Roger Feeley
07-09-2012, 6:20 PM
I tried an interesting experiment. I bought a new air hose that was a smaller diameter than the old one and I wondered if it would make any real difference with my framing nailer. So I tried an extreme test. It just so happens that you can take a 1/4-20 tap and thread the inside of the air fitting. i did that and then I took about 1/4" of a 1/4-20 bolt and drilled a 1/16" hole almost through. Then I took a #75 bit and finished the job. That's gave me an orifice of about .021. I threaded that into the fitting and hooked up the air hose to my framing nailer. The thing took a while to fill but it nailed just fine.
The lesson here is that you can run a framing nailer with a bicycle pump (although I didn't try that). The output of your compressor is of interest to you only if you want to drive more than one nail. Small compressors will cycle more often and the smallest may not keep up at all. But for us weekend warriors, it really doesn't matter.
The lesson here is that you can run a framing nailer with a bicycle pump (although I didn't try that). The output of your compressor is of interest to you only if you want to drive more than one nail. Small compressors will cycle more often and the smallest may not keep up at all. But for us weekend warriors, it really doesn't matter.