page_title: Nail gun
section_title: Usage
hierarchical_section_title: Nail gun / Usage
caption_attribution_description: English: Air compressor supplies air to operate a brad nailer.
context_page_description: A nail gun, nailgun or nailer is a type of tool used to drive nails into wood or some other kind of material. It is usually driven by compressed air, electromagnetism, highly flammable gases such as butane or propane, or, for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Nail guns have in many ways replaced hammers as tools of choice among builders.
  The nail gun was designed by Morris Pynoos, a civil engineer by training, for his work on Howard Hughes' Hughes H-4 Hercules. The wooden fuselage was nailed together and glued, and then the nails were removed.
  The first nail gun used air pressure and was introduced to the market in 1950 to speed the construction of housing floor sheathing and sub-floors. With the original nail gun, the operator used it while standing and could nail 40-60 nails a minute. It had a capacity of 400-600 nails.
context_section_description: Nail guns use fasteners mounted in long clips (similar to a stick of staples) or collated in a paper or plastic carrier, depending on the design of the nailgun. Some full head nail guns, especially those used for pallet making and roofing, use long plastic or wire collated coils. Some strip nailers use a clipped head so the nails can be closer together, which allows less frequent reloading.  Clip head nails are sometimes banned by state or local building codes.  Full Round Head nails and ring shank nails provide greater resistance to pull out. Nailers may also be of the 'coil' type where the fasteners come in wire or plastic collation, to be used with nail guns with a drum magazine; the advantage is many more fasteners per load, but at the expense of extra weight. Industrial nailers designed for use against steel or concrete may have a self-loading action for the explosive caps, but most need nails to be loaded by hand. Nail guns vary in the length and gauge (thickness) of nails they can drive.
  The smallest size of fasteners are normally 23 gauge (0.025 inches in diameter), commonly called "pin nailers" and generally having no head. They are used for attaching everything from beadings, mouldings and so forth to furniture all the way up to medium-sized (7 to 8 inch) baseboard, crown molding and casing. Lengths are normally in the range ⅜ to 1¼ in. (10 to 32 mm), although some industrial tool manufacturers supply up to 2 in. (50 mm). The 23 gauge micro pin is rapidly gaining ground as users find that it leaves a much smaller hole than brad nails, thereby eliminating the time normally taken to fill holes and presenting a far better looking finished product.
  The next size up is the 18 gauge (1.02 mm diameter) fixing, often referred to as a "brad nail". These fastenings are also used to fix mouldings but can be used in the same way as the smaller 22 to 24 gauge fastenings. Their greater strength leads to their use in trim carpentry on hardwoods where some hole filling is acceptable. Most 18 gauge brads have heads, but some manufacturers offer headless fastenings. Lengths range from ⅝ in to 2 in. (16 mm to 50 mm)
  The next sizes are 16 and 15 gauge (1.63 and 1.83 mm diameter). These are generally referred to as "finish nails". They come in lengths between ⅝ and 2½ in. (16 to 64 mm) and are used in the general fixing of much softwood and MDF trim work (such as baseboard/skirtings, architraves, etc.) where the holes will be filled and the work painted afterwards.
  The largest sizes of conventional collated fastenings are the clipped head and full head nails which are used in framing, fencing and other forms of structural and exterior work. These nails generally have a shank diameter of 0.11 to 0.13 in. (2.9 to 3.1 mm) although some manufacturers offer smaller diameter nails as well. General lengths are in the range 2 in to ​3 ¹⁄₃ in (50 to 90 mm). Shank styles include plain, ring annular, twisted, etc. and a variety of materials and finishes are offered including plain steel, galvanized steel, sherardised steel, stainless steel, etc. depending on the pull-out resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. required for the given application. These sizes of fastenings are available in stick collated form (often 20° to 21° for full head, 28° to 34° for clipped head) or coil form (for use in pallet/roofing nailers) depending on the application. Full-head nails have greater pull-out resistance than clipped head nails and are mandated by code in many hurricane zones for structural framing.
  Another type of fastening commonly found in construction is the strap fastening which is roughly analogous to the large head clout nail. These are used in conjunction with a strap shot nailer (or positive placement nailer UK) to fix metalwork such as joist hangers, corner plates, strengthening straps, etc. to timber structures. They differ from conventional nailers in that the point of the fastening is not sheathed so it can be exactly positioned before firing the nail gun.
  Other specialist nailers are also available which can drive spikes up to 6¼ inches lon
caption: Air compressor supplies air into a nail gun
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