finish nailing question

[Darren Vass]

Hi guys.

I started trimming my basement last night and used a nail gun for the first time. I'm using a porter cable, 2 inch long finish nails and a PC 150 PSI pancake compressor. Have the pressure outlet to about 110 (recommended). Depth on gun to full. Never nailed with a gun before. Often when I pull the trigger there'll be 2 blasts, one after the other, but one nail. One time there were two nails. And about three times in trimming door frames, the nail heads did not submerge. Did I not hold the nose tight enough or long enough? Sometimes the hole is small and clean. And other times the hole seems larger and the paint is marred a little. Can I countersink the non sunken nail heads or do I have to pull them out, difficult.

Thanks,

Darren

[Jason Roehl]

Are you a shooter (as in guns)?

If so, you can't squeeeeeze the trigger like you would a firearm. It took me a long time to figure that out. You have to yank that baby. Pull the trigger quick and hard, then release it right away, otherwise you'll get the double-taps like you are.

Two inches is pretty short for base trim and the outside of casing. 1/2" trim + 1/2" drywall means the nail is only in the stud by 1", which isn't much, especially when the drywall doesn't reall do any holding and allows for "wiggle". Most trim carpenters I know (I know quite a few) use 2.5".

[Chris Matus]

Yes, you can countersink the nails. No need to remove them.

The pressure sounds like it's a bit high. I run my PC gun at about 90, which is more than enough. Make sure you oil the gun too. Are your nails too long for the application?

[Prashun Patel]

Maybe your gun isn't good.

It shouldn't be double-firing.
Does your gun have a bump mode?

110 psi on 2" through trim is definitely more than enough pressure; On thin trim that might even blow the nail through the wood. So you should be getting nice clean holes.

You really shouldn't have to go crazy holding the nose that firmly to the wood or holding the trigger for too long/tooshort. The gun should operate pretty intuitively and easily.