Paslode Framing Nailer 1 Hand 0

[Rob Wright]

Well, I found out on Sunday afternoon that when the nail glances off of the stud, that it will fly straight and true into the hand holding the 2x4. I calmly looked at my hand and attempted to pull out the 3.25" nail - it was stuck. I walked upstairs to my wife and asked if she could help pull it out. It was buried up to the end of the "cement". I little wiggle back and forth and a quick twist by my wife and it popped right out. Went and washed it out under the sink, it bled for a few minutes and stopped. It throbbed for a while and was difficult to make a fist without pain, but overall I felt as though I dodged a bullet so to speak.

Rob Hand resize jpg.jpg

After reading horror stories of deep puncture wounds and bones infections on the web, i decided to go to the Doctor today. It ended up that I broke the two outside bones in my hand, but luckily no infection.

Now I end up with a cast for 4 to 6 weeks.

I guess the basement project will wait a little while longer.

It's funny - every time you have that "near miss" you get safer and safer after that. Well I thought that I was being safe by holding the blocking 6"+ away from the gun in case it veered out of the wood - I guess that it was not far enough!

BE CAREFUL - ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN ANYTIME!

- Rob

[Toney Robertson]

OUCH. Those guns don't know the difference between wood and flesh. I am glad you were not hurt worse.

I saw something on the job site that I would never have believed it if I would not have seen it.

Travis was long on muscle but short on sense. One day he was nailing the top plate on a 2x4 wall laying on the floor. He was stepping on the studs to align them even with the plate. He was bang nailing and missed the 2x4, hitting his shoe. We all gasped and asked him if he was all right.

He took off his shoe and we were expecting it to be full of blood but NO blood. We looked at his shoe and the 16P nail had went straight into the sole of his clod hopper. No part had left the sole either inside or outside. AMAZING and amazingly lucky.

Be careful out there.

Toney

[Michael Stanley]

Rob, Sorry to here about your accident. It's really scary considering that you thought your hand was a safe distance away and it got you anyway. My framing nailer scares me much more then any other tool in my shop.

[Isaac Barnes]

My framing nailer scares me much more then any other tool in my shop.

That would be a strange thought to be scared of a tool, I'd think that would make me more prone to get injured by a tool. I was always taught to have respect but not fear of a tool.

[jason lambert]

OUCH. Those guns don't know the difference between wood and flesh.

Sure they do they go through flesh much more easy. Let's see saw stop concer this challange.

Glad your ok though there are some bad spots to hit inthe hand and it seems like you dogged them.

[Matt Ocel]

Rob - I was using my Hitachi framing nailer that was made to use clipped head nails and it skipped then shot - right threw me thumb. I feel your pain.
P.S. my gun aws made to shoot clipped heads, but due to new compliances Hitachi now only makes a full head nail for that gun which is suppose to work for that gun - well when you get towards the end of the clip it doesn't work so well.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rob...heal well and fast! Thanks for posting.

[Mike Monroe]

Back in my days as a frame carpenter I shot myself in the hand once with a Senco framing nailer. I was nailing a sole plate and just caught the edge. I just pulled the nail out and kept working. Everybody on the job site had a good laugh at my painful expense. I have a nice scar in the palm of my left hand from the nail entry.

I saw a number of "shootings" during those days... the worst was a fellow that stapled his foot to a roof when we were installing sheeting. Had to use a hammer to pry his foot loose, those sheeting staples really hold well. The dumbest was when a fellow worker reached under a 2x10 while cutting it with a circular saw and felt for the blade!! He said he was checking to make sure the blade depth was set correctly. Luckily it was winter and he was wearing work gloves, so there was no tissue damage. And then there was the time a guy accidentally walked off the end of some scaffolding. Those kind of incidents and other things convinced me to go back to school and get a degree.

[Peter Quinn]

Ouch...Ouch...OUCH....that sucks...wish I'd never seen that before...Remember asking a guy on a dormer addition "Hey, what the heck is all this blood doing on these brand new windows?" then asking "Hey, are you gonna be all right man?"

My framer scares me...but the powdered actuated gun really gets the pulse up. Powerful weapons both.

[Joe Chritz]

Almost exactly the same spot mine got me. I missed the bones but buried it up to the paper tape on a 3.25" ring shank.

Don't know about yours but mine didn't hurt until the PA took it out. Then it hurt for a couple days. It was stuck good enough I would have needed a claw hammer to take it out without lancing the skin.

I saved the nail and will make a shadow box for it someday.

Hope it heals fast.

Joe

[ben bothwell]

Several years back a guy hanging siding on a jobsite I was on was standing on top of a fully extended 24' ladder and nailed his hand to the wall. He couldn't get his hand loose so he had to stand there and wait for two other contractors to put up ladders on either side of him and sawsall the piece of siding loose. He went straight to the emergency room with a 4' long section of 8" lap siding attached to his hand. From what I hear he is a cut man now, he won't go near a nailgun.

[Rob Russell]

Been there, done that - but with a finish gun.

I always tell folks to keep your hand at least the nail length distance away from the tip of the gun.

Rob

[Jim Becker]

OUCH!!! (Did I happen to say, Ouch???) Heal well and heal soon!

[J. Z. Guest]

Hi All,

My wife (a doctor) whom I read this to just told me that if this ever happens to me, (deep puncture) to NOT pull the foreign body out until after the X-ray.

She said that depending where the foreign body is in relation to blood vessels and nerves, that I could cause permanent nerve damage by pulling it out.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I would also make the suggestion that if you haven't had a tetanus booster in the last 5 years, you need one of those too.

Doc