Safe disposal of an unusual nail gun

[imageel]

I too remember one summer holiday job when a teenager labouring on a site that was building up an out of town supermarket and they used these cap guns for attaching the block ties to the RSJ superstructure. As others have mentioned these were frightening - they easily pierced the central section of the upright I-beams and made a hell of a bang followed by the eerie ringing of the rest of the steel framework..
I kept well clear of them...

 

[spiritburner]

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

From first hand knowledge as my life long friend in the UK recently retired was a Diplomatic and Political protection officer who worked at a very senior level so much so I would regularly see this person sometimes daily on the TV news, they are incredibly well trained in firearms, defensive driving and all sorts of other things, far more than most of the military people.

The only real problem was that whenever we went out, they were never able to switch off , iif we went to a pub or into a gathering where there were a lot of people there would be a lot of eyeballing going on and you could see, always prepared for the moment and even now when retired from the police for at least four years now this person's ability to switch off seems to have gone completely.

I did ask once why political protection and not royal protection and the answer was it's much more fun the Royals were considered not the best job to take on Boring!

 

[Yorkieguy]

It will most likely be a Spit Matic. Still available. They use low velocity percussion caps The ‘gun’ has to be pressed against a hard surface such as an RSJ or concrete - you can’t simply fire a nail at someone as you would do a bullet. From a gun. Often for embedding threaded fixings to secure brackets for trunking or pipes:

https://www.martinplanthire.co.uk/hire/product/cartridge-nailgun

Sometimes called Spot Matic, and nowadays, powered by gas cartridges.

Widely available in the UK from Screwfix etc, and for sale on eBay.

In terms of it being used as an offensive weapon, a hammer of a craft knife would be much more dangerous. If I wanted to dispose of it, I’d just take it to my local Council recycling amenity and put it in the metal dumpster.

No dramas.

 

[graduate_owner]

If it is still in working order then it sounds to me like it could be a saleable item, especially considering the new Hilts ones cost around £500. Why destroy it when someone else could make use of it? Advertise it on ebay and see what happens.

K

 

[spiritburner]

If it is still in working order then it sounds to me like it could be a saleable item, especially considering the new Hilts ones cost around £500. Why destroy it when someone else could make use of it? Advertise it on ebay and see what happens.

K

you can pick up quite easily a good fully working Hilti DX450 for under 150 gbp.If Im firing gun powder in these things I would rather use some thing a little newer to be honest.

We we use them over here all the time in Spain because Spanish houses are constructed 99% from concrete block beam and more concrete. You hardly ever see a piece of wood in a Spanish house if you do it's likely to be the floor or the kitchen worktop because it ain't the doors, they predominantly used to fasten the steel U section or perfil that goes around the ceiling level to hold the suspended ceilings and to put things in the concrete floors and tracking on the walls for plasterboard or ceilings like air-conditioning units and ducting , electric cable trays and so on when you're doing a whole house it saves a huge amount of time over drilling and screwing and the cost of using one is roughly €0.25 to €0.33 a pop from Hilti direct and of course we don't need to use a powerline dragging them all over a new house which is never fun.


I use one at home sometimes as well if I've got to put anything up because the other problem with Spanish bricks is they made of terracotta so if you use a hammer drill and masonry bit to install a rawl plug, it normally shatters the brick that's in the wall so either you got to use a diamond tip drill or you fire one of these fixings in and it prevents the actual brick from shattering, if you try and use a drill on hammer action and you happen to hit a typical Spanish brick you haven't got a hoppe putting a rawl plug in.


I have to admit, they are actually quite good fun, super fast and quite safe in trained hands but I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of one of those going through my hand/boots as it will do some serious damage for sure .

 

[Blister]

If you only want rid of it , Cut it up with a metal cutting disc in a angle grinder then in the metal recycling

 

[Sideways]

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

A license for a section 5, a shotgun certificate for a standard 3 shot or less.
But yes, just show the cert when buying

 

[Bingy man]

It will most likely be a Spit Matic. Still available. They use low velocity percussion caps The ‘gun’ has to be pressed against a hard surface such as an RSJ or concrete - you can’t simply fire a nail at someone as you would do a bullet. From a gun. Often for embedding threaded fixings to secure brackets for trunking or pipes:

https://www.martinplanthire.co.uk/hire/product/cartridge-nailgun

Sometimes called Spot Matic, and nowadays, powered by gas cartridges.

Widely available in the UK from Screwfix etc, and for sale on eBay.

In terms of it being used as an offensive weapon, a hammer of a craft knife would be much more dangerous. If I wanted to dispose of it, I’d just take it to my local Council recycling amenity and put it in the metal dumpster.

No dramas.

I don’t know much about firearms but as far as I’m aware a bullet contains a powder charge and a projectile but these cartridges only contain a very small charge and no projectile so although they will go bang if say struck with a hammer or exposed to direct heat that’s about it. Tbh the biggest danger is firing it into a weak section of concrete and the nail or fixing then being propelled straight through said wall or ceiling . You would not want to be on the receiving end of that fixing ..

 

[Yorkieguy]

As to the original question - how to dispose of it:

It has some value if anyone wants the hassle of describing it, and offering it on eBay or whatever. If it were mine and I wouldn't want the hassle of that. Every local Council throughout England has waste disposal/recycling sites, with large containers into which to put wood, glass, plastic, garden waste, metal, used engine oil, scrap TVs/computers etc. As I said earlier, I'd just dump it in scrap metal - job done.

And there are no 'bullets' in it that could cause harm if misused by kids or delinquents - they're just powder cartridges. Think of them as 'blanks'.

The cartridges come in three colour-coded strengths, Green=low, Yellow=medium, Red=high, depending on what material they're firing the fixings into - timber, building blocks, steel, concrete, brick etc. The cartridges are mounted on metal discs of ten, supplied in boxes of 100. They're fired by a captive piston. They're low velocity designed to be used at point blank range, unlike a bullet which is high velocity, has a much longer range and whose only purpose in life is to maim or kill..

In any event, only responsible people who read the makers instructions and abide by them should be using any nailer and that means ensuring there aren't any bystanders who could be injured.
Quote:

"During operation be careful that fasteners penetrate material correctly and cannot be deflected / misfired /broken out towards operator and /or any bystanders".

Unquote.

Looking at accidents with nailers, unsurprisingly perhaps, most are to the operators themselves, firing nails through their fingers or hands, (yet more proof of Darwin's theory of the 'non-survival of the stupidest'). But yes, the nails do look like bullets - why would they not do - they have to penetrate steel or concrete at close range:

https://www.spitpaslode.fr/en/Insulation/Nailing/P370_pFR_88222sharp0.htm#/lg=1&slide=0

People are probably more familiar with 'Paslodes'.

The PASLODE brand joined the SPIT company in France in 2002, and is marketed by the same sales network, offering high-quality nailers and staplers for the wood industry, carpenters, and roofers:

https://www.spitpaslode.fr/en/Insulation/Nailing/P370_pFR_88222sharp0.htm#/consumables

I think generally, on site, gas canister operated Paslodes are the favoured option.