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• Higher-end models use cartridge strips that advance automatically.

• Concrete nails are made of much harder steel than ordinary nails. If they were bullets the blue plastic part would be called a sabot: it keeps the bullet, er, nail, centered in the barrel while it’s being fired.

• This is my most gun-like gunpowder actuated nail gun. These things are very heavy because they need to contain the explosive force when the charge is set off. A shield at the front tries to prevent splinters and chips from shooting out when the nail hits its target.

• Simple models use these individual .22 cartridges, which come in various colors indicating how much gunpowder they contain. (More powder for longer nails or harder materials.)

• Coiled Roofing Nails

• Roofing Nailer

• This butane-powered framing nailer has been through a lot with me. We built a house, thousands of feet of fence, a greenhouse, several floating docks, a hundred-foot (30-meter) pier, and countless other projects. It’s powerful, reliable, and an absolute joy to use. It’s cordless, but not battery-powered. Instead it has a linear internal combustion engine! A puff of butane gas (as used in cigarette lighters) is injected into the cylinder when you push the nose down onto the board. When you pull the trigger a spark plug ignites the fuel-air mixture, setting off an explosion that drives the nail.

• This is the one I’ve used the most. For example, I used it to nail a set of ½” rubber mats to a concrete slab to serve as a base for a generator out at my farm. No other tool would make that task as satisfying.

• This version add a trigger and spring-loaded firing pin.

• This basic powder-activated nailer doesn’t have a trigger. Instead you hit the firing pin with a hammer.

• Roofing nails need extra-large heads, to spread the load on asphalt tiles or roofing paper. That makes it impossible to have a compact stick of them, which is why you can always tell a roofing nailer by its round magazine holding a coil of nails.

• Coil Roofing Nailer

Do you have a better example of this kind of tool? Let me know by leaving a comment, and include a picture of it if you can so everyone can see!