Framing nailers

[Brad Hammond]

can i get a sound off on your choices in framing nailers?
my friend is newly in the framing business and is looking for a good framer. hehe ( i think i made a funny).
anywho..... thanx ya'll
brad

[Stan Smith]

I like the porter-cable roundhead fn-350. Built my shop and did a bunch of siding with it and never a single jam. Did put the safety trigger on though.

Stan

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Brad. You could take a job with him and then he would have a Brad nailer :D No boos and hisses....

Anyway, the crew that framed my new home and shop used only Paslode and Senco nail guns. As I recall, the Sencos were their favorite because they are like the EverReady Bunny, they just keep running. The crew chief, also the owner of the business, claimed they ran the guns at about 140 PSI. I believe him because he used my IR compressor one day, and I had to crank it up to 140 psi for him.

As an aside, the crew also only uses Mikita circular saws, with Marathon blades they get at the orange borg. They like the accuracy of the Mikita and the heavy aluminum sole plate, it takes a beaten and keeps on ticken.

[Waymon Campbell]

I second Stan's choice of the PC FN-350. I and LOML built my shop with it. We also used it to build the treated picket fence built just before the shop. Not a single jam encountered and only maintenance was to add a squirt of oil before each use. Depth of drive adjustment took a little getting used to, but once learned, we were driv'in nails like a pro. Highly recommended...

Waymon

[George Skinner]

Senco guns are about the best. We use the 750-XL framing nailers in our construction business and they have never given us any problems. They also have the power to drive nails through LVL's.
Also all of our woodshop air nailers are Senco and have held up very well.
Just be carefull with cheap nails as they can be dirty and sometimes jamb. We damaged a finish stapler using cheap staples that we picked up in a hurry and so only use Senco fasteners now.

Hope this helps.

[JayStPeter]

While I have a PC and recommend it highly, I used one of the Paslode cordless while helping my buddy on his garage. It's lighter than the PC and cordless and toenails much better than the PC. If I was a pro, I'd definitely go for the Paslode.

Jay St. Peter

[Tyler Howell]

I have the Paslode Impulse. Shoots clipped head sinkers which aren't accetpable in some circles. I'd do it again, and again, and again.:p

[Dennis Peacock]

Brad,

I have a Paslode Framing gun and a Paslode Finishing Brad nailer. I have had them for YEARS now and have never had any trouble with either one. Paslode and Senco both make very fine nail guns and I highly recommend either one as I have used both in my experience of house building.

[CPeter James]

When I built my shop about 5 years ago, I knew that I was too old to drive all those nails by hand so I started looking around at nail guns. all the pro framing contractors use either Senco or Hatachi. I liked the Senco better and bought the SN65. I live it. Be careful what brand of nails use use however. I bought some Hatachi nails at HD and the plastic used to collate them was a little bit on the wide side and the nails would not always feed correctly. I usually bey Senco or a brand of nails that the local lumber yard sells that work real good. I alos have 4 boxes of SS nails that I bought cheap when Woodworkers Warehouse went under. I have used them for board and batten siding on my woodshed and the T1-11 sideing on my shop. Work great and no stains.

[Thomas Walker]

I have a round head PC-350 which has worked great for me. But my impression is that someone doing it for a living needs a Senco. Because of the reliability, availability of nails, and because it is very serviceable.

[Rob Russell]

I've got a Bostitch coil nailer I bought from the recon table at HD. Looked like it was used to drive 1 nail and returned. Anyway, I haven't used it much but the times I have used it - it's been a life-saver. My comments aren't so much about brand as configuration.

I had some really tight spots to nail some cleats in. A stick framing nailer wouldn't have fit - the coil style did.
I haven't yet replaced the multi-fire tigger with a single-fire safety, but will be doing so. That's my preferred method of shooting nails - place and fire 1 at a time. I've had the gun double fire when I didn't want it to. Production speed for me is different than a professional franmer who's banging in nails for a living. Your friend may want to leave the rapid fire trigger on. Better yet - get the safety trigger and learn to use the gun. when he's comfortable with it, take the safety of and learn to "machine gun" it.

YMMV.

Rob

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Here in Dallas, we have a place called Texas Tool Traders on Jupiter Rd. They will work on anything they sell (except PC) for free if you buy your fasteners from them. My old Senco is about to be replaced with a Hitachi. They tell me the Hitachi's don't come in very often for servicing and are considered the top shelf framing nailer in the business.

I also know that Paslode is a great brand, but I don't like the cost of running their 'cordless'. Those little gas canisters are costly and they smell funny. Also they require a bit of time to reload and since I build decks and fences for a living, that's not an option....too much waiting time between shots.

I like the Hitachi best, Paslode second (but I like the shorter nail magazines) and the PC would come in third. I sure like the idea of being able to get free service on my guns for life.:D:cool:

[Jason Roehl]

Personally, I've got the Stanley-Bostitch N80SB....alot of framers have used those for years as their main gun. But I'm not going to draw up battle lines over it, I just got one heck of a deal on it due to Lowe's 10% price guarantee.

I would like to say something about the different trigger mechanisms. My N80SB came with the standard bump-fire trigger. This means that I could hold the trigger in and bump the nose safety to fire a nail. This is a very common method when it comes to framing and roofing nailers, but this setup is also capable of firing when the nose safety is compressed first and then the trigger pulled, but the risk is unintentional extra shots.

I have switched my framing nailer to a sequential-trip trigger. This means that the nose safety MUST be compressed first, then the trigger pulled, and it is only capable of firing one shot like this until the nose safety is released, then the sequence can be repeated. I found that with a framing nailer, it is much harder to get a nail to set using this method, but there is some technique involved. I discovered that if I allowed for a little kickback as it fired, that the nail would set, where it would not if I tried to keep the gun firm to the work. In bump-fire mode, I never had this problem, but I did have the unintentional extra shots occasionally, like if the gun bounced off the joist behind it or something. (Let's not kid ourselves here about the force required to drive a 3-1/4" x .131" framing nail fully into wood---there's gonna be kickback).

[Scott Coffelt]

I've got a Stanley framer, but it was a steal at $140 normally $300 when I bought it. Around these parts I have seen many a crew with the yellow gun. I also see tons of Senco's. It seems easier to locate nails for the PC, Senco's and Hitachi's, then my Bostich. I have the 95RH, luckily the nails for a common Hitachi fit.

I heard somewhere that it was code to go with round not clipped, so make aure he checks the codes before he buys. That may dictate. Codes can very from town to town.

[Lynn Kasdorf]

Whichever brand you go with, I'd strongly suggest getting the single shot trigger mod for it. I found a Porter-Cable FC-350 for $75 (!!!) at Lowes during one of their sell-off-returned-tools binges. Not a thing wrong with it- just the case was filthy.

It had a big notice in th eowners manual that they woudl send me the single shot trigger for free if I called. I did and they did. Now it is a real joy to use.

Before that, I found it difficult to just put in one nail! It would recoil and shoot a 2nd. Much safer now.

The pros seem to be moving to the impulse type so they don;t need to mess with compressors and hoses. For my occasional needs, my PC is perfect, now that i have the single shot trigger.

[Jason Roehl]

I've got a Stanley framer, but it was a steal at $140 normally $300 when I bought it. Around these parts I have seen many a crew with the yellow gun. I also see tons of Senco's. It seems easier to locate nails for the PC, Senco's and Hitachi's, then my Bostich. I have the 95RH, luckily the nails for a common Hitachi fit.

I heard somewhere that it was code to go with round not clipped, so make aure he checks the codes before he buys. That may dictate. Codes can very from town to town.

I've found that the Campbell-Hausfeld stick nails work just fine in my N80SB, and they're plenty common in these parts.

The code varies from locale to locale, and IM(NS)HO, the round head requirement is a joke. True, they have a higher "pull-through" resistance over a clipped-head nail, but it's not much, and anytime I've pulled boards apart that were nailed together with clipped heads, the shank pulled out, not the head. I do believe that the round-head requirement in code is an addition to whatever other building code the locale is basing theirs on, but don't take my word for it...check your own local code.

[Brad Hammond]

thanx so much guys..........i'll pass along the info!