Thane Lorbach Is the owner of Thane Lorbach Custom Woodworking. After holding an interview with him in which I got to learn about his design process, I came to learn that he has placed a huge investment of his money into the purchase of pneumatic nail guns. The reason behind the large investment in pneumatic nail guns is because each of them feature different gauge size. Taking the knowledge gained through our interaction, I sought to create a universal nail gun in which the user could swap between the different nail gauges in order to reduce the amount of money going into purchasing more than one tool at a time.

I decided to use the Festool brand because they hadn't made any versions of nail guns within their tool catalog. I felt that this could lend into my design intent as the new product wouldn't be competing with any preexisting products.

After narowing down of the different ideation forms, I created another set of foam models in a much more refined and perfected state. From these new sets of foam models I also looked into doing handle design form studies. This research ideation would then later be used when creating my power tool in Fusion 360.

Meet Thane Lorbach!

After deciding on a selection of the best sketch directions, I transfered the designs to pink foam core insulation blocks. I cut out each nail gun handle into a rough shape and then sanded them down untill thay could be used comfortably in the hand. Using another piece of foam board, I then attached it to the main handle bodies to test out the different nail clip positions and sizes.

Design Ideation Sketches

Foam Models

Finalizing the Foam Design

Final CAD Model

After completing the CNC model of the power tool, I continued to design the rest of the tool in Fusion 360. I pulled outside sources for the breakdown and design of pneumatic nail guns so that I could design the inside of the tool to be as accurate as possible. I also took this time to finally create the main mechanism in which the user can freely remove and then attach a different nail clip gauge to the front of the tool.

Design Direction

Completed Pnumatic Nail Gun

Power Tool

Festool PN 15-23

First CAD Model and CNC Cut Body

With the basic design ideation of the tool’s form being done, I moved into Fusion 360 in order to create and then CNC mill my first medium level foam model. The connection between foam and CAD allowed for quick fine tuning of the design as needed. When The tool is fully completed in CAD, I would then be able to give it materiality and coloring, thus bringing the total tool design back to being a Festool branded product.

After finalizing the CAD model for the nail gun, I moved onto 3D printing the final form. I glued each piece of the main tool body together as well as two of the interchangeable nail clip gauge attachments. I then Spray painted and primed all of the pieces in order to finish the final physical version of the nail gun power tool.