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I would think powder actuated would work on 1/4" mild steel. They have high performance pins for harder steel. You do need to place the tip of the gun flat against the surface, you don't want any stray fasteners, if you have the room to get the gun positioned it ought to work fine. Confined area and you shoot a lot of them, ventillation is always nice, get a little smoke sometimes, maybe they are cleaner firing now. Your fastener supplier, especially Hilti, should be able to provide you with the charts ( usually in their catalog ) showing the strengths, like shear value, and tension value, that is if anyone is questioning the design, but it sounds like the inspector just wants them secured, so it's probably not an issue. Powder actuated is probably quicker. Let the rep know the thickness and type of material you are fastening to ( base material ) and what you are fastening ( 1 1/2" nominal lumber blocking I assume ) I'm curious here, are the joists bearing on the bottom flange of the beam as I assume ? It would seem that is the hanger and the blocking is to keep them from rotating? But the decking would do that too. If securing to the beam at the bearing ends is all he wants, a joist hanger or similar would be thinner and easier to fasten and if a stout hanger was used, it would also stiffen the joist keeping it from rotating, don't mind me just thinking aloud and am just curious, used to like solving thse problems, and sometimes these guys are hard to deal with, just give em what they want and use the experience learned on the next job. I also wonder if because the blocks are short, will the powder actuated split them, probably have to pre-drill them. You'll know when you try it out, could always test on a scrap piece of steel. Your supplier should be very helpful, they always want to sell, but only thing about Hilti, they don't sell small quantities, and get top dollar, although home depot carries a consumer line so hopefully you can buy what you need. I have bought quite a bit from them in years past, their products are excellent, so is the support, a lot of designers won't recognize other manufacturers, or be very scrutinous about alternates. I used to deal with other supply houses and other brands, there are quite a few, especially for self tapping fasteners, if you have a fastener supply house locally, might pay to check them out too. The self tapping fastener, like the Hilti Drill Flex, Kwik Flex ( they may have renamed it my catalog is a 2001, ask the Hilti Rep.) is an excellent fastener, and should tap into the steel without too much trouble, at 1/4" dia. it's quite strong, thinner base material go for a coarser thread thicker base material, finer thread, if you are fastening through 1 1/2" nominal lumber to steel you'll need longer ones, they would be ideal for joist hangers. Don't mind me, wheels always spinning here LOL, both are good choices, used to deal with fastening issues in high rise building construction everyday, big part of the job was to find the solutions, always different in the field then on paper. You may find other uses for either of these, so if you tool up for one or the other, see what one you may use at some point in the future.
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