Palm Nailers

Dick L

Well-known Member
I have been going to buy one for years. I can still use a hammer on spikes if I have the room and don't try to drive very many at one time. Fawteen was on a while back telling how he liked the one he bought. That put the bug back in my desire for one. Soon after I bought a Ridged palm nailer and it has been laying out in the shed without its own place along with a bunch of stuff that has never put back in its proper place. I needed to nail in a scab stud to be ale to nail inside sheeting in a corner of the shed. Not real room to swing a hammer. I decided to clean out the corner and get it ready. Put the stud in place and drove a few spikes slicker than snot on a door knob. Now I need an air compressor with a gas engine to pole barn spike my fence corner posts. Why does a person wait until its almost time to die before making life easier?
 
Because when we are young doing it the hard is easy. I'm not as old as you are but the arthritis is showing up in my thumbs, especially the left one that was bent back in my high school days. Using a hammer isn't comfortable anymore and when you are hurting a bit the aim with the hammer goes out the window. I don't drive many nails anymore because of that, making a palm nailer look more lucrative.
 
Almost time to die? Shoot, Dick, you still got several weeks left in ya. But I hear you on the putting off those sort of things. I've probably built all the buildings I'm ever gonna build, but I'm keeping my eyes open for a good inexpensive framing nailer at auction.
 
I read you loud and clear about the aim with a hammer. I bent more #8 nails than I ever had anytime before when building the new horse shelter. I didn't bloody a thumb though.
 
I hope I'm about old enough, I've wanted one for years, too, just some places a nailer or a hammer is inconvenient. I always wanted to build a T-post driver with a large hand held palm nailer running off tractor hydraulics.
 
Hahaha...I just bought a $100 gear puller I've needed since I was 16....in the '60's !!
 
I have an old 60 gal compressor with a dead head on it.

I pick it up with a loader drive over to the shop and hook it up to the big shop compressor and let it run until there is 120 psi in it.
Drive to where I need to put the spikes in and I use an old air chisel with a socket welded to the end of a short chisel shaft.
A tank of air will drive an awful lot of ten inch spikes before you need to recharge the tank.
I also use a small portable tank that you would use to fill a tire with to run a brad nailer.
Easy to carry into the basement and enough air to do baseboards in five rooms without running out of air.
You could just as easily run a portable compressor until it is full then drag, drive or carry in a truck to where the job is at.
If you have a truck with air brakes, although not very efficient it makes a great portable air source in a pinch.
A sawzall and 1/2'' drill pluged into a 700 watt inverter hooked to a truck battery works wonders in remote locations.
 
Thought the same thing after I bought my air nail gun. Wish I had it when I was doing the remodel 30 years back... See, old dogs CAN learn new tricks!
 
Pawn shops Fred! They all have some and most Way cheap.Does not have to be beautiful. H3ll, its a hammer! An new rebuild kit (cheap )and the oldest one can be almost like new. Mine is!
 
A brad nailer or heavy staple driver works for MANY things. And very light weight compared to a framing nailer.
 
Well between the palm nailers and the air nailers or the gas powered ones i am surprised that anybody even has a HAMMER anymore or that they even sell them . And with this NEW lumber if you drive a nail in it with a hammer it splits if you use and old fashioned 12or 16 PENNY nail and OH the cheap China made nails bend like a soda straw . Been thinking about and air nailer and a palm nailer also. My buddy has a Ryobi and we have been using it putting up insulation in his pole barn since he finally figured out that you can NOT heat a 30X40 metal pole barn with out insulation.
 

My neighbor, who passed @89, made the comment the "Youth is wasted on the young, and power tools are wasted on the old farts". Another thing is ladders, I struggled for years with a 24 ft wooden ladder. As I got older, I had trouble getting it up.....( the ladder guys! ) I bought a aluminum 24 ft ladder, and I felt 20 years younger! I have a bunch of air nailers. Don't use them a lot, but it's nice to have them. You might as well go ahead and buy tools, if you never use them much, the next guy might really need them!!
 
I have a Rigid; it works very well off a small pancake compressor. Only problem: the heads of nails larger than 20 penny (I think) won't go up into the nailing orifice.
 

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