Totally tough: slick and fast powder actuated tools provide the power for working in the concrete jungle

Tools of the Trade, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Erik Elwell

My grandfather taught me something a long time ago: A good tool will pay for itself many times over. While that's true for almost every tool I own, it goes double for powder actuated tools, or PATs, as they're known.

We use PATs to fasten metal track to concrete decks for interior steel framing, installing plywood onto concrete as a substrate for wood floors, and for attaching 1-by and 2-by lumber to concrete and masonry. We also use them in some cases to make steel-to-steel connections. You think your framing site gets loud? These tools fire .27-caliber explosive charges to drive their fasteners.

TEST CRITERIA

My framers and I tested five strip-feed tools connecting wood and steel to concrete, and fastening steel to steel. Three of them, the Powers P3500, Simpson PTP-27AL, and Remington 493 PowerPro, sell as dedicated semi automatic tools. Semi automatic means you load a strip of 10 collated boosters (shots) but load nails (pins) individually. Two of them, the Hilti DX460 MX and Ramset RT400M, sell as semi-automatic tools, but are upgradeable to fully automatic, which means both boosters and pins are collated.

Over a test period of 12 weeks, we looked for production output and ironclad dependability from these tools. We also looked carefully at power, recoil, noise, and ergonomics. Then we examined features that make PATs easier, faster, or better to use. Finally, since we carry so many boosters and pins with us (along with eye and ear protection), we also evaluated their tool and accessory boxes.

POWER, RECOIL, NOISE, & ERGONOMICS

Power. Every tool sunk every fastener into all the materials we threw at them: wood to concrete, steel track to concrete, steel to concrete, and steel to steel. Across the board, I think each tool provides ample power for anything you'll find on site. Differences arise, however, in how the tools handle the secondary energy--recoil and noise--from the explosions in the firing chamber and the drive-piston impacting the nail head.

Recoil. If you've ever shot a pistol or rifle or taken basic physics, you know what recoil is, and that Sir Isaac Newton was right: every action has an equal--and opposite--reaction. These tools actually react to two forces: the explosion energy from the discharged cartridge and impact energy from the piston driving the nail, both of which cause the tool to recoil in the opposite direction the nail goes. To deal with these forces, tool designers at each company have provided a cushioned handle that helps absorb some recoil, but the similarities end there.

Hilti's tool deals with recoil the best, dispensing explosion and impact energy with a recoil spring inside the tool and a lighter piston. These two features really help with the recoil your hand feels. Simpson's tool also handles recoil well. The trade-off for absorbing recoil on both tools, however, is that they're a little larger and heavier than the others, but after a couple thousand shots, your hand will thank you.

The Powers, Ramset, and Remington have much more noticeable recoil.

Balance and Feel. Balance and feel are tightly linked with recoil.

If you're pumping out a thousand pins an hour or just doing one-shot jobs, Hilti's well designed handle and larger, but nicely-balanced, tool design make it the most comfortable tool to use overall. I also like the Simpson tool for these applications. It's a little more compact than the Hilti and deals nicely with recoil.

I like the Powers, Ramset, and Remington tools for their compactness and the way they feel in my hand. They're particularly good for one-off shots, especially in awkward places like shooting top-track up in a comer or fastening an electrical junction box. They're light and easy to handle, maneuver, and activate. However, because recoil is more pronounced in these three tools, their slim, easy-to-use designs become uncomfortable in high-production applications.

Noise. Noise levels and recoil management go hand-in-ear. The two tools that managed recoil the best Hilti and Simpson--were also much quieter. This makes a huge difference when working in tight spaces or around a lot of people.

EASE-OF-USE FEATURES

The title of this section is kind of a misnomer. PATs are anything but easy to use--they're tough tools that, do a brutal job in the hardest possible materials. But there are two features that really separate the tools, nearly creating a tool category within a tool category--booster advance and pin collation.

Booster Advance. Each tool has a universal shot-strip that feeds through the bottom of the handle and ejects from the top of the tool with each shot. For the Powers and the Remington, you must slide the barrel to advance the strip after each shot. You can do this two ways: the old push/pull routine where the momentum of the moving barrel advances the shot strip; or you can pump it like a pump-action shotgun with your free hand. While both methods work well on each tool--and are fine for plating a finished basement or setting junction boxes--if you're shooting in rapid succession, the barrel gets smoking hot. This means touching it to "pump" it is out of the question. And, if you're shooting down subfloor (about 100 nails per sheet), you're hunched over and the push/pull is just too much work.