Finishing nails for Porter Cable nail gun

[Jerome Hanby]

I was using 2" nails in in my PC nail gun to tack furring strips to 2x4 edges for mounting pegboard. I was about ready to throw the gun out in the yard, misfires galore, and I was constantly having to fool around with the nails in the magazine to get it shooting again. After a few work sessions, I finally used up that clip of nails and picked up the porter cable box of nails to reload it. Not one more misfire!. After I finished working, I was cleaning up and realized I had already had a box of nails out that I had been using initially, a box from HF! Are the firing pins (pistons, or whatever you call them) different between the HF (Central Pneumatics, I think) nailers and the ones form Porter cable? Or, like many of their other products, are their 2" nails just crappy?

I've a brad nailer and pin nailer from HF and they work fine (HF brads and Grex pins)...

[shane lyall]

I've wondered the same thing. I have a P-C and a bostich nailer that HATES the HF nails. I have a giant box of them that will never be used because of that. I had a DeWalt before the P-C that would jam using them also. With good brads they all work perfect. Must just be the cheap materal in the HF nails.

[Jay Jeffery]

Are these angled nailers? There are at least 2 types with different angles. My 15 ga angles finish nailer uses the Senco type nails and would not work with some Bostich nails I had bought for it. Read the sides of the packages and see if your model is listed as compatible.

[shane lyall]

The HF brads are the same style and size as the Bostich that I always use but just seem to cause trouble. The only gun I have for angled nails is my frameing nailer.

[Doug Colombo]

I have only used PC nails in my finish and brad guns and have never had any jams, etc. As Shane, my PC framing nail gun is the only angle gun that I have and I do use BORG purchased nails (non-PC) in it with very little if any issues.

[Trevor Howard]

This is one item I don't go cheap on when buying nails for my air nailers. I wouldn't want HF nails taking a chance of damaging the gun. I have PC and Senco guns and have been able to swap between PC and Bostich nails no problems.

[mickey cassiba]

I've been using Senco nails in my PC 15G for years, never any problems.

[Greg R Bradley]

Your original post does not say what type of nailer you were using. Following posts assume that it was a 15ga angled finish nailer. That might be because a common nailer confusion is between 15ga DA nails used by almost everyone and the 15ga FN nails used by Stanley Bostitch. Was it a 15ga angled nailer? What style nails came from HF?

Lots of other nail/gun incompatabilities.