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Q.  I was thinking of buying an air-powered nail gun or a palm nailer, but I’m not familiar with how palm nailers work. Are they reliable and do they work well? It seems as though you’d just as easily bend nails the way I do with a regular hammer. Thanks for your help.

A.   Palm nailers can get into tight spaces where your fingers and/or hammer don’t fit, and into spots a nail gun isn’t designed for. For example, they’re great for nailing in dozens of joist hanger nails and fastening door and window casings, which must be hand-nailed, without leaving hammer marks.

Pneumatic palm nailers run about $70, and a conventional nail gun will cost at least $200 more. For casual nailing, I find that you can pound in a couple of dozen nails faster than you can sink them with a palm nailer—especially when you add in the “get-out-the-compressor-and-roll-out-the-hose” time.

For bigger jobs, like framing or nailing off sheathing, there’s no substitute for an automatic nail gun. A palm nailer forces you to hold nails by hand to get them started before driving them in with the machine. A nail gun allows you to set a kajillion nails in a short time with one hand, since the gun automatically feeds nails from the magazine. Nail guns were once a luxury reserved for pros, but prices have dropped significantly in recent years. If you’re planning to build your own addition or garage, I’d buck up the extra money for an air-powered nail gun and plan to hand-nail in those occasional tight spots.