Patent ID: 7575143

Claim:
A method for using a pneumatic hand tool for determining multiple predefined seat locations in a work piece and inserting fixing elements into the seats, the pneumatic hand tool including a drive head; a drive rod extending downward from the drive head; a hollow nose piece slidably fit around a lower end of the drive rod, the nose piece being attached to the drive head and being movable vertically by a predetermined distance with respect to the drive head and the drive rod; a magazine mounted on the nose piece at a predetermined angle with respect to a lower face of the nose piece, wherein the horizontal slot on the lower face of the nose piece has a depth in the vertical direction that is made to be less than lengths of the fixing elements so that lower ends of the fixing elements in the slot project below the lower face of the nose piece, the lower ends of the fastening elements enabling a user of the portable device to locate successive ones of the predefined seats into which the fixing elements are to be inserted; the method comprising the steps of: automatically transferring a first fixing element from the magazine into a horizontal slot on the lower face the of the nose piece of the pneumatic hand tool, a barrel tip of the first fixing element extending below the lower face of the nose piece, moving the nose piece over the work piece until the barrel tip of the first fixing element meets a first predefined seat; inserting the first fixing element into the first seat by applying pressure on the nose piece and triggering a pneumatic drive mechanism of the pneumatic hand tool; automatically transferring a second fixing element from the magazine into the horizontal slot on the lower face of the nose piece, a barrel tip of the second fixing element extending below the lower face of the nose piece; moving the nose piece over the work piece until the barrel tip of the second fixing element meets a second predefined seat; inserting the second fixing element into the second seat by applying the pressure on the nose piece and triggering a pneumatic drive mechanism; and repeating the steps above until the multiple predefined seat locations are found and filled with the fixing elements.