Framing Nailer

[Charles Brown]

Anyone have recommendations on buying a new framing nailer? I had the Hitachi stick nailer as my last gun and wouldn't hesitate buying it again. Was just wondering if I may be missing something.

Thoughts?

[Peter Quinn]

I have a bostich I'm fond of, very durable, does positive placement too if you do any metal hangers. Otherwise hitachi is a fine gun. I'm not a framer so take my thoughts for what they are. I've used pc's with good success, senco too.

[Bryan Cramer]

I have a Bostich, it works fine. Look for Borg sales; that's where I got mine.

[Brad Cambell]

I have had a Bostitch nailer. There are pros and cons. Pros; it is powerful, it can be found everywhere so you can find the nails anywhere. Cons; it needs an air compressor and electricity. It needs an air hose which can rub on furniture, carpet and walls. The air hose can get in the way in tight spaces.

I currently have a Paslode framing nailer. I absolutely love this nailer.
There are pros and cons with this nailer too.
Pros; no air compressor, electricity, or hose needed. It has a gas charged canister and a battery for power, which supplies power for hundreds of nails. Nails can be found anywhere that bostitch nails are. It is more compact then bostitch.
Cons: In my opinion, the only con is that it is more expensive than other nailers.

I would recommend (obviously) the paslode nailer. I always hated having to drag out the air compressor and then having to drag the hose through the house. I finally sold the Bostitch and bought the Paslode. It liberated me. I can now take it anywhere. I have even built duck blinds with it!

[Rich Engelhardt]

I have a Bostitch F28WW.
Pure raw power.
I'm more than a little scared of it - it's got that much power.

Mine will contersink a 3.5" nail well below the surface of a 2x4 @ only 70/75 psi.
@ 100 psi, it will flush nail a 2x4 to concrete.

[Tom Matthews]

I have a Bostitch coil nailer, not sure what model offhand. Won't shoot 16D nails, 3 1/4 max and the shank size is smaller than a 16D nail. I bought it used from Craigslist for a gloat worthy price.

It came with the sequential fire trigger, which I found was great for some things (subfloor, sheeting) and terrible for others (framing). Actually shot a nail through my middle finger because of a double fire. I had initially delayed getting the other trigger assembly because I figured it would have to be ordered and would take several weeks, but after the misfire incident I called up the service center and they had one on the shelf. Eight dollars later and it's a great gun for framing. The sequential trigger works such that if you hold the trigger down, all you have to do to fire it again is depress the nose safety.

The coil magazine is really nice. Especially when you're somewhere (ladder/roof) where reloading would be difficult.

So in short, Bostitch is great, love a coil magazine, get the "shoot once" trigger if it doesn't come with it and check Craigslist for good deals.

[Jerome Stanek]

I always liked my Senco nailers

[Peter Quinn]

I have had a Bostitch nailer. There are pros and cons. Pros; it is powerful, it can be found everywhere so you can find the nails anywhere. Cons; it needs an air compressor and electricity. It needs an air hose which can rub on furniture, carpet and walls. The air hose can get in the way in tight spaces.

I currently have a Paslode framing nailer. I absolutely love this nailer.
There are pros and cons with this nailer too.
Pros; no air compressor, electricity, or hose needed. It has a gas charged canister and a battery for power, which supplies power for hundreds of nails. Nails can be found anywhere that bostitch nails are. It is more compact then bostitch.
Cons: In my opinion, the only con is that it is more expensive than other nailers.

I would recommend (obviously) the paslode nailer. I always hated having to drag out the air compressor and then having to drag the hose through the house. I finally sold the Bostitch and bought the Paslode. It liberated me. I can now take it anywhere. I have even built duck blinds with it!


I had a chance to use a pasalode gas charge framer, I'd add to the con list slower recovery time. If you are sheathing, or doing some bump fire operations that require rapid fire slamming in nails all day, this is not the best gun. And we found out the hard way the charges have a shelf life and don't work particularly well once expired. But I'd agree they are great for situations where power is not a available or convienent, for occasional light framing, or for odd things like nailing off barge rafters while hanging off a ladder or scaffold where you don't want an air hose in play. I built a new garage last year and the guys that did all the concrete form work had one, they loved it for all the reasons Brad noted above, but the framers that worked with me didn't care for them as much. The form guys are usually on sites before the temporary power is installed and don't fire enough nails to justify dragging out a generator.

[Chris Merriam]

I just went through this exercise myself and ended up buying a cheap Harbor Freight gun. I had to rationalize myself into not spending a ton of money on a framing nailer, I probably won't use it more than once or twice a year. I checked craigslist and saw a few guns, but looking at the condition of them most look like they were used by full time contractors so I was worried about reliability. I almost pulled the trigger on a reconditioned porter cable FR350? for around $145, they have a website that sells them, CPO-something.

But then I said, I can get the HF gun for about $65 after 20% off coupon and just went with that. Given that nails are $20-30 a box the savings went straight towards two boxes of nails. HF sells a 21, 28 degree, and 3-in-1 gun. I initially got the 28 but then realized it only shoots clipped head nails and my local Lowes didn't have a good nail selection in 28. So I took it back and swapped for the 21 degree, which shoots full head nails and Lowes has a good selection of nails starting at $17.

Performance is ok, it misfires every once in a while and some nails don't get sunk down all the way, but I'm not really tinkering with it or messing with more air pressure. I'm just putting up a stud wall so "close enough" is good enough for me right now.

[Matt Neil]

I have a Bostich F21PL. It has a separate nose piece for nailing metal hangers. That also worked great for attaching over 50 adjustable outlet boxes in the shop. I don't use metal hangers often, but it's slick to use the nail gun on them.

[Sam Layton]

Charles,

I have an Hitachi, and have never had any problems with it. For a framing nailer, Hitachi is all I would buy. For finish nailer's, I like Senco. Years ago I had a Bostich finish nailer, and had bad luck with it.

Sam

[Brad Sperr]

+1 for the Bostitch F21PL. The magnesium housing makes it easier to use for long periods of time and the positive placement tip comes in handy for a variety of applications. Whichever gun you get, I would recommend one that shoots full round head nails because those are required by code in a lot of locations. You should also think about collation type. I like the plastic collation used by the F21PL because the nails are cheaper and readily available, although you get hit with little plastic shards and the plastic will flag under the nail head sometimes.

[Brad Cambell]

I had a chance to use a pasalode gas charge framer, I'd add to the con list slower recovery time. If you are sheathing, or doing some bump fire operations that require rapid fire slamming in nails all day, this is not the best gun. And we found out the hard way the charges have a shelf life and don't work particularly well once expired. But I'd agree they are great for situations where power is not a available or convienent, for occasional light framing, or for odd things like nailing off barge rafters while hanging off a ladder or scaffold where you don't want an air hose in play. I built a new garage last year and the guys that did all the concrete form work had one, they loved it for all the reasons Brad noted above, but the framers that worked with me didn't care for them as much. The form guys are usually on sites before the temporary power is installed and don't fire enough nails to justify dragging out a generator.

Peter, if your talking about the older style Paslode, I will agree.

I bought a Paslode 13 years ago. I found it just like you described, very slow to recover. As a matter of fact, it was returned to the store and I bought a Bostitch.

Then I got tired of all the hassles of the Bostitch and bought a new Paslode. My God-Father is a contractor (50+ years) and has two Paslodes. I was so impressed with their performance that I went out and bought one for myself. It will drive nails very fast, with no recovery time for 6 or so nails at least. Then I might let it recover for 3 seconds. Yes, an air nailer will drive more without any recovery time. But then the air tank needs to recover too......but if you are driving them that fast, I wager that you are missing where you are trying to drive the nail.

Regarding the gas cartridges, I have had them in a drawer for years and they will still be good.

Bottom line, if you don't mind the hassle of dragging out the air compressor and the air hoses, then by all means buy the Stanley. Price might be a reason not to buy a Paslode, but lack of performance isn't.

Just my observation, gained from years of experience.

[Mark Bolton]

The sequential trigger works such that if you hold the trigger down, all you have to do to fire it again is depress the nose safety.

Just for clarification, I think you have that flipped. The sequential is the safer trigger. One pull of the trigger one nail. Another will not fire til you release the trigger, tip off the work, and repeat the process

The faster, but more dangerous, trigger is the contact. Contact trigger is with the trigger depressed all that has to happen to fire a nail is to "contact" the nose with the work.

We have all of our nailers setup for contact and your right, it can be a dangerous thing. I am guilty of it myself, but I often see guys flying down sheathing or subfloor and they never take their finger off the trigger even when another sheet is being placed. You just get in the habit of holding the trigger. Very easy to bump your leg, or have someone setting a sheet bump the nose piece and bad things could happen. That said, the contact trip is so much faster it just about the norm.

[Mark Bolton]

Me too on the F21PL. Thats our main gun, second in line is an older PC FR350MAG. We got in the habit of full round heads because inspectors were pushing to get away from clipped heads for a while. Only down side to the full rounds in my opinion are #1 less magazine capacity because the nails have to be spaced to allow for the full round head. #2 When you store nails for a long time or buy certain off brands of nails, the plastic collating material can get brittle and break in the magazine allowing nails to crowd up on each other causing feeding issues. It also happens when guys load nails and let the pusher slam down into the nail stack.

I know some other manufacturers (pasload is one) "claim" to be a full round nail but they simply arent. True full round nailers like this shoot a nail that looks just like a hand nail out of a box. Bostich also makes a sheather plus nail with a larger head with a tapered base specifically for OSB. The larger head gives more surface area reducing the chance of over-driving the nail. I forget the exact spec but if you break the surface of OSB with the head of the nail its like drywall. Youve reduced the holding capacity of that nail by a huge percentage.

Other bonus is push-button depth change which is handy.

[Dave Cav]

When I finally decided I needed a framer I went to a pawn shop and got the best looking Hitachi they had. No problems; seems like the go-to framing nailer around here. Probably everything everyone has mentioned above will work fine, but you've had a Hitachi before and liked it, so stay with what works.

[Chuck Foster]

I bought a 'refurbished' Bostitch F28WW from CPO Outlets a couple years back. Paid $99 and free shipping. I couldn't tell it from brand new. Love it

[Rich Engelhardt]

I bought a 'refurbished' Bostitch F28WW from CPO Outlets a couple years back. Paid $99 and free shippingThat's worthy of a gloat & it also ranks a "you suck!"
IIRC, I paid $269.00 for my F28WW @ Lowes. My only consolation was that it came with a free palm nailer.


Edit to add - I see you're new here & might take that the wrong way.
A "you suck" is considered a high compliment for someone that scores a good price on a tool.

Welcome to SMC BTW.

[Carl Beckett]

I have a Milwaukee. Full round head nails (same thing someone else mentioned, there was a trend away from clipped heads at one time)

Works greats - have shot a variety of types/sizes with it.

It would take a while to wear one of these out... used might be a good way to go (Craigslist or reconditioned)

[Curt Harms]

Just for clarification, I think you have that flipped. The sequential is the safer trigger. One pull of the trigger one nail. Another will not fire til you release the trigger, tip off the work, and repeat the process

The faster, but more dangerous, trigger is the contact. Contact trigger is with the trigger depressed all that has to happen to fire a nail is to "contact" the nose with the work.

We have all of our nailers setup for contact and your right, it can be a dangerous thing. I am guilty of it myself, but I often see guys flying down sheathing or subfloor and they never take their finger off the trigger even when another sheet is being placed. You just get in the habit of holding the trigger. Very easy to bump your leg, or have someone setting a sheet bump the nose piece and bad things could happen. That said, the contact trip is so much faster it just about the norm.

At least some Hitachi guns have 'selective fire'. You can select single shot or contact fire by flipping a switch.

[Maurice Arney]

I have a Milwaukee. Full round head nails (same thing someone else mentioned, there was a trend away from clipped heads at one time)

Works greats - have shot a variety of types/sizes with it.

It would take a while to wear one of these out... used might be a good way to go (Craigslist or reconditioned)

A lot of jurisdictions do not allow clipped head framing nailers (for commercial construction). I have a Bostitch N88RH-1 round head that I bought back in 2004 for $240. Never had a problem with it.

[Charles Brown]

It's between the F21PL and the Hitachi. Both good guns. I'm going to look through craigslist first and see what I can find. I dislike the HF / Kobalt / Husky framing nailers because from my experience they jam too often.

I was looking for a paper tape gun as I hate the little plastic bits that flag but don't seem to be able to find a Round Head framing gun that utilizes the paper tape. All of the paper tape guns I've found are the 30* variety and shoot clipped heads--unless I'm missing something.

Lots of good recommendations here.

[Jerry Bruette]

I have the Bostitch F33PT with the positive placement tip and it's paper collated. Inspector told me clipped heads were okay to use, he was more concerned about the size of the nail.

Gun performed perfect after I put a little stronger spring on the trigger. The trigger wouldn't always reset especially if the gun was being used upside down.

I picked it up on E-bay new for about 80 less than retail at local green BORG.


Never got to use the placement tip, we can skip the hurricane clips and use timberlock screws to anchor trusses to the top plate here.

Jerry