As with most labor-saving devices, nail guns decrease the amount of labor while increasing risk. The tool’s ability to fire several nails per second at a velocity of more than 1,000 feet per second presents obvious hazards.
Make sure that your workers are using nail guns safely by following these safe work practices:
- Always check the nail gun before it’s used. Don’t use a broken or malfunctioning nail gun.
- Check lumber surfaces for knots, nails, straps, hangers, etc., that could cause recoil or ricochet.
- For placement work, keep your hands at least 12 inches away from the nailing point at all times. Consider using clamps to brace instead of your hands.
- Always shoot nail guns away from your body and away from coworkers.
- Always disconnect the compressed air when:
- Leaving a nailer unattended;
- Traveling up and down a ladder or stairs;
- Passing the nail gun to a coworker;
- Clearing jammed nails; and/or
- Performing any other maintenance on the nail gun.
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- Use a hammer instead of a nail gun, or reposition your work, if:
- You are nailing metal joinery or irregular lumber.
- You cannot reach the work while holding the nailer with your dominant hand.
- The work is at face or head height, where recoil is more difficult to control.
- You are working in a tight space, where recoil is more difficult to control and double-fires are more common.
- Take extra care with toe-nailing, when the gun cannot be held flush against the work piece. Use a nail gun with teeth on the safety contact to bite into the work piece to keep the gun from slipping during the shot. Use the trigger to fire only after the safety contact piece is positioned.
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- When using a nail gun at height:
- Position ladders so you don’t have to reach too far.
- Maintain three points of contact with the ladder at all times to prevent a fall.
- Never bypass or disable nail gun safety features.
- Keep your finger off the trigger when holding or carrying a nail gun.
- Never lower the nail gun from above or drag the tool by the hose.
- If the nail gun hose gets caught on something, don’t pull on the hose. Go find the problem and release the hose.
- Never use the nailer with your nondominant hand.
Nail down safety in your workplace using the resources available from safety.BLR.com®.