Drizzt
Member
Quick-draw nail guns fire requests for safer triggers
By Virginia Baldwin Gilbert
Of the Post-Dispatch
02/02/2003 10:17 PM
Some leaders in the construction industry want workers and contractors to change their trigger-happy ways — nail gun triggers, that is.
A study of carpenter injuries in St. Louis region found that for every 100 apprentice carpenters working in residential construction in a year, nearly four are injured seriously enough with a nail gun to seek medical care.
Some carpenters have nailed a foot to the floor, shot 2-inch nails into a co-worker's thigh, nailed their knuckles together, shot a nail into their own knee or head.
Employers and workers alike have a new tool for improving safety — a study that collected data from 875 carpenters injured on the job in the St. Louis region in the last three years.
The study prompted the Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity to increase apprentices' training.
"What we found was that people new to a job site, in particular, were being put in precarious situations," said John Gaal, director of training and work-force development for the carpenters union.
To reach beyond apprentices, the District Council has published safety articles in local and national publications for carpenters.
Behlman Builders Inc., one of the region's larger carpenter subcontractors, requires all its workers to pass written and hands-on safety tests before they are allowed to use nail guns. If a worker has an injury with a nail gun, he or she must pass the test again.
But the two men who interviewed hundreds of injured fellow carpenters haven't stopped at training and work habits. They want the tools changed, and a tool manufacturers' trade organization agrees.
One type of nail-gun trigger, called a contact trigger, allows the user to press the trigger and fire a nail by hitting the end of the tool against a surface. Many carpenters "bounce nail," by holding the trigger down and repeatedly hitting the nose of the gun to the surface to be nailed.
In contrast, a sequential trigger requires that users place the gun in position, then pull the trigger each time they want to shoot a nail.
More than half the nail-gun injuries in the study could have been prevented with the safer trigger, said Hester Lipscomb, the Duke University professor who led the St. Louis study.
Many contact-trigger guns are capable of firing nine nails a second, said Jim Nolan one of the carpenters who conducted the interviews for the study. "Why would you need to do that?" said Nolan, who built houses for 42 years without ever using a nail gun.
Paslode, a division of Illinois Tool Works, developed the nail gun nearly 40 years ago and is still the No. 1 manufacturer. It has sold more contact triggers than sequential triggers, "because that's what the market wanted," said Pat Ryan, a spokesman.
"In the last 12 to 18 months, there's been a change," Ryan said. "A lot of big contractors want the sequential trigger for safety."
Paslode will be changing its nail guns to comply with new safety standards recently developed by the International Staple, Nail and Tool Association, based in LaGrange, Ill.
John Kurtz, executive vice president of the trade association, attended a construction safety conference in Chicago last spring where Lipscomb, Nolan and his fellow interviewer, Denny Patterson, presented their data and urged design changes.
The new standards "probably do what they would like," Kurtz said. Members of the association approved the standards in December, and they are set to go into effect May 1, he said.
http://post-dispatch.com/stltoday/b...aw+nail+guns+fire+requests+for+safer+triggers
By Virginia Baldwin Gilbert
Of the Post-Dispatch
02/02/2003 10:17 PM
Some leaders in the construction industry want workers and contractors to change their trigger-happy ways — nail gun triggers, that is.
A study of carpenter injuries in St. Louis region found that for every 100 apprentice carpenters working in residential construction in a year, nearly four are injured seriously enough with a nail gun to seek medical care.
Some carpenters have nailed a foot to the floor, shot 2-inch nails into a co-worker's thigh, nailed their knuckles together, shot a nail into their own knee or head.
Employers and workers alike have a new tool for improving safety — a study that collected data from 875 carpenters injured on the job in the St. Louis region in the last three years.
The study prompted the Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity to increase apprentices' training.
"What we found was that people new to a job site, in particular, were being put in precarious situations," said John Gaal, director of training and work-force development for the carpenters union.
To reach beyond apprentices, the District Council has published safety articles in local and national publications for carpenters.
Behlman Builders Inc., one of the region's larger carpenter subcontractors, requires all its workers to pass written and hands-on safety tests before they are allowed to use nail guns. If a worker has an injury with a nail gun, he or she must pass the test again.
But the two men who interviewed hundreds of injured fellow carpenters haven't stopped at training and work habits. They want the tools changed, and a tool manufacturers' trade organization agrees.
One type of nail-gun trigger, called a contact trigger, allows the user to press the trigger and fire a nail by hitting the end of the tool against a surface. Many carpenters "bounce nail," by holding the trigger down and repeatedly hitting the nose of the gun to the surface to be nailed.
In contrast, a sequential trigger requires that users place the gun in position, then pull the trigger each time they want to shoot a nail.
More than half the nail-gun injuries in the study could have been prevented with the safer trigger, said Hester Lipscomb, the Duke University professor who led the St. Louis study.
Many contact-trigger guns are capable of firing nine nails a second, said Jim Nolan one of the carpenters who conducted the interviews for the study. "Why would you need to do that?" said Nolan, who built houses for 42 years without ever using a nail gun.
Paslode, a division of Illinois Tool Works, developed the nail gun nearly 40 years ago and is still the No. 1 manufacturer. It has sold more contact triggers than sequential triggers, "because that's what the market wanted," said Pat Ryan, a spokesman.
"In the last 12 to 18 months, there's been a change," Ryan said. "A lot of big contractors want the sequential trigger for safety."
Paslode will be changing its nail guns to comply with new safety standards recently developed by the International Staple, Nail and Tool Association, based in LaGrange, Ill.
John Kurtz, executive vice president of the trade association, attended a construction safety conference in Chicago last spring where Lipscomb, Nolan and his fellow interviewer, Denny Patterson, presented their data and urged design changes.
The new standards "probably do what they would like," Kurtz said. Members of the association approved the standards in December, and they are set to go into effect May 1, he said.
http://post-dispatch.com/stltoday/b...aw+nail+guns+fire+requests+for+safer+triggers
post haste!
Then they rehang themselves, unhook the gun, load up a mag for a different gun with smaller nails, almost hang themself again and put up 1 more board.