Drywall Screw Gun

I've never owned a drywall screw gun or any other kind of corded power "screwdriver" until today, although I've used regular drills; 3/8", 1/2", corded and cordless, as screwdrivers. But my son-in-law recently had his drywall screw gun stolen in a burglary (along with a lot of other tools, of course), and today I was shopping at Home Depot and they had a special deal; two Ridgid 6.5 amp, "heavy duty", VSR, drywall screw guns, boxed separately, but 2 boxes glued together. So I bought'em.

Now they call them "drywall screw guns" but is there a reason you shouldn't use them as a power screwdriver in wood? I find no mention of it in the manual.

I have a Porter Cable drywall gun in my arsenal many years now. It sees little use as any drywall jobs lately have been small so I just use my 18V driver/drill.

I have used the PC for screwing down substrate and it worked just fine.

I figure it like this; if I can adopt a tool to make a job easier, I am going to go for it. If the tool should die a premature death, then it is time for a new tool that's all!

The drywall screwdriver is probably easier to use than a regular drill in that it holds the screw and stops driving when the proper dimple is achieved. Using a screwdriver takes more skill and many times two hands. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

If you set the torque on the slip clutch on a drill-driver it will stop about right every time but still not come close to the convenience of a belt feed semi auto drywall gun. I have a Senco. It uses plastic ammo belts that come in plastic buckets. You can reload the empty belts with some screws not readily at hand in preloaded belts if you need to do so. With mine you can pull the trigger and shoot screw after screw without letting up on the trigger. It is more economical of battery power with no repetitive starts.

Dry wall screwguns, especially the autoloaders are terrific but... they are not DECK GUNS!! There are guns designed for screwing down wood. Drywall guns are for drywall screws a little ways into wood of light sheetmetal (fine thread screws.) We had two problems when we tried to use our autoloader to shoot down Hardy backer for a tile floor. 1. it is harder work than shooting drywall and it twisted off a lot of screws and 2. we ruined a couple of the special driver bits due to the extra stress of working them harder.

It was a good idea to try but a bad idea to continue.

If you are using a manual feed drywall gun it may not be a big deal but my Senco automatic does not do well with board to board screwing if the boards are fairly hard like plywood tongue and groove flooring or similar.

It does a terrific job with drywall and I recommend it. It shoots a lot of screws per batt and has a charger and two batts so you are not wasting a lot of time waiting on the charger.

I DO condone trying to find multiple or extended uses for tools but try to be smart about it and if it seems to be a bad idea don't push it.

Pat

Pat, I really don't know just how much my son-in-law uses the drywall screw gun. He's self-employed, mostly doing remodeling jobs, especially kitchens and bathrooms, although he does some new construction, too, including things like patio covers. And for some time now, he's been working, just on Saturdays, on MAJOR remodeling of a very old brick veneer house that he and our daughter plan to move into when the jobs complete.

I help a little bit on Saturdays. We didn't use the new drywall screw guns yesteday, but I still managed to do something stupid with a different power screw driver. I thought I was being careful about where I placed my hand behind the boards I was running screws through, and I still managed to drive a screw about a quarter inch under the fingernail of my ring finger on the left hand. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Today that fingernail looks like I hit it with a hammer.

Well, Bird, I must say I haven't gotten a purple fingernail from a screw gun yet. I have had to jerk my hand away because I could feel the screw coming at my finger. Just lucky I guess, and now a lot more careful.

I took a glancing blow that just barely broke the skin from a pneumatic nailer and that was a wake up call too. I am way more leery and careful about them now. It was an 18 ga finish nailer so not quite the power of a big framing nailer but it still would not have been fun.

Pat