Air nailers

[Gordon Maney]

I am thinking of buying an air nailer for framing. I am curious to know if you have had experience with them causing you to favor a particular brand.

What are your thoughts on this?

[powerwagontim]

Hi Gordon,
That is a loaded question you ask, similar to asking a random group of people what is the best truck. Not all are as enlightened as we are. I personally have had excellent luck with Paslode guns. I bought my first one, a framer, 18 years ago. It has been rebuilt a couple of times. A few months ago the dougus that drives the nails broke off. I went to buy a replacement and was told that that part was no longer available. Extremely frustrating. I have a newer Paslode framer which is lighter weight than the old one but I just liked the feel of the old one. We also have a Paslode Impulse framer. Those are the ones which ignite a blast of propane to drive the nail. They are great when they work, but are rather fussy. My advice is to get one of the major brands which feels right to your hand.
Tim

[Gordon Maney]

Am I also understanding you to say that it would be better to avoid an impulse gun?

If so, do you have an opinion on compressors? I suppose I could buy a bunch (I suppose 100' would do it...) of air hose and run from my shop compressor.

[HWooldridge]

Gordon,

If you don't plan to use it everyday to make a living, go check out the pawn shops. I bought a huge old Senco for a hundred bucks that was on pawn and it will fire a 16d nail like a bullet. I spend a lot of time haunting pawn shops for tools that I can afford to have break. I once picked up a $600 Victor cutting torch for $80 - just by being in the right place at the right time and catching it when the shop owner put it on the shelf...Hollis

[Gordon Maney]

Originally posted by HWooldridge
Gordon,

If you don't plan to use it everyday to make a living, go check out the pawn shops. I bought a huge old Senco for a hundred bucks that was on pawn and it will fire a 16d nail like a bullet. I spend a lot of time haunting pawn shops for tools that I can afford to have break. I once picked up a $600 Victor cutting torch for $80 - just by being in the right place at the right time and catching it when the shop owner put it on the shelf...Hollis

That is an interesting idea. There is such a place in Cedar Rapids. I think I will go look....

[HWooldridge]

A little bitty air compressor will serve a nailer. I have the big 10hp in the shop but a little 3/4hp IR that I bought at Home Depot drives the nailer just fine because it's not continuous demand for air.

[Randy N]

Pawn shops are a great place to pick up tools. I do a circuit of several shops on aa regular basis. You get to know the staff and items that dont move fast. Often you can offer a real lowball proice and pick up some excellent tools. It really requires a lot of patience and regualr trips. An yes, there are some grat deals on framing nailers

Cheers

[Joe Cimoch]

I have a Paslode framing gun that I bought used about 10 years ago, with an Emglo 1 1/2 HP compressor. The compressor finally gave up about a year ago, the framong gun is still going strong. I replaced the compressor with a new Dewalt that is easier to carry than the old Emglo. I just picked up a Bostich finish gun for a project about a month ago, nice gun, and doesn't need to be oiled. Should have bought one years ago.

One note: my Paslode framing gun shoots "D" headed nails, i.e. the head is not completely round, there is a chunk taken out of the head to fit the nails close together. Check with your local building inspector (if you intend to get it inspedted) to make sure your codes allow those nails, some inspectors around here require the full round head.

[Terry Newton]

What brandname is the off yellow?

The darker shade of yellow, darker than DeWalt.

While building my father's new barn we borrowed one, but I do not recall the brand name.

It worked great on a small roll around compressor Dad has, we even had to keep turning down the pressure. I think we finally settled on about 95 psi.

It saved a lot of time and energy.

The only problem I recall this unit giving us was when the air was up around 100 psi it would drive the nails too far into the wood.

[powerwagontim]

Hi Terry,
You are probably referring to a Stanley / Bostich. The framing nailers I have used of theirs have all been coil nailers. They also make stick nailers, I just havent used one. Not a bad product though. One of my roofing nailers is a Bostich.
Gordon, An Impuse gun would probably work fine for you, I assume you are talking about personal use. I think a lot of the headaches on them come from numerous operators, and nobody taking the time to perform the needed maintainance on them until they quit, and then they call them a piece of junk (or substitute other expletive as needed). THey are great when they are operating as designed.
Tim

[Gary Weaklend]

Hi Gordon, when I built my garage I bought a Stanley Bostich framing nailer and an air stapler. Both worked great and I didn't use a hammer very much. A friend has the Paslode that uses the gas cartridge and he likes it but wishes he would have gotten one that uses an air hose because of the added expense.

[Steve Pellock]

nailers

I have every brand known to exist and have the best luck with Bostich and paslode . Stay away from duofast and Tiawan crap labeled with Grizzly Label

[MoparNorm]

I've been using nailers for 30+ years, my favorite are Senco. They make production nailers like the SN600 series and lighter duty nailers for hobbiest.
SENCO

MN

[Hoody]

My 2 cents

I have a Bostich 18g. brad nailer, and love it. I also have Paslode 15 & 16g. trim nailers, and stick framing nailer. Again, I love them. Not a single complaint on any of them.

I know a lot of contractors, and the ones that use air, use Bostich or Paslode. Easily repairable, if necessary, and parts are plentiful in my area (Iowa/Illinois border).

[MoparNorm]

Since Bostich started manufacturing their guns in Japan, the quality has gone downhill, the guns don't seem to hold-up to production nailing on the jobsite, in fact you won't find too many Bostich guns in the West on jobsites. They are fine for the hobbiest. Paslode hasn't seemed to catch on out here either, too expensive for equiping a crew with a dozen guns and too hard to get parts. They must be a bigger seller in the East. For longevity and dependability you'll only find Senco and Hitachi on job sites out here.
For the small project hobbiest nailers and staplers/brads, Hilti makes a wide variety of quality guns, but they are very expensive. The problems we had with Senco is miss-firings and jamming. The o-rings seem to wear very rapidly, about every 2,000 shots, which is about a day and a half on some projects.
MN