Safe disposal of an unusual nail gun

[Sachakins]

I had a few goes with one around 1973, I was 11 at the time, fired 6" nails into a tree in our garden, it buried the nails and stained my undies at the same time, hell of a bang, quickly put it back in the shed, said nothing and forgot all about it

The only harm done was about 25 years later, when the tree was being cut down, absolutely destroyed the chainsaw blade of the tree fella!

 

[mondo]

Still quite commonly used to install bottom track for steel studs on concrete floors

 

[Just4Fun]

I spoke to my uncle again yesterday and got some more information.

The tool is not a Hilti. It was made by Bonded Direct Fixings Limited. This firm was apparently set up in 1966, ceased trading in 2001 and wound up 2006/7.

The tool is called the Bonded 220 Cartridge fixing tool.

My uncle has:
- The tool itself
- About 1.5 boxes of 2.5" nails
- Half a box of 1.25" nails
- 2 boxes of cartridges (about 50 per box)

The tool has been at the back of a cupboard unused for at least 40 years. No obvious damage or rust. I assume it would work if tried, but my uncle is reluctant to try it. He has no use for it and prefers not to do anything with it.

My feeling is that the tool should be a usable tool but it is probably impossible to get more supplies for it. After his existing supplies were used the tool would be a paperweight.

This still leaves him with his original problem: how to get rid of it all?

My suggestion is that the nails could probably be used with another tool which is still quite common. I even have one myself. It is called a hammer. Based on the responses here I would put the cartridge tool in the normal rubbish and look for a hazardous waste facility to get rid of the cartridges.

 

[Blister]

I used one of these 30 years ago at a company I worked for , We had the task of putting up some dexion racking , Loaded the gun with a nail and picked a cartridge , Some fancy colours ? pulled the trigger and an almighty BANG shocked me , Blew a 2" diameter hole through the breeze block wall, That's when I found out about the nice coloured shots. I have one and have not used it.

 

[Boringgeoff]

Thinking back to the 70's, there were two types, one the cartridge drove the nail via a piston while the other, the nail was driven directly by the cartridge. We had to have a ticket to operate the latter on building sites. Cartridge colours were in ascending strength Blue Green Yellow Red Purple White and Black.

 

[okeydokey]

So its about 100 cartridges the rest is metal for recycling.
I would ask the police again dial 101 for advice if they are not interested you could follow this link you will get to your local council and should get to details of the local recycling centre. Try phoning for advice or if the owner can easily travel to the recycling centre take them and ask them I think they will tale them from you for proper disposal.
https://www.gov.uk/hazardous-waste-disposal

 

[Steve Medlock]

I buy Hilti cartridges so would happily take them off your hands. Happy to pay postage.

Steve.

 

[Just4Fun]

I buy Hilti cartridges so would happily take them off your hands. Happy to pay postage.

Steve.

Oh, do you think Hilti cartridges will be the same? Great if they are. I will pass on your message.

 

[Steve Medlock]

Although Finland could be a problem?

 

[Just4Fun]

No, I am in Finland but the tool is in the UK.

 

[mc281]

Here is a strange question raised by an elderly uncle (in the UK). He was having a clear out and came across a nail gun from the 1960s or 1970s that used to belong to his father. This is not an electric tool. Instead it uses cartridges that are just like bullets. The tool was used to punch nails into concrete or even steel RSJs. It hasn't been used for decades and who knows if it would still be safe to use. Anyway, he will never use the tool and is concerned about how to safely dispose of it.

He says about 5 years ago the local police had a firearms amnesty and he asked them about the tool. They took some of his documentation about it away for study and decided they weren't interested so he stuck the tool back in the cupboard until he re-discovered it now.

I have asked him to let me have brand name, model number, or any other information he can find. In the meantime, does anyone know about this kind of tool? Any suggestion what he should do with it? His proposal is to cut the gun in half with a hacksaw and put it in his rubbish bin, then bury the "bullets" in the garden. Apart from the waste (if anything is still usable) I would be concerned that at some time in the future after he has long gone a kid could dig up the then rusty bullets and try hitting them with a hammer or something.

If it's in an orange box it's probably a SPITZ. The cartridges came in different colours for different explosive force. It had two chrome safety buttons which had to both be squeezed after the spring loaded shroud was fully pressed onto the item being fixed before it would fire.
I can confirm that the red cartridge would fire a 3mm diam 'nail' into the web of a steel RSJ and was very loud. The cartridge was about the size of a little gem sweet and the outer was plastic.
The safety warnings advised the operator to exclude persons from the other side of a solid brick wall and also to avoid using the red cartridge on anything but steel, I seem to remember!

 

[mc281]

I spoke to my uncle again yesterday and got some more information.

The tool is not a Hilti. It was made by Bonded Direct Fixings Limited. This firm was apparently set up in 1966, ceased trading in 2001 and wound up 2006/7.

The tool is called the Bonded 220 Cartridge fixing tool.

My uncle has:
- The tool itself
- About 1.5 boxes of 2.5" nails
- Half a box of 1.25" nails
- 2 boxes of cartridges (about 50 per box)

The tool has been at the back of a cupboard unused for at least 40 years. No obvious damage or rust. I assume it would work if tried, but my uncle is reluctant to try it. He has no use for it and prefers not to do anything with it.

My feeling is that the tool should be a usable tool but it is probably impossible to get more supplies for it. After his existing supplies were used the tool would be a paperweight.

This still leaves him with his original problem: how to get rid of it all?

My suggestion is that the nails could probably be used with another tool which is still quite common. I even have one myself. It is called a hammer. Based on the responses here I would put the cartridge tool in the normal rubbish and look for a hazardous waste facility to get rid of the cartridges.

I seem to remember Dad taking the gun's unused cartridges to the local police station who were happy to dispose of. He dismantled the gun and took the parts to the scrap yard on two different occasions. He was concerned that they could fairly easily be modified as a weapon by bypassing the safety system. Keeping them apart seemed the best approach.... I'm talking about the 1970s.
They were extremely expensive but when needed were brilliant..... If scary!

 

[Just4Fun]

The main problem has been solved by sending the cartridges to Steve Medlock. Not only are they safely out of uncle's way, they will be used so even better. The tool itself will be given to the local scrapper.

 

[spiritburner]

Despite what the Police might have said a few years back, Ive spoken to a friend of mine in the UK police force who is a firearms officer and he feels that you should hand it into your local larger branch of the police assuming there is one because it is actually capable of firing a blank cartridge that means it could possibly be used, altered or seen as an offensive weapon so basically take it down to the station and force them to accept it and give you a receipt make sure that with any cartridges to go with it you make sure the item is empty and the cartridges are in a second bag and not with the main device and make sure that you cover put both of them in separate bags , better still, if you do have a cartridges, give them to another person to go with you.

I think he said you might actually need a license to own a new one of those nowadays certainly in the UK I know here in Spain you would not a firearms license but something similar for construction because they are capable of firing fixing directly into a very thick RSJ's and reinforced vibrated concrete.

He said if that sounds like too much hard work then basically disable/break the mechanism that fires the cartridge and toss the item in with the metal scrap, that's easy enough to do but just by drilling a large hole through it or bash it a few times with a very large hammer. However, still hand the cartridge is into the police because they do contain an explosive will be at minor.

They need to be disposed of safely.

 

[JSW]

If it's in an orange box it's probably a SPITZ. The cartridges came in different colours for different explosive force. It had two chrome safety buttons which had to both be squeezed after the spring loaded shroud was fully pressed onto the item being fixed before it would fire.
I can confirm that the red cartridge would fire a 3mm diam 'nail' into the web of a steel RSJ and was very loud. The cartridge was about the size of a little gem sweet and the outer was plastic.
The safety warnings advised the operator to exclude persons from the other side of a solid brick wall and also to avoid using the red cartridge on anything but steel, I seem to remember!

Yep, we used these for soldiering RSJ's for the plasterer to fix his board to, hold a 2x1 up to the outer edge of the steel, fire the nail through the 2x & RSJ, then hammer another 2x1 onto the protruding nail, 'spit gun' we called them, but pretty certain they were Hilti's

They had a small washer attached to the end of the nail, maybe 10mm back from the point, when fired the washer would be forced along the nail to the head, and therefore wouldn't fire the nail straight through the timber being fixed.

As apprentices do daft things, it wasn't uncommon to hold a spit gun up to a piece of ply with the threat of discharge while aiming at someone, not me of course! no sir, <-- daft not stupid

 

[Bingy man]

Despite what the Police might have said a few years back, Ive spoken to a friend of mine in the UK police force who is a firearms officer and he feels that you should hand it into your local larger branch of the police assuming there is one because it is actually capable of firing a blank cartridge that means it could possibly be used, altered or seen as an offensive weapon so basically take it down to the station and force them to accept it and give you a receipt make sure that with any cartridges to go with it you make sure the item is empty and the cartridges are in a second bag and not with the main device and make sure that you cover put both of them in separate bags , better still, if you do have a cartridges, give them to another person to go with you.

I think he said you might actually need a license to own a new one of those nowadays certainly in the UK I know here in Spain you would not a firearms license but something similar for construction because they are capable of firing fixing directly into a very thick RSJ's and reinforced vibrated concrete.

He said if that sounds like too much hard work then basically disable/break the mechanism that fires the cartridge and toss the item in with the metal scrap, that's easy enough to do but just by drilling a large hole through it or bash it a few times with a very large hammer. However, still hand the cartridge is into the police because they do contain an explosive will be at minor.

They need to be disposed of safely.

You don’t need a a license to operate a powder actuated nail gun in the uk .you would probably need the relevant training to use one on a building site . I still have my hilti dx450 and believe it or not the cartridges are available online and out of curiosity I ordered some recently expecting a visit by the local firearms police but they did not . The cartridges arrived a few days later with no special packaging or unlike lipo batteries no warning tape on the box of what it contained.. as I recall my training miss fired cartridges went into the equivalent of a sharps box for safe disposal. The cartridges and the tools were kept separate on site but having pulled the 450 out recently the box has a storage area for cartridges and the cleaning brush etc . I won’t comment on bits of plywood to fire it at others it never happened, it wasnt me , it was the other guy

 

[artie]

Bit of a thread drift, but is it still possible to buy shotgun cartridges in GB without documentation.

I was surprised to find out this was possible a number of years ago, since here in jolly old NI until recently "one" needed a FAC to buy airgun pellets.

 

[Against_The_Grain]

Bit of a thread drift, but is it still possible to buy shotgun cartridges in GB without documentation.

Not quite, you need a license to buy the cartridges in the first place, but you can possess them legally without a license.

 

[Steve Medlock]

I'm hoping that our Firearms Officers are being better trained now, having a good grasp of the law for the benefit of everybody.

 

[Superduner]

A long time ago in Kings Lynn I was working on the site where we were building the bypass. Sitting in my portakabin a Hilti nail came through the wall behind me and kept on going past my head and through the wall in front. It had come from an office 2 doors down.
Some of the junior engineers were "experimenting"