Overdriving nails is faster and cleaner than a cat's paw.
Fine Homebuilding editorial advisor Mike Guertin is always looking for better ways to get things done. This one saves a lot of time—and damage.
While re-roofing this house in Rhode Island, he decided to retrofit insulation baffles to better vent the attic. This job required removing the lowest course of sheathing on the roof.
One way to remove the sheathing is to go at the nails with a cat's paw, but that takes a lot of time and causes a lot of damage to the sheathing. Mike made his own tool—or, rather, modified an existing one—to do the job faster and with less mess. He ground 3/8-in. off of the business-end of an old framing nailer, so the nail driver now punches 5/8 in. deep when he pulls the trigger. He modified the safety as well so it still works with the modified tip. See the results for yourself in the video, and read the full article, "Roof Vent Retrofit From the Outside In," in FHB #278.
Good idea, but I do believe OSHA would be all over this one.
1. Modifying a tool for purposes not designed for.
2. Who's below you? If a nail was miss placed who's gonna look like the big guy on Happy Gillmore?
Sometimes faster is not safer what cost more time - vs - insurance claim?
Here's a similar idea. I have one of those Harbor Freight palm nailers that I use for a powered "nail set" for framing and sheathing nails. It's quick if you have a lot of them to do and leaves a smaller indentation than a framing hammer. You can even adjust it to the right depth.
Since when does a contractor decide to do the right thing? Holy cow.
Awesome idea!! I have a project coming up that involves removing a bunch of sheathing so im going to re-fit one of my old boat anchor Senco guns to do this.
Thanks for the jobsite innovation bud!!!
Good idea you have given us! keep it up!