Patent ID: 8074348

Claim:
Apparatus for use in attaching a first structural member to an underlying structural member using screw fasteners comprising: an electric motor-powered rotary driver having an output shaft and a manually operable normally open switch connecting the motor of said driver to a source of electric power, said driver when energized by closing of said switch operating to rotate said output shaft; a connector connected to said output shaft for coaxially supporting a screw driver bit so that rotational and axial movement of said output shaft will be transmitted to said screw driver bit; a positioning plate, said positioning plate having a top end surface, a bottom end surface, and front and rear surfaces, a fastener drive bore extending between and through said top and bottom surfaces coaxial with said output shaft, a passageway extending between and through said front and rear surfaces and intersecting said drive bore, and a pair of foot rests extending laterally away from said positioning plate at the bottom end of said positioning plate whereby by standing on the foot rests an operator of the apparatus can use his body weight to hold the positioning plate against the structural members that are to be attached to one another; pneumatically-operated telescoping means coupling said positioning plate to said driver so that said driver and said drive shaft can be moved toward and away from said top end surface of said positioning plate; whereby when said bottom end surface of said positioning plate is positioned on and engaged with a first structural member that is to be attached to an underlying second structural member, said telescoping means permits said driver to be moved from an elevated position down toward said first structural member to bring a screw driver bit attached to said output shaft into engagement with the head of a screw fastener positioned in said fastener drive bore, so that operation of said driver will cause said screw fastener to be driven through said first structural member into said second structural member under the rotational and axial forces transmitted to said screw fastener by a screw driver bit attached to said shaft.