Question on 23-gauge Pins for my Pin Nailer

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

I have recently bought a DeWalt 23-gauge pin nailer that uses 5/8 to 1&1/2 inch pins. The manual says to only use DeWalt, Porter Cable, or Bostitch pins with it.

However, the guy where I went to get pins says that that all the brands of the 23-gauge pins are interchangeable in the nailers. He uses two nail and brad nailers a lot, but does not use a pin nailer himself.

I have had difficulty finding more than one length of those particular brands of pins locally, so the question is: "is the guy correct, and can I use any of the brands of 23-gauge pins in my DeWalt nailer with no difficulties?"

Also, based on your past experiences are there any brands of the pins that are not very good, and conversely are there brands of pins that you highly recommend.

Thanks and regards,

Stew

[Tom M King]

No experience with a Dewalt, but I use Grex stainless steel pins in a Senco gun because they've always been the only stainless pins I could find. I don't have any experience with a variety of different brands of pins, but I can't see where there would be any difference that would amount to anything.

[Paul F Franklin]

I've used a few different brand pins with the Grex pin nailer I have and have never noticed any difference or had issues with any of them. I do tend to buy name brand pins, mostly grex, bostitch and porter cable. They are all 23 ga, and all glue collated so I doubt there's anything about the dewalt pins or nailer that would cause trouble with other quality pins.

[Jim Becker]

I've had zero issues, with Senco, Grex, PC, Bostich and Metabo pins in both the old Accuset by Senco pinner I started out with and the Grex I've been using for quite a few years now. In fact, I just bought some .5" pins in the Bostitch brand from Amazon as they were the best price at the moment. I believe that if you stick with name-brand fasteners, you'll be fine, whether it's a pinner or a larger gun. The exception being some specialty type pneumatic nailers that have unusual angles or features that pretty much require OEM. That's not likely to be something run into for typical woodworking shops, however...it's more of a construction thing.

[Marc Fenneuff]

Stanley-Black & Decker puts that disclaimer on all their air nailers for all their child brands. I buy Senco and... well, Bostich.

[Jim McCue]

So long as it's brand name and not bargain brand I would use it.

Sounds similar to how some recipes say to use only specific brands of butter, or some electronics say to use only certain name brand of AA battery. Because they're sister companies.

495237

[Curt Harms]

It used to be conventional wisdom that Harbor Freight pneumatic nailers were okay, their fasteners were not. The nails & pins were prone to jamming. I don't know if that's still the case but I buy name brand fasteners just in case.

[Bill Dufour]

I have found that going to the nail store saves about 50% off of box store prices. I buy my collated nails at the nail gun store for similar savings. Their knowledge is free
Bill