powder nailer

JFD140

i bought a ramset cobra and went to use it in my basement to nail a shelf to the foundation wall. Basically i used a 2.5 inch nail through a 3/4 inch piece of wood. I used from the lowest to the highest power charge and all of them would not drive the nail fully into the wall. About 3/4 of an inch was left to be driven with the red powder charges. Am i doing something wrong or is that the concrete is just over 60 years old and is too hard for a nail of that size? Basically im left with some small concrete blowouts in the wall from pulling nails out, and the ones i shot with red charges i cant even pull out, the heads broke off after trying so hard to get them out.

JGarth

Why not try shorter nails (1.5" or 2").
You already bought the expensive component(s).
Appears you are attempting to drive them a "bit" too deep for this wall.

Ryan03

Why not just use a hammer drill and some tapcons?
We use those ramsat guns at work to install metal framing to steel joists or to concrete..Using it to hang a shelve seems a tad extreme..

mdlbldrmatt135

General rule is 1.5 to 2 times the thickness of the mat'l bieng fastened for the Penetration into concrete...... I'd be using a 2" or 2 1/4" long nail.........