The hardest part of stripping a roof has to be the nails. The maker cites pulling 4,000 of them with a flat bar as the tedious baseline, and the prototype attacks exactly that problem. Scott Rumschlag describes the machine as a rotary power broom for nails, and the concept is simple once stated: a spinning drum that grabs protruding fasteners as the rig rolls over the deck.
The build itself is straightforward metalwork. A wheeled frame of tubing and brackets carries a cylindrical steel drum fitted with bolted serrated blades in AR500. Drive power comes from a handheld cordless drill feeding a long drive shaft through a right-angle drive, then out via a #25 chain and sprocket to the drum. A pneumatic roofing coil nailer was used to fasten nails and shingle fragments into oriented strand board test decks for the trials.
A detail that stands out is the height control. Tilting the long handle lowers or raises the drum, which lets it grip nails anywhere from flush up to one or two shingle thicknesses above the wood. That seems a clever way to get adjustment without adding a separate mechanism. A handwritten label reading 12 inches appears on the drum, and a raw tube carries an 18 inch marking.
It is clearly an early iteration. Synthetic underlayment wrapped around the rotating drum and stalled it during testing, while 15-pound asphalt felt tore through easily. An on-screen caption notes the blades will be full width in future, and the maker asks for feedback on width, rotation speed, and integrated motor options, so there is plenty still open.
Project by Scott Rumschlag. Watch it on their YouTube channel: