Pin Nailer issues

[Anthony Scott]

I am using a 23 gauge pneumatic pin nailer with 1" nails. It seems randomly that the pins will "bend" inside the wood and protrude from the mating piece.
It seems the depth is fine. The pins aren't going too deep. I made sure I have the nailer straight. It just seems as though the nail is being deflected and comes out on the other end.
This has happened in solid red oak and birch plywood.
How can I fix this? I tried to lightly tap the nail back out, but that doesn't work, the nail just bends.
Is this normal? Can anything be done to prevent it?
Thanks

[Jerome Hanby]

Not sure of the cause, but I don't believe those pins have any heads, so you may be able to grab the protruding end with vise grips and wrestle it out...

[Dick Holt]

Anthony, what you are experiencing is one the draw backs of a pin nailer. Because the pins are so thin (23 ga.), they will sometimes follow the direction of the grain and blow out the side. This is one of the times when I would use my 18 ga. nailer. I know of no way to stop this from happening.
Dick

[Anthony Scott]

Thanks. Maybe I will try shorter nails... I like using them just to tack pieces together when gluing up so they don't slide around while clamping.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Anthony - yeah - that is what happens, as Dick noted. I've never used > 5/8" long, and always go as short as I can. I've used them primarily for 1/4" x 1/4" QSWO or cherry stops to hold glass panes in bookcase doors, kitchen cabinet doors, etc. Even with 3/8" or 1/2" pins, I'd hazard a guess that I get 5% - 8% that run wild - hits the grain just so, and the laws of physics trump the hopes and dreams of woodworkers.

I use dikes to pinch them, and pull them through - the "heads" - such as they are - are buried, so I can't get to them - pull them through, get the stop pinned, then get out the dye/stain and a tiny artist's brush [and my fly fishing flip-down magnifiers :D] and touch it up. Anyone that looks so closely at the inside of a glazed bookcase door to notice gets a dope-slap.

[Don Jarvie]

Make sure your compressor is around 100 psi. Not enough pressure can make the pin follow the grain as discussed above. See if it helps.

I noticed this with my 18g nailer when the pressure gets around 80.

Don

[Anthony Scott]

Ah, I will check that. Thanks

[Steve Griffin]

Hmmm. I'm wondering if it's the nailer, not "just the way it is" with pins.

I routinely shoot 1.375" pins into oak, hickory, cherry etc and rarely have a deflection. Most of the time I'm shooting through 3/4" hardwood to melamine or plywood cabinet boxes, so it's not all hardwood.

Maybe it was worth the big bucks for the MAX pin nailer after all, as I don't seem to have the problems others describe..

-Steve

[Mike Kelsey]

I noticed this problem almost 50% of the time when I was nailing up a beadboard ceiling. Nailing at an angle through the tongue was iffy to say the least. I ended up nailing perpendicular to the bead board just outside the tongue with no problems - just have tiny holes to fill.....

[Larry Whitlow]

Make sure your compressor is around 100 psi. Not enough pressure can make the pin follow the grain as discussed above. See if it helps.

I noticed this with my 18g nailer when the pressure gets around 80.

Don


I second Don's suggestion. I suspected this was the case, and it seems to hold up.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Forgive me for asking - but - are you sure the pins are going into the gun in the right direction?
I keep the instructions for my PC pinner opened to the page that tells you how to orient the arrows on the sides of the pins & double check it every time I load the gun.

[Karl Card]

I to use a pin nailer quite often and I had to play around with the air pressure and also the pressure adustment lever on the gun to make it do exactly what i wanted it to do.

[Jim Neeley]

Anthony,

You will notice that your deflections are "left or right", not "forwards or backwards" (looking down on the gun). If you look at the pins, they are tapered on the two sides and its these angled faces that cause it to deflect left and right.

With this knowledge, turning the gun 90* to the wood being stapled won't stop it from deflecting on occasion but will encourage it to deflect within the wood rather than "blowing out".

I've got the Grex P650 and while I don't often use the full 2" pins it supports, I frequently use 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 and since I started turning the gun, haven't had a problem.

Your mileage may vary.

Jim