nailers are fully automatic

4.How much additional money would you pay for a nail gun that would prevent these issues?

i personally wouldnt be paying anymore money for a nail gun with bothersome enhanced safety features, if you respect your equipment and treat it as it is ( A GUN ) there should "rarely" be accidents.....
people accidentally shoot each other with firearms every day, and most of which have safety's
accidents happen... period

i personally believe that nail guns are safe, wear eye protection and dont hold back the safety to shoot your brother from off the roof.....

Warren

I personally feel that nailguns are pretty safe. There are a lot of factors that lead to most accidents. Probably #1 is user error. I think you would be hard pressed to develop a safer gun without hampering its usefulness. Not to mention many times the wood can be an issue too, knots,bad edges etc. I would love to see statistics on how many of these mishaps are from homeowners.

Framer53

I am currently an engineering student working in a small group on our senior project. We are attempting to improve nail gun safety features to prevent accidental injuries caused by incidents such as nails u-turning or accidentally firing into the skin.

To help get a feel for what the consumers would like, it would be greatly appreciated if a few of you will fill out the survey below in a reply to this thread. Any personal input or comments are also greatly valued.

Thank you. Also, if you are interested, we can keep you all updated on what we're doing with the project and possibly add pictures/videos.

(Please Copy, Paste, and Answer in a reply)
1.How many times have you used a nail gun?
a.Never
b.1-10
c.11-25
d.25-40
e.40+X

2.Have you ever witnessed an injury caused by nail gun use? yes

a.If yes, please explain(what was the person doing, where were they injured, how?):

firing a gun into studs and hit a knot






3.What type of nail gun do you use and what safety features, if any, does your nail gun have?
Hitachi, craftman,rigid Safety, except on small brad gun






4.How much additional money would you pay for a nail gun that would prevent these issues?
a.$0-15 X
b.$16-30
c.$31-45
d.$46-60
e.$61-75

RobertCDF

Whats the fun in NOT shooting yourself anymore? Then I cant make you tube videos like this one.

+ YouTube Video

__________________
Robert Shaw
Colorado Springs Custom Decks
Colorado Custom Decks
Custom Composite Decks

pltwryan

Thanks for the input all. One of our main goals is try to prevent injuries caused by nails hitting knots, hopefully it'll come out well.

I've attached one of the graphs we found for you.

Attached Images

 

resipsa

1.How many times have you used a nail gun?
a.Never
b.1-10
c.11-25
d.25-40
e.40+

e.

2.Have you ever witnessed an injury caused by nail gun use?

a.If yes, please explain(what was the person doing, where were they injured, how?):

Yes, self. Using finish nailer and holding material together to shoot. Nail misplaced, shot through stock and into finger. Ouch.








3.What type of nail gun do you use and what safety features, if any, does your nail gun have?

Bostitch, Porter Cable. Nose must be depressed before will fire.







4.How much additional money would you pay for a nail gun that would prevent these issues?
a.$0-15
b.$16-30
c.$31-45
d.$46-60
e.$61-75

No gun is stupid proof regardless of the cost. Many safety features interfere with perceived efficient use and can be dismantled or bypassed.

Tinstaafl

I'd happily pay $100 extra for a nail gun with deepscanning knot-avoidance radar.

loneframer

For another $75 you can get the .031 ga. knot avoidance radar with de lazer scope and high capacity magazine.

Tinstaafl

You got a precognitive course adjustment sonar to go with that?

essrmo

what's next?

Attached Thumbnails

 

hughjazz

to be honest, This forum is probably not going to be a great source of info for you.


We are professionals. The biggest market for safety type guns, saws,blades, etc. Is going to be a homeowner type place.



I have personally fired hundreds of thousands of framing nails and staples.

finishing nails too.

never really had an accident that wasn't completely my fault. (never shot myself)

We use these tools everyday, we are good at it.
In my opinion I don't want any devices on my nailer that prevent accidents.

Safety equipment slows production. I don't want to slow down it costs money.
and I don't feel it's necessary.



That being said. I think it's a noble project for homeowners and part time diy'ers. I just don't think most of us are wanting a product like this.
So I personally would not pay a thin dime extra for that nailer.

Having used a gun so much, my idea is to create a device on the driver of the gun that can sense too much resistance, (like a knot or a piece of metal) and redirect the energy so as to not fire the nail completely.


Ps if you use this idea, I want a cut of the profits

EPD

what about gang plates?
how many times have you shot through them?
a.Never
b.1-10
c.11-25
d.25-40
e.40+

lol

hughjazz

lol for me 40+

I was thinking more for the diy type.

or maybe an override switch?

i don't know. I just want a cut of the profits.

KennMacMoragh

(Please Copy, Paste, and Answer in a reply)
1.How many times have you used a nail gun?
a.Never
b.1-10
c.11-25
d.25-40
e.40+

e.


2.Have you ever witnessed an injury caused by nail gun use?

Yes, several.


a.If yes, please explain(what was the person doing, where were they injured, how?):

I find it usually happens when nailing the studs framing a wall, or putting in blocks between studs.


3.What type of nail gun do you use and what safety features, if any, does your nail gun have?

Hitachi. I've used some that have the anti-bounce nail feature in it, but you can turn it on and off.



4.How much additional money would you pay for a nail gun that would prevent these issues?
a.$0-15
b.$16-30
c.$31-45
d.$46-60
e.$61-75

e.


I definitely think it would be worth it if you could design a safer nail gun. The times I've worked on large framing crews, they would have at least a couple nail gun injuries a year. I've never had a serious nail gun injury myself, I've only skimmed myself once. But I don't like seeing it, seeing someone walking around with a nail through their hand. And then seeing someone take a pair of pliers and ripping it out.

I don't know how you would design it to be any safer though. Usually there's an accident when someone is framing a wall with their hand too close to the plate while holding the stud. Then they make a mistake and bounce nail when nailing the top nail and the second nail fires right into their hand. Putting in blocks is dangerous too, because you have to hold the block fairly close to the gun.

There's a few tricks that I think have saved me from getting a nail gun injury. I use the flick technique if I am in a dangerous position with the gun. Meaning I flick the trigger with my finger instead of pushing it, that way you don't risk a double fire. And when I frame walls, I hold the stud a foot from the plate instead of right next to the plate. And I do a controlled bounce, I nail the top nail first as I apply pressure going down, so the gun recoils in the spot where I want the second nail to go, and not into my hand.

I don't really like the anti-bounce feature on the Hatachi. I think the idea was to train someone on the nail gun with the anti-bounce turned on, so they couldn't double fire and shoot themselves. But I'd rather teach someone how to use the gun with the double bouncing turned on. That way I could show them right away how to safely bounce nail, and get their mind set on doing it the safe way the first time.

But one thing I could think of that would help, is design a gun that won't get jammed as often. And make the guns more durable, I hate it when the guns haven't been maintained for a while then they start getting jammed all the time. It's when they get jammed is when the nails start flying everywhere. But most the nail gun accidents are from people not being skilled in controlling the recoil on the gun, which I don't think there's anything you can do about in the design.

s.kelly

I spend more time on commercial and industrial job sites so I do not see lots of nailguns in use on the job.

What I do see is a general lowering of professionalism on construction sites. We see and have to fix some major stupid things that would not have happened years ago.

I think less trained people and more availibility of cheap power tools are probably more to blame for increasing injuries.

I use a nail gun non professionally on occasion, and paying attention and having respect for power tools goes a long way.

Also have to agree with those that think more safety features will decrease usability.

just my $.02

BattleRidge

I think most nails that bounce aren't serious injuries they penetrate your finger or something, Ive learned to make sure my hand is too far away, I had a nail curl back and hit me in the thumb. It hurt but not like life threatening or life changing really. I always wondered if they could put one of those things they make for saw blades that catch the blade, but make it catch the nail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CorOfxWfTU8&NR=1

like this, if you do it I also want a part of the profit.

__________________
www.battleridgebuilders.com

KennMacMoragh

That's a good idea for a table saw. Don't see how it would work for a nail gun though, they can put an electrical charge in the nail to sense the finger. But the nail goes so fast, don't think anything would be able to catch it.

BattleRidge

If the charge was in the tip of the gun. If you shoot a nail out of the gun before it hits you, I dont even know how you would do that.

__________________
www.battleridgebuilders.com

KennMacMoragh

Another video by your youtube one explained how the table saw worked. There's an electrical charge in the saw blade, so when human flesh touches it, it sends a current through your body. Then a circuit picks up that current flow and shuts off the saw. You couldn't apply that to a nail gun I don't think, when someone shoots themselves they normally don't touch the tip of the gun, they have their hands a few inches back.