Which 23 gauge micro pinner?

[Tim Bueler]

I'm looking into adding a micro pinner to my arsenal. I've narrowed it down to 1-3/8" maximum length, I really prefer dry fire lock out and I like good to top quality tools. I've come up with 3 pinners with those features, MAX NF235A/23-35, Cadex V1/23.35C and Senco 23SXP.

I'm partial to Senco and have been buying/using that brand for over 30 years. However, I know they went through some quality issues about the time they went bankrupt. I don't know what their current quality level is.

The MAX has adjustable depth of drive that the other two don't. How important is that?

Cadex is a brand that came along after I quit specing/buying tools on a regular basis so I nothing about them.

I'll be using this pinner on a broad range of wood densities from Pine, Poplar and Alder to hard Maple, Hickory and Jatoba (This variation in densities is what got me to wondering how important depth adjustment is.) and I'll be the only user.

Any comments on which brand (or other higher quality brands I may be missing), preferences, experiences are greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[Ben Rivel]

Best bang for the buck and in quality from my research was Omer brand nailers. Their 23 gauge is the B6.35 or B6.50.

[scott vroom]

Have you looked at Grex? I'm happy with mine.

[Jim Becker]

I have a Grex and am extremely pleased with it.

[Randy Heinemann]

I know you're probably looking for a recommendation from someone who uses the nailer daily (and I don't), but I own a Grex and it has never failed. I use it only in my home woodworking shop; not for commercial cabinet or furniture making. However, I love it and it has operated smoothly and reliably for me. Also, depending on what you use it for, you might find a use for longer pins. My Grex does 2" and I have occasionally required that. Nothing worse than having a need for a 2" and not having the capability (at least for me).

[Bruce Page]

Another vote for the Grex. I've never had any problems with mine.

[peter gagliardi]

I used to own only Senco everything up till about 15 years ago. Quality dipped, I experimented with Omer- broke the driver before 2 boxes of nails were shot, and it would jam up and not feed Omer brand nails.
I then tried Cadex nails in the Omer, and it fixed the jamming issue, but eventually, I switched over to Cadex guns.
The Cadex guns have run flawlessly since then.
At one point, before the Cadex, I thought about the Grex, but the Cadex had more capacity and features.
Satisfied Cadex owner.

[Mike Heidrick]

Ive put 13,000+ 1.25" menards 23ga pins though my bosch 23ga pinner. Perfect. No jams. Good enough proof for me.

[Mike Henderson]

I have the Grex and it's worked well for me.

Mike

[Peter Kelly]

Another vote for Omer.

Max nailers were all made in Japan once and the build quality was excellent. They've since off-shored a lot of their production so the reviews all seem to be up and down now.

[Greg R Bradley]

Watch out for Senco. I have some older stuff and it is great. Purposely bought some from a tools store that had been closed for a long time to get old inventory. Senco started turning to junk at least a decade ago. These had been in their warehouse longer than that. Some of their new tools are a step below Harbor Freight, who actually make a few decent tools of this type. Of course the quality on HF tools is variable due to poor QC so you can easily get 3 bad ones in a row.
I had a Grex and it was wonderful. Bear in mind Grex simply rebadges other tools so don't assume other Grex tools are good. The Pxxx series of 23ga pinners are excellent. I gave it to my brother when I ended up with a matched set of Cadex tools and didn't need 2 23ga pinners.
Max was great Japanese tools, now making more money living off their reputation and selling mainstream semi-OK tools at much lower prices. They are now half the price and half the tool.....
When Bosch first introduced their air tools, I was at a Bosch event and got 18ga and 15ga for virtually nothing. Not very good tools. Don't think they had a 23ga at the time. I believe Mike's opinion and this is a perfect example of why you can't rely on all tools of a certain brand to be the same function.

[johnny means]

+1 for Grex.

[Joe Jensen]

I have a Grex which I selected based on favorable web responses a few years ago. Light use but no issues.

[Shawn Pixley]

Add me to the Grex list. That said, I’ve used Senco as well and was happy with it.

[Jim Becker]

It's also hard to "lose" a Grex in the shop given the bright green color. :) :D

[Bill Orbine]

Another vote for the great Grex. Omer and Cadex also have good reputation.

[Randy Henry]

I got a Grex for a Christmas gift, after having a Porter Cable for about 10-15 years. After owning the Grex for about a year, it wasn't shooting the pins all the way in, and this was putting 1/4" cedar lining in a hope chest. Called Grex, and ended up having to rebuild it with new o-rings and the main plunger/firing pin, as it was wore down. I keep my pressure at 95 psi, so, I know it wasn't from too much pressure wearing down the tip. Never had any problems with my old stand-by Porter Cable. However, Porter Cable has changed hands several times since I bought it, so, who knows what the current model is like. I see a lot of the Grex re-build kits for sale, so that tells me a lot.

[Bruce Page]

I got a Grex for a Christmas gift, after having a Porter Cable for about 10-15 years. After owning the Grex for about a year, it wasn't shooting the pins all the way in, and this was putting 1/4" cedar lining in a hope chest. Called Grex, and ended up having to rebuild it with new o-rings and the main plunger/firing pin, as it was wore down. I keep my pressure at 95 psi, so, I know it wasn't from too much pressure wearing down the tip. Never had any problems with my old stand-by Porter Cable. However, Porter Cable has changed hands several times since I bought it, so, who knows what the current model is like. I see a lot of the Grex re-build kits for sale, so that tells me a lot.

I run mine at 70-75 psi. 95 seems high.

[Bill Carey]

I know I'm gonna feel like the Beverly Hillbilly's with this, but I've been using my 23 buck HF pin nailer for 3 years without a hiccup. At least a couple of times a week. If it even looks at me funny, I'll just go buy another one.

[Randy Henry]

The manual says 100psi or 110psi for longer pins or higher psi for hard woods. When the pins didn't go in all the way after a year, I turned it up to 110 psi, which didn't help. http://www.grexusa.com/grexusa/headless_pinners.php5?section=guide

[Tim Bueler]

Thanks for all the responses! Disappointed to hear about MAX, they were quite the innovators about the time I "retired". I looked at both Grex P635 and Omer but couldn't see that they have dry fire lockout. For Grex owner/users, does your Grex have dry fire lockout?

[Rick Alexander]

Another tip of the hat for the Harbor Freight. Just works - light use for more than 5 years now. I also have a Senco 21 guage I got to put trim up - figured it would fill the gap between guns for me on stained trim. Works great but I have had issues with it if you don't run it at 90-95 psi all the time. The plunger doesn't want to reset properly on the longer pins (2 inch). I actually lubricate it slightly now with a light grease and that seemed to have helped. I've used that Senco quite a bit and am happy with the pin size and the gun.

[Randy Heinemann]

Even though I now have a Grex, I did use a Harbor Freight pin nailer for several years without incident. I think I paid much less than $23; like maybe $15 at the time. For those ind of prices, you can just keep buying them and throwing them away when they stop working. Also, HF used to offer a warranty that replaces the nailer if it fails within a certain period, but I believe mine lasted longer than the warranty so probably isn't worth it. I have no idea, though, how it would stand up to daily use.

[Ben Rivel]

Thanks for all the responses! Disappointed to hear about MAX, they were quite the innovators about the time I "retired". I looked at both Grex P635 and Omer but couldn't see that they have dry fire lockout. For Grex owner/users, does your Grex have dry fire lockout?
Pretty sure Omers have dry fire lockout. Ive just never tried it on mine before. This listing states it does (LINK (https://www.amazon.com/Omer-B6-50-2-Headless-Pinner/dp/B002GEREH0)). You can also email them here and they have always responded to me in the past: LINK (http://www.omertools.com/contacts)

[Jim Dwight]

I use a Boshtish and it works fine but only goes up to 1 3/16 pins. I noticed the other day that Ryobi offers a cordless 23 gauge pinner. And it will do 1 3/8 pins. I really like my 18 gauge cordless and if I were to get another pinner it would be the cordless Ryobi. Pneumatics are a lot better than manually driving nails but cordless are much more convenient than pneumatics. You probably think it won't fit your fine tool expectations but I think you would think differently if you used one.

[Jim Becker]

For Grex owner/users, does your Grex have dry fire lockout?

My Grex has a "double" trigger...you can't pull the actual trigger until you move the "guard trigger" out of the way. So yes...you can't just hold it up and shoot people without taking an additional action. :) The old-old Accuset by Senco pinner I have doesn't have a safety mechanism and will shoot pins across the room...fortunately only really small ones. :D

[Tim Bueler]

Thanks for those links Ben, Omer's website is remarkably devoid of information (another possibility is I'm too daft to find it :rolleyes:)

Jim, what you are talking about is a safety mechanism, and I noticed most micro pinners have the double trigger. When I say "dry fire lock out" I'm referring to a mechanism whereby the gun will not fire once you run out of fasteners. It keeps certain people (though I won't mention me by name) from having to go back and figure out exactly when you ran out of nails.:o

Thanks again, all, for the responses. Looks like there are quite a number of professional grade tools available. I'll keep researching.

[Mike Heidrick]

Bosch has dry fire lock out. No pins, it wont fire. It has double trigger. I admit I velcro tied the pre trigger up. I was shooting thousands of pins and it annoyed me

[Ben Rivel]

Thanks for those links Ben, Omer's website is remarkably devoid of information (another possibility is I'm too daft to find it :rolleyes:)

Always seems to be the case with higher end tools that get big in other countries and finally start making it to the US. Hammer/Felder are only recently cleaning up their act here and Festool is long known for their weak manuals in the US for example.

[Ben Zara]

Agree with Jim above, unless you are a full time sheetgood cabinet maker, get the cordless ryobi, it is nice.

[Jim Dwight]

The Ryobi also has dry fire lockout according to the description on line.

[Tim Bueler]

This is to follow up on my original post.

Not too long after I posted Tyler Tool had a reconditioned tool sale. I was able to pick up a reconditioned Senco 23SXP for $105. That is the 1-3/8" version. It has the dry fire lockout I was looking for but no depth of adjustment. I haven't used it a bunch but it is doing everything I need so far. I also picked up a reconditioned SLS25XP-L, which is the 1/4" x 1-1/2" stapler, at the same time for $150. That one replaced my original, 20ish YO SLS stapler that I could no longer get the right parts for.:( The new SLS has depth of drive adjustment that my old SLS didn't and is a very welcome feature.:)

What made me think of it is I just got an email from Tyler Tool this morning that they are offering some discounts on reconditioned tools. It's not a big discount but if someone were looking anyway they might save a few bucks. I am not affiliated with either Senco or Tyler but I have had good luck with both and I've had excellent experiences with buying and using these reconditioned tools. As one friend put it "...theoretically, they've already had their problem."

[Greg Parrish]

For a local item I picked up a hitachi np35a from Lowe’s on sale for $79 and it’s been great for the price for hobby use. Only uses up to 1 3/8” pins though. But if you need it now most are more likely to have a Lowe’s near by before a real woodworking store.

[Alan Lightstone]

+1 to the Grex. Mine has been great.

Spent a number of hours earlier this year removing several nails in someone's heart from a nailgun. Amazingly survived it.

[Phillip Gregory]

I have Hitachi's 23 ga pin nailer, use it occasionally as a home shop user does, and it works fine. It is a little touchy with needing the air pressure regulated just right to not overdrive or underdrive pins, but after you shoot a couple of pins into suitably-sized scrap to adjust it for what you are doing, it works well. I do most of my work in oak and I have the pressure at 80-100 psi depending on length of pin. My Bostitch 18 ga brad nailer on the other hand is much less sensitive to air pressure. 90 psi works for about anything with it.

@Alan Lightstone
That does not sound like fun. I am guessing you are a trauma or CT surgeon if you spent several hours removing pneumatic nails from somebody's heart. It's amazing what can be done with enough blood, fluids, pressors, and such these days to keep people alive until the surgeons can get at them.

[Leo Graywacz]

I have the Grex that will shoot 1 3/4" pins. It's picky on nails and will only shoot Grex pins reliably. Caused a lot of problems for me on a job where I needed longer than 1" pins which my Senco would shoot. About every 3rd nail wouldn't shoot and got stuck. Once I switched back to Grex pins it worked great.