Light-duty: This tool is good for small room additions and basement remodels because it isn’t very strong.
In this case, the model HD22 is a low-speed piston type tool for attaching things to things.
For use with Ramset 0.22 caliber CW powder loads and Ramset screws.
Single shot: HD2.
Tool: A 22 caliber tool that uses powder to move fastener.
To speed up your projects, it fires a powerful shot in a single mov.
When you hit the hammer with your hand, the Ramset Hammer Shot 0.22 Caliber Single Shot Tool opens up and fires a 0.22 caliber round. For small DIY projects, this tool is great. The HammerShot is very good at fastening drive pins up to 2-1/2 in. long with ease.
See the follow-up edit at the end.
In order to drive pins through a concrete wall, I bought this tool. It took a little practice, but I found a combination of loads and pins that worked well, so I started fastening my 24 strips that had already been glued to the wall. I pushed the pin all the way in and left the head flush with the surface. Now, this tool isn’t easy to use even in the best case. It usually takes 4-6 hard pounds with the hammer before it fires, which isn’t the best way to fire a small-caliber firearm. After I fired about 10 shots, I started having a lot of problems. First, I couldn’t fire the gun at all. I had to pound the trigger for a ridiculous number of times before giving up and carefully ejecting the cartridge. Then, the pin got stuck in the firing pin, and I couldn’t get it out. I had to cut it flush with a hacksaw. After the last successful shot, I’ve tried about eight loads from two different boxes. The hammer doesn’t work, no matter how hard or often I hit it. The tool worked for about an hour and a half and fired 10 times. I’m going to try to get in touch with ITW tomorrow, but I have to say that even when the hammer-fire method worked, it didn’t work very well. No one likes to keep hitting something until the charge goes off. When you’re trying to attach something to soft wood like I did, each blow drives the end of the tool a little deeper into the wood, which isn’t very good when you’re trying to do it. I thought this tool, which is the first powder-actuated tool I have used, was very cheap. I wish I had spent more money on a better one.
Following up on this, I bought a much more expensive version of this tool, the MasterShtot ITW BRANDS 40088.22 Caliber Fastener Tool, to finish the job. It’s a big step forward, but it’s not without its problems. This is what I’ve learned now that I have the trigger-operated version of this tool. It takes a lot of pressure to get the tools in this line of tools to fire when you pull the trigger or hit them with the hammer. If you just push it by hand, it won’t work, unless you’re much stronger than I am. It’s hard to push hard enough with one hand while swinging a hammer with the other, especially when the tool is horizontal and you can’t “lean” on it or use both hands to push it like you can with the trigger-activated one. This is why I had a lot of problems with the HammerShot. I understand the safety reasons for requiring a lot of pressure, but I think that if an average person like me can’t reliably exert enough pressure on the HammerShot to get it to fire every time, the design isn’t very good. Still, I’ve changed my review from 2 stars to 3 stars because I now think that my HammerShot may not have broken. I think I got tired after 10 shots and couldn’t push hard enough anymore, and I also think that as the work progressed, I was trying to drive pins in a higher position, where I had even less leverage. The HammerShot might be broken because I haven’t used it since I got the MasterShot. I don’t know, but I think I won’t need it again. I don’t know. Still, my best advice if you’re looking at this thing is to go right for the MasterShot or another trigger-activated tool.
