You need to drive some nails, but you don’t want to whip out the big guns.
It’s just not that big of a task. Either that, or there’s not enough space to fit your finish nailer in. There are a lot of reasons you could end up needing a best palm nailer, especially when you see what they can do.
With a palm nailer, there’s a lot of power in a little package—these miniature nailers possess excellent operating pressure and power, but you will run into issues with capacity and power supply at times.
We’re going to go over all the pros and cons of palm nailers, and teach you exactly how to use it to your advantage.
Palm nailers are generally pneumatic tools that fit in one hand.
They aren’t going to fit in the palm of your hand, but you can cover enough of one with a single hand to gain leverage.
Palm nailers commonly have a strap that you’re supposed to fasten to your hand. While the nailer rests in your palm with your fingers going down it like a dome, the strap connects just below your knuckles and just above your wrist, giving you plenty of leverage and eliminating the possibility of your fingers slipping.
Palm nailers need to be connected to air compressors through a hose. While there are some air-less palm nailers available, they’re not quite as powerful as compressor-driven nailers. For most, a one gallon compressor will do the trick.
Unlike most other nailers, you don’t actually hold the nail inside of a chamber. Instead, there’s a miniature piston that acts like a jackhammer for the top of your nail.
This means that most of the time you’re going to position the nail on top of the wood yourself, and then use the palm nailer to drive it into the wood.
Most palm nailers don’t come with a magnetic hold for the nails, though some of them allow you to position the nail head inside of the piston to help with positioning.
These little wonders can actually drive nails into wood with extreme force, because it’s not all one swift motion. The piston does one full revolution, which will push the nail down by about a quarter inch.
It’s your job to apply pressure to the nailer and guide that nail down. A standard 1 ½” nail can take about ten to twelve thrusts to go completely into the wood, which takes less than a single second depending on the nailer you’re using.
How To Use Palm Nailer Right Way
This is a brief, step-by-step way to use it from safety right on down to driving your first nail with this new tool.
1. SAFETY FIRST
You want to use earmuffs, because these things get surprisingly loud for being such a small piece of machinery.
Most likely, you’re using a palm nailer with an air compressor, so you’re going to run into noise from both of them.
Most one gallon compressors aren’t going to be too loud, but if you have a larger compressor, it might actually mitigate some of that draw noise from your palm nailer.
2. STRAP IT DOWN
Slip your hand into the strap on top of the palm nailer, and tighten it until you feel some resistance.
You don’t want it to constrict your hands and squeeze on either side, leaving red lines: you just want enough resistance to keep your hand nice and firm so that it can withstand all the incoming vibrations.
3. POSITIONING
Take whatever nail you’re going to use, and position it on top of the wood.
You could just be driving a simple nail through wood to test out your nailer, or you could position this upside-down as if it were going into a ceiling.
Hold the nail in place, and apply pressure or press the button on the back of your palm nailer.
4. DRIVE
Now it’s time to actually drive your nail into the wood. This is going to be a simple thing depending on what nailer type you have.
You can either apply pressure with your palm onto the back of you5r nailer, or press the button, and get ready.
Brace your hand and feel the piston move up and down as it pushes the nail into the wood, which will be about ten to twelve pumps.
