Replace the pnumatic ram in a palm nailer with worm gear motor attached to a very strong spring, feed it with a Li Ion or NiMH battery and save yourself the hassle of hoses and $300 for a pancake compressor.
Instead of electrical power, you could use mechanical gearing to cock the hammer. For ex: rachet the drive on the spring in such a way that would enable you to push it down hard on a nearby 2by 5 or 6 times to store the required energy.
/// thanks for the comments, have helped.-- triplenine, Jan 10 2005 Palm Nailer http://www.porter-c...t/porcabpnpaln.htmlThis model will drive up to a 6.5" 70d nail, weighs only 3 pounds, and is only a bit larger than a grapefruit in your hand. [jurist, Jan 10 2005] Instead of electrical power, you could use a regular hammer.-- Aq_Bi, Jan 10 2005 Isn't this just an unweildy nail gun?-- stilgar, Jan 10 2005 Aq Bi, try driving a 5" 60d nail with a foot of back swing with a regular hammer. For that matter, try to get a framing nailer into the that tight of a space.-- triplenine, Jan 10 2005 Into how tight a space? Would a powderset work?-- bristolz, Jan 10 2005 When having to work in cramped spaces, palm nailers are the only way to go, even though the only ones I've ever worked with were pneumatic rather than electric.[link]-- jurist, Jan 10 2005 So this isn't in any way religious?-- tiromancer, Jan 11 2005 Wow, I've never seen an idea change that much overnight.-- stilgar, Jan 11 2005 I feel so used.-- jurist, Jan 11 2005 Annotating this new, improved, much-revised idea: When [triplenine] talks about using mechanical gearing to cock the hammer and pushing the cocking lever down on a nearby surface five or six times to store energy, I am reminded of the pump-action air guns we used as kids. You could fire a pellet or BB with one pump of the gun, but would get a much more powerful blast from five or six pumps. The problem was that all that effort was only good for one blast, which was enough to partially penetrate a frog or chipmunk at relatively close distance, but would never go through anything as solid as a doug fir 2x4 without countless repetitions. I think a Portable Palm Nailer made the same way would exhaust the user long before anything usable was actually constructed.
And, probably needless to say, the addition of a battery powered motor would add significant weight and girth to the original Palm Nailer, making it unwieldy if not impossible to operate in the cramped spaces in which it is so uniquely useful, and having far less kick for a far shorter time than the equivalent pneumatic version.-- jurist, Jan 11 2005 What about using chemical charges?-- tiromancer, Jan 11 2005 What about an Ipaq version?-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 11 2005 //What about using chemical charges//
What about small detonation charges. basically a small cannon for nails. Yes. I want.-- etherman, Jan 11 2005 .22" cartridge-powered nail guns are baked-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 11 2005 random, halfbakery