Ever blast your eye with an air nailer exhaust?

Feb 27, 2007 50 Replies

Am I the only one that's repeatedly done something like this?



I think I'm a pretty cautious person when workng in the shop but I've blasted my eye twice with the exhaust air from my nailer. After I did it the first time I thought, "I'll never make that mistake again." But I'm so wrapped up in the business end of the nailer that I let it happen a second time a week later. Maybe I'm this week's poster boy for eye protection? It doesn't hurt. But the blast of air opens up both eyelids like parachutes which lets in a lot more light... so it's quite a stunner. Needless to say I'm going to wear goggles every time from now on.



Depends -- are you the only one that's using an air nailer without eye protection?

You don't meet *my* definition of a cautious person. "Cautious" means wearing eye protection when using power tools. Especially power tools that shoot nails.

Not yet... :-)

Be glad it was just air.

Consider a face shield instead. There are other things on your face that need protection besides your eyes, and it's not just the air you need to guard against. I wouldn't like to catch a framing nail in the teeth, for example, nor to have my boyish good looks spoiled by taking one in the cheek. Nails have been known to change direction abruptly on hitting a knot. Ever put a brad nail right on top of a drywall screw when attaching door casing? Sometimes they come back atcha...

One of the reasons I bought the nailer I did is that it exhausts out the back of the handle to avoid this very issue.

Chris

That's my big fear. Putting siding over OSB.

A couple of weeks back I scored a direct hit on a 4' fluorescent fixture with a long clamp, hard enough for one of the bulbs to explode, sending glass shards throughout the shop.

I was, luckily, looking down, otherwise I probably wouldn't be typing this. It took a few minutes to get the glass out of what hair I have left, and, after an hours cleanup time I am still finding glass shards in the most unlikely places.

There is always something waiting to test your luck, and/or bite you in the butt, in the shop.

Yep. It's stuff like that, that makes me wear a face shield whenever I'm using power tools -- and a lot of hand tools, too. I'll put that on just to drive one nail by hand. Takes less than ten seconds to put it on, so there's really no excuse at all not to.

Does it count if I won't even use an air nailer? Or do I have to be not using the air nailer, with eye protection?

I love my hammers. Light, portable, much better safety record, no need for power and I can use any sort of nail I like.

OTOH, if you'd been looking upwards when you were waving a long clamp around....

My workshop fluorescents have guards on. I'd just be changing tubes all day otherwise.

That wasn't the cause.

T'were a "small shop" hazard ... the necessity to perform ocassional feats of daring do atop shop fixtures.

I stumbled by catching a pants leg on the table saw blade guard (you heard right) and in catching myself to keep from falling off the work bench/table saw outfeed table, the clamp hit a fixture.

The clamp didn't hit the tube, it hit the "fixture".

But hammers have such low toy value, make no loud noises, don't need a bezillion accessories, hoses, extension cords, arrrrrgggg, voltages, dimming lights, arrrggg.. oil injection...*wipes brow*, just the sound of slamming the clip shut with a new load.....*off to take a cold shower*

AND.... *I* can put those 43 nails in that 3-foot piece of trim much quicker than you can, so I can stand around waiting for the compressor to recycle and the 20 minutes I need to haul my stuff to the truck and then call somebody to tow me out of the mudhole which I drove into to get close to the house so I would have to haul all my gear as far. None of the other trades would help me tow my truck out, because my compressor kept blowing the one breaker in the house..and..and...and I suppose I should have asked if it was okay to plug my compressor into their extension cord.... which also had their beer cooler plugged into it..

Hammer, eh? Do Nielson or Knight make hammers?

I've never done it.

I have prescription safety glasses with side shields. If I'm wearing my contacts, I wear goggles. Anyone who wears contacts knows that a speck of dust can feel like a basketball if it gets under the lens!

There's an awful lot of stuff that really I like to do that I wouldn't be able to do with eye damage. It would simply be stupid to work without protection.

Still, those plastic sleeves that slide over the tubes are pretty cool. I keep forgetting to buy those. But I think they'd reduce the scatter quite a bit. They're kinda softish plastic.

So will the tablesaw blade guard be removed next time a daring feat is needed?

Mark

As my furniture mentor would say: You can walk on a wooden leg, you can eat with dentures, but you won't see f*ck-all with glass eyes.

I had/have a job to do today, well, tomorrow now. When I got there I couldn't park within 100 yards of the house due to the landscape being done and the 8 other trucks parked on both sides of the street. Needless to say I kept on going, came home and got some stuff done around the shop. I hate contractors that always schedule everybody on top of each other. Fortunately it was within 2 miles of my house so the drive wasn't bad!

43 nails in the trim.....hehehehehe......I can hear the painter now!

Never heard of them ... sounds like something I could use. got a link?

No, but they'll both happily sell you one, albeit a bit specialized.

You betcha ... but don't worry, I'll keep the splitter on.

B A R R Y wrote in news:g7%Eh.4108$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.net:

*snip*

I was wondering if they made those... I usually opt for goggles that fit over my glasses rather than safety glasses, but my glasses still get dusty. (No, I haven't tried chemical spill goggles yet. Need a nice WW day first.)

Puckdropper

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