George Carlin has this routine, I think it's about kids and bicycle helmets, where at one point he declares that it's all about evolution: "the kid that swallows the most marbles doesn't grow up to have kids of his own."
Something tells me that most of the people discussed in this article aren't Carlin fans...
News - Investigative Report: Nail gun safety under fire as injuries soar - sacbee.com: "As the tool's popularity surged during the building boom of the 2000s, a Sacramento Bee investigation found, nail gun injuries also took off despite decades of warnings from researchers and doctors that the guns are dangerous, especially in the automatic mode known as 'contact trip.'"They make contract trip sound like fully automatic, like you pull the trigger and fire an entire clip of nails. Although I've seen it happen due to fasteners getting jammed together in the gun; regardless of how the trigger is configured the gun is only designed to fire one fastener at a time.
I have the utmost sympathy for people with injuries, but after a read of the article I didn't really see anything that was more attributable to the trigger mechanism that it would be to laziness or foolhardiness. And, as the article itself says, often even when the triggers are configured in that awful pull the trigger hit the safety release the trigger per fire mode, people on the job often alter the tools to fire more freely anyway - just like they take the guards off of saws, or weld without gloves, or, or, or.
The strangest assertion in the article is that the vendors want the guns to free fire because they sell more nails that way. I guess maybe you fire a few more nails that way, but thats not about the tool or the trigger, that's about being a noob. People just learning to use air tools like to fire a lot of fasteners. After a while you realize that's stupid and you use as many nails as you need, regardless of how they fire. I am not sure that altering the way the tool works to offset injuries by people that might maybe should not be using the tool unsupervised is the best idea.
They say "suchandsuch was injured while carrying the gun by the trigger and then contacting his leg." Don't do that. It's a trigger, not a handle.
"suchandsuch left the tool on contact fire and hanging at chest level over the scaffolding and then bumped into it." Don't do that, you could get hurt.
"suchandsuch was injured wile trying to fire a fastener through a metal fitting." I cannot tell you how many times I have been tempted to do this and haven't. Know why? Because it is stupid and you could get hurt. Don't do that, wrong tool for the job.
Unfortunately I think they're more right here than wrong, it's just that the wrong people are taking the rap. The guns are too dangerous I guess, but it's the fault of the users and the supervisors not the manufacturers. When Joe Weekend Warrior decides to use a nail gun instead of a hammer and nails or a screwgun he is assuming a larger risk, and one he may not be trained to handle. When Attila the Site Manager makes his guys go faster or use the wrong tool, that's on him, not on Senco.
But changing Joe or Attila will be operationally more difficult than forcing the manufacturers to alter their designs. So, I guess we have more convoluted safeties to look forward to. Bummer that.
2 comments:
I saw a girl put a three inch nail in her arm because of the "rapid fire" design of the nail gun. She admitted that it was not the guns fault, but her own misuse. That accident put the fear of god in me and I was sure from that point on to properly and safely. Like a discussion about fire arms, guns don't kill people, people kill people. Nailers don't cause injury, people not using them correctly do.
Speaking as someone who has been monumentally stupid/lucky with a powertool, it's all on the individual user not to be an idiot. I don't want the router companies to change the design of the router because I was an idiot. I forgot for a second what I was using. Don't be an idiot, I was and I paid the price, although I do have full feeling in my thumb.
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