Framing Nailers-Cordless vs Pneumatic

[MoparNorm]

Most collated nails are coated, BUT....

...in CA, Vinyl coated sinkers are illegal! As are 16d nails that are only 3.250 long. (3-1/4")
If you are performing work on an inspected, permited project use only non-vinyl coated nailes and only 3.5 (3-1/2") .131 minimum (some specs call out .148 dia).
It all has to do with our siesmic codes, if you are in a non-siesmic-wind-snow load code area you will be fine with the nails mentioned, but not in CA. Vinyl coated nails are undersized as much as 25% from 16d commons and have less holding power. Many Structural Engineers living and working in their little cacoon worlds had no idea that these products were even out there until the California earthquakes of the 1990's. When structural failures began showing up in buildings that should not have failed they began testing the nails and discovered that they were seriously substandard. Look for "ICBO" or other National Building Codes standard seals on any nail that you buy, only .131 and .148 nails of the proper length, are rated for structural use when applicable.
MN

[bosco]

I stopped by home depot today on my way home from work to check out the Senco 702XP and the PC FR350A. The prices are the same as I had mentioned in a previous post. I took a long look at both units, picked them up and took a longer look. Couldn't really tell much of a weight difference between the two.

After checking out the guns, I looked for what nails were available. Man, the selection can be overwhelming ... so many of them. They had the Senco nails, but they were on the top shelf and I could get a good look at their selection. Other mfg were Duo-Fast and Grip-Rite. There was a good selection of these in boxes of 2500 to 4000 ct. The largest nail I saw was a 3.25 x.131. Didn't see any of the 3.5 nails.

I'm not sure of the building codes along the gulf coast of TX. But, believe it or not, my wife does ... she works for a home builder and is very familiar with all the local codes and specs. With our hurricanes down here, I'm sure the codes are pretty stringent. But, for now my project is only reworking my barn by tearing off the old siding and replacing with new. I may go with the Hardy board instead of the T111, because it ain't gonna rot.

I really appreciate all the help ya'll have given me on this matter. My decision is to by the Senco 702XP with the hand nailer, I just hope that a case is included.

[bosco]

Just an update. I mentioned before that my wife was familiar with the building codes in the area we live. Well, I was wrong ... I stand corrected. She did relay my questions to one of the construction supers. She also, presented me today with the IRC book (International Residental Code). Let me just say that it has a ton of info in it. Lots of good stuff there.

[MoparNorm]

You can find the nails in bulk and cheaper at Builders/Contractors wholesale houses, most will sale to the individual at a slightly higher price, or just tell them that you are a carpenter, but not a company account, most don't really care.
As for the wife story, that made me smile, we were trout fishing in the mts. here and my friend asked me what is the limit here? Mainly because we saw the game warden was working his way up the trail. In CA there are many different environmental zones with different limits, since we were at 5 at the time my wife said she would go ask the warden before he came up to us. She came back and said the limit is 10! "OK!" we replied, and we kept fishing. The warden came up and asked to see our fish, we showed him our catch, he said "too bad boys the limit is 5". We were shocked and exclaimed, we just sent my wife to ask you the limit! At that point she replied, "well, he seemed busy so I asked a lady standing next to him"....ha!ha!
She paid both fines....= )
MN

[bosco]

re. Trout

Hope those fines didn't set her back to much.

I know this is off subject, but I couldn't resist telling this about 2 friends of mine and theirs wifes. Now this happed several years ago. These 2 couples go fishing all the time, but the wifes usually do not fish and stay behind and do what women do. Anyway, on this one particular trip the wifes decided to go fishing for redfish while the husbands were off fishing elsewhere. When my buddies returned from their day of fishing they ask their wifes what they did that day. Well, both of them proudly showed them their catch of the day by opening a 48 quarts cooler full of redfish. Both buddies nearly fell over at the sight. The wifes had a full cooler of 10-12 inch reds (18" is min). Fortunatlly, there was no warden around when they made their catch. We wont even discuss what that fine would have been......

[MoparNorm]

I had a chance to take some photos today...

Here is the 602 with regulator. It's a Milton 1145, very small, with a small guage.










MN

[bosco]

I like that setup you have there MN. I'll have to check around to see if I can find a similar setup. Say, what is the inlet pressure on that regulator..? Thanks for the info.

[MoparNorm]

The regulator is 0% to 100%...

.....of your compressor rating, that's why I have the gauge. Small nails such as 8d's need about 45-60 psi, depending upon the material being nailed. 16d's need 80- 90 psi, again depending upon what you are nailing into. There may be a limit of 160 psi or so on the regulator, I'm not real sure, but nail guns begin to explode at 125+ so the regulator handles the guns just fine. A bonus is that I can set the compressor at about 110-120psi and use two regulators so that two people can use two nailers and nail different nails at the same time.
MN

[Doc Dave]

Bosco,
I saw back in the thread that you are going to put up a fence.
I too will be doing this, and I am getting to old to swing a hammer so would like a nailer!
What nails have you decided on? I want galvanized of course with an outdoor project like that. I have a friend with a pneumatic nailer who will loan it to me, but not sure of the brand yet. If you or others like Norm have a recommendation for nails for nailing 3/4" oak boards to treated pine 4X4's let me know.
For power, I am fortunate to have a 25kw, pto powered trailer mounted generator. I got this off ebay after the last hurricane with a power outage of 6 days! I can pull up with the tractor to my work site and have plenty of juice for a compressor I can place in the bucket of the tractor.

[Gordon Maney]

Originally posted by Doc Dave
Bosco,
I saw back in the thread that you are going to put up a fence.
I too will be doing this, and I am getting to old to swing a hammer so would like a nailer!
What nails have you decided on? I want galvanized of course with an outdoor project like that. I have a friend with a pneumatic nailer who will loan it to me, but not sure of the brand yet. If you or others like Norm have a recommendation for nails for nailing 3/4" oak boards to treated pine 4X4's let me know.
For power, I am fortunate to have a 25kw, pto powered trailer mounted generator. I got this off ebay after the last hurricane with a power outage of 6 days! I can pull up with the tractor to my work site and have plenty of juice for a compressor I can place in the bucket of the tractor.

I really like the PTO idea, I wish I had one of those generators.

[MoparNorm]

I would think that...

8d galvanized would work fine. Post the make of the nailer and I can find out the head degree and recommend some sources for nails.
MN
PS, don't shoot yourself in the butt, unless you train the horse to post a photo.....= )

[Gordon Maney]

Norm, when I was looking at nailers this week, I saw a Makita that looked nicely made. Of course that says nothing about how it might work. Have you seen any of them?

[bosco]

Originally posted by Doc Dave
Bosco,
I saw back in the thread that you are going to put up a fence.
I too will be doing this, and I am getting to old to swing a hammer so would like a nailer!
What nails have you decided on? I want galvanized of course with an outdoor project like that. I have a friend with a pneumatic nailer who will loan it to me, but not sure of the brand yet. If you or others like Norm have a recommendation for nails for nailing 3/4" oak boards to treated pine 4X4's let me know.

Doc ... I haven't started working on the fence at this time, but I would follow MN's advice about the 8d galv. nails for your fence. I will be installing corral boards that are a true 1" by 6" nailed to 4x4 pressure treated post. At a minimum, I will use a 10d hot dipped galv. ring shank nail and there will be 3 nails at each board end. Sense I will be buying in bulk, if the local house sells a larger nail cheaper ... then I will go with larger nail. But I definitely will be using a hot dipped galvanized ring shanked nail.

Just curious, Doc ... how man feet of fence are you putting up..? I myself, only have 1400'. Now how many post holes is that ... lol.

[Gordon Maney]

Originally posted by bosco
Doc ... I haven't started working on the fence at this time, but I would follow MN's advice about the 8d galv. nails for your fence. I will be installing corral boards that are a true 1" by 6" nailed to 4x4 pressure treated post. At a minimum, I will use a 10d hot dipped galv. ring shank nail and there will be 3 nails at each board end. Sense I will be buying in bulk, if the local house sells a larger nail cheaper ... then I will go with larger nail. But I definitely will be using a hot dipped galvanized ring shanked nail.

Just curious, Doc ... how man feet of fence are you putting up..? I myself, only have 1400'. Now how many post holes is that ... lol.

There seem to be a lot of stainless steel nails and screws sold now. Do you consider using those? You can buy stainless deck screws. I use those for certain projects I think are worthy.

[Doc Dave]

Bosco,
I will eventually have a total of about 4000 feet. But I am going to do it in stages; I already have electric fence to keep them in.
You said Norm recomends 8d nails, but you are using 10?
Also my oak fence boards have air dried and are pretty hard. I wonder if that will cause any problem
GOrdon,
If I was using treated boards, I would be strongly leaning toward stainless. If the price is not that much more I may still use them, even though my fence boards are not treated.