Pneumatic nail guns are the most popular type of nail gun on the market. The pneumatic process delivers a larger driving force than any other type of nail gun.
Delivering The Nail
Pneumatic nail guns are designed to store nails in one of two ways: strip or coil magazines.
In a strip magazine, nails are held together in a strip by an adhesive. The strip of nails sits in a spring-loaded magazine that positions a nail in the barrel of the nail gun. As each nail is driven, the spring action of the magazine feeds another nail into the barrel.
In a coil magazine, nails are attached to a belt and wound around a spool in the magazine. The belt is fed into the barrel of the nail gun. As a nail is driven, a mechanism pulls the next nail on the belt into the barrel.
Under Pressure
The pneumatic nail driving process is designed around the use of forced air. Compressed air is generated using a compressor. Typically, a pneumatic nail gun compressor uses a gasoline motor to compress a large tank of air. Some pneumatic nail guns rely on an electrical compressor. Compressed air is fed to the pneumatic gun by a supply line.
The heart of a pneumatic nail gun is a piston and cylinder. The piston head is responsible for driving the nail and sits snugly inside the cylinder. When you pull the trigger of the nail gun, a valve releases compressed air into the cylinder. This blast of air pushes the piston head forward at great force.
The piston head impacts the nail, driving it forward into the wood or other material to be nailed. Compressed air flows into the return air chamber through a series of holes in the cylinder. When you release the trigger, the compressed air in the return air chamber forces the piston head back to its original position.
When the piston head returns to the top of the cylinder, the nail magazine places another nail into the barrel of the pneumatic nail gun.
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