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How dangerous are the Aldi nail guns?
balidey - 11/5/09 at 07:55 PM

I bought one of the Aldi nail gun sets a couple of months ago and only just got round to unpacking it all and having a play. The nails and staples really go into the wood well, its pretty quiet (compressor is the noisiest part) and feels like decent quality.

But, I was looking at how lethal one of these is, and what damage one could do to you. And whilst I was unwrapping a pack of the nails, on the plastic bag there was a warning.....

'plastic bags can be dangerous'

Thank god for that word of advice, I nearly made the mistake of thinking the nail gun was the bit I needed to watch out for.

mookaloid - 11/5/09 at 08:03 PM

COREdevelopments - 11/5/09 at 08:07 PM

my dad had an electric one which had a mind of its own. it used to fire a few seconds after pressing the button!! in the end it just went crazy think it wanted to be a machine gun. so binned the schizophrenic pile of junk!

Rob

ReMan - 11/5/09 at 08:09 PM

This bloke sounds like he got his from Aldi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGhZLecpXPk

scootz - 11/5/09 at 08:13 PM

I bought a bag of cashew nuts from Marks and Spencer the other day and was amused to see that the packaging carried a warning that the product "may contain nuts".

Madness!

COREdevelopments - 11/5/09 at 08:14 PM

LOL ouch

[Edited on 11/5/09 by COREdevelopments]

smart51 - 11/5/09 at 08:30 PM

Well I wouldn't want to play Russian roulet with the nail gun and 6" nails but on the other hand those plastic bags are lethal

David Jenkins - 11/5/09 at 08:35 PM

Many years ago (too many!) I watched a demo of a Hilti nail gun. The guy was telling us how safe it was and how, if there was a void behind the wall, the nail couldn't get up any velocity and so was very, very safe.

He fixed up a bit of plywood vertically, put the gun against it and pulled the trigger... the nail went across the road, hit the kerb opposite and whirred back over our heads at very high speed...

austin man - 11/5/09 at 09:08 PM

the video gives a new meaning to the phrase as hard as nails

Dangle_kt - 11/5/09 at 09:11 PM

anyone else remember that 999 episode where the guy watched his own heart stop beating after falling on his nail gun and it going into his heart?

he lived but it was a fluke, he should have been dead as a door nail.... sorry couldn't resist.

iank - 11/5/09 at 09:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Many years ago (too many!) I watched a demo of a Hilti nail gun. The guy was telling us how safe it was and how, if there was a void behind the wall, the nail couldn't get up any velocity and so was very, very safe.

He fixed up a bit of plywood vertically, put the gun against it and pulled the trigger... the nail went across the road, hit the kerb opposite and whirred back over our heads at very high speed...



Ha, I know a man who, as a manager, decided to borrow one from the shop floor to fit a coat-hook to his office wall one lunchtime.

Fortunately the nail just cleared his secretary's head next door and embedded in the next wall. I understand he put it back quietly and said nothing.

tegwin - 11/5/09 at 09:31 PM

FFS that youtube vid is nasty...

And ffs.. if any of you do that to your hand get yourself to hospital BEFORE you pull it out! Just incase its in an artery and you end up with high velocity seepage!

Peteff - 11/5/09 at 09:38 PM

I have had my Aldi nail gun for a few years now and the gun can't fire unless the safety is pressed up against something. You can pull it back manually if you want to be silly though

jollygreengiant - 11/5/09 at 09:54 PM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Many years ago (too many!) I watched a demo of a Hilti nail gun. The guy was telling us how safe it was and how, if there was a void behind the wall, the nail couldn't get up any velocity and so was very, very safe.

He fixed up a bit of plywood vertically, put the gun against it and pulled the trigger... the nail went across the road, hit the kerb opposite and whirred back over our heads at very high speed...



When I was in the upper 6th, they were building a news school block (about 30m from the science block I was in), one of the workers was nailing some boarding to the square section steel girder corner uprights on the fathest oposite corner. Suddenly from the adjoining class room (full of girls ) there was a crash followed by a scream.

We went through to see what happened. embeded in the wall oposite the window was a nail. It had gone diagonally through 2 sides of the steel box, 40m across the new block, 20m across the space between new and old, through the window, through the ventian blind and embeded its self by a good inch into the wall just above head height.



But plastic bags are just plain lethal.

[Edited on 11/5/09 by jollygreengiant]

AndyW - 11/5/09 at 10:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Many years ago (too many!) I watched a demo of a Hilti nail gun. The guy was telling us how safe it was and how, if there was a void behind the wall, the nail couldn't get up any velocity and so was very, very safe.

He fixed up a bit of plywood vertically, put the gun against it and pulled the trigger... the nail went across the road, hit the kerb opposite and whirred back over our heads at very high speed...



Oh how times have changed, if a day goes by where I dont hear the good old story of how far you can shoot a hilti nail gun, then I am surprised. If someone tried to shoot a hilti nail gun into anything other than concrete or steel then they are really really stupid. Trust me I know......

mangogrooveworkshop - 12/5/09 at 07:20 AM

quote:
Originally posted by AndyW
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Many years ago (too many!) I watched a demo of a Hilti nail gun. The guy was telling us how safe it was and how, if there was a void behind the wall, the nail couldn't get up any velocity and so was very, very safe.

He fixed up a bit of plywood vertically, put the gun against it and pulled the trigger... the nail went across the road, hit the kerb opposite and whirred back over our heads at very high speed...



Oh how times have changed, if a day goes by where I dont hear the good old story of how far you can shoot a hilti nail gun, then I am surprised. If someone tried to shoot a hilti nail gun into anything other than concrete or steel then they are really really stupid. Trust me I know......




Agreed, I use to use a ramset gun for sticking PA speaker brackets to steel beams and concrete.
I had a few times where the nail contacted the rebar resulting in a spall covering us in dust.

The hilti gun we got later was better for reloading than ramsets bulky one.

Still got the hilti if you want to try it......at your own risk

Still makes a nice job on steel.....when you see the power it can deliver on red cartridges.

David Jenkins - 12/5/09 at 07:45 AM

quote:
Originally posted by AndyW
Oh how times have changed, if a day goes by where I dont hear the good old story of how far you can shoot a hilti nail gun, then I am surprised. If someone tried to shoot a hilti nail gun into anything other than concrete or steel then they are really really stupid. Trust me I know......


The incident I witnessed was about 30-odd years ago... the demonstrator concerned lost a lot of respect VERY quickly...

Hopefully (a) people are trained better these days, and (b) maybe Hilti guns have better controls.

Vindi_andy - 12/5/09 at 08:10 AM

I always think of Lethal Weapon 2 when i read posts about nail guns etc and whenever I watch I always smile when danny glover "nails" the bad guy to his extension because he just fires the gun and Im thinking about the safety etc.

iank - 12/5/09 at 08:14 AM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
(b) maybe Hilti guns have better controls.


Given a hilti gun is, simplistically, just a .22 firearm where a blank is fired behind the nail there isn't a lot you can do to make them safe.
I've read the 'ammunition' is available with different amounts of power (colour coded) for different applications but mainly used for firing nails through steel or into concrete.

[Edited on 12/5/09 by iank]