Recommendations for 23 ga nailer

[peter gagliardi]

This isnt a response to the post but more a question for those who responded. We shoot a ton of pins. We run fairly cheap pin nailers that shoot sub 2" (more commonly sub 1.25") pins. I have come close several times to ordering a coupe Grex or Cadex nailers but for the life of me cant get my head around the close to $300 price tag on some of them. Are they really worth that kind of money? I cant often times see us shooting long pins as its a common occurrence to shoot 1" pins that will hook out the edge of pretty benign material (not hard graned, curly, etc). We find ourselves commonly clipping off and setting 1" pins that are shot through 3/8" trim and into the base material and they will hook and pop out (thankfully) the back side. These are double beveled pins too (single sided pins will hook out nearly 100% of the time).

I cant in any way imagine pinning on trim on an interior or exterior door even if it were backed up by glue or epoxy. We use pins most commonly to clip two and three piece trim on built-up pre-finished moldings that we ship to contractors. Any piece that is pinned is also glued because just handling a part that is pinned together without glue you can easily pull the piece off with mere hand pressure.

I own 2 of the Cadex pinners. They are extremely well made. I also have used a Grex, and own a short pin Omer. Cadex is my favorite. If you get the Cadex direct, I think it is only $179.00- just got another about a month ago.
I only run the Cadex pins, no issue.
The Omer pins I had would constantly jam.

[Martin Wasner]

I have a Senco I'm not overly impressed with. It tends to have feed issues. I would really like to try the Grex out, but just haven't bought one.


I think the 23 gauge is pretty worthless, until it's not. I don't use it much and most of the time it is for cross pinning mitres together. The rest of the time, is for tiny mouldings. Everything else is 15 gauge finish nails, and some 18 gauge pin nails. If I'm hanging crown, I'll nail the crown to the cabinet with an 18ga, pin the corners together with a 23ga, and nail to a wall with a 15ga.


Nails rimming out is pretty common for me and I'm running Isanti nails in it. It doesn't take much for that needle of a nail to get off track and come wizzing out at you. I tend to angle in so if it does rim, it's not going anywhere I care about. I've seen those things coming whipping right out the face you put it into though plenty of times.

I don't buy anything over 1" nails for it. I don't see a use for anything longer in what I do.

[Jim Becker]

Martin, one area where my Grex 23 gage pinner gets a lot of use is actually for "jigging up"...very handy in that respect, especially when you want some thing temporary and easy to rip apart after the fact. It's also been very useful for attaching very thin/delicate appliqués and other similar things in projects to hold while glue does its thing.

It took me a little bit to get used to the "double trigger" type safety on the Grex, but I actually like it. My older Accuset by Senco has no safety and it probably qualifies as a weapon as a result.

[Martin Wasner]

Martin, one area where my Grex 23 gage pinner gets a lot of use is actually for "jigging up"...very handy in that respect, especially when you want some thing temporary and easy to rip apart after the fact.

I do that fairly often as well, though it can be tough to pull the nail out of whatever piece it stays in when you pull it apart.

That's a good example of how poorly those nails hold. It has it's place though.

[glenn bradley]

I haveThe Harbor Freight and I have the Grex . The Grex is more elegant and has a nicer features. The harbor freight has been working flawlessly for years.

[Mark Bolton]

Are you buying good-quality pins? I had problems with hooking out until I switched to Grex-brand pins; haven't had a single problem since.

Pins could be an issue. I will put a box of grex pins on the next order and see. As with anything a lot depends on your work and your workflow. I can see where Martin wouldnt shoot a ton of pins. We do a lot of pre-finished built up moldings and applied moldings on casework, interior windows, and so on, where the pins are fine for holding a piece on while the glue dries but the molding, casework, or window will likely be handled, lifted, and so on and simply relying on the pins alone would just allow the part to pull off easily (i.e. Jim's post about using pins for jigging thins up). You can shoot a piece of trim on with pins and then simply pull it right back off relatively easily (provided you dont go fully automatic with your pin nailer and pepper the piece). Ive never found it something I could rely on as a fastener alone unless its as Martin mentions, cross pinning a miter.

The marring of the workpiece issue for us is alway an issue of kickback/recoil on the nailer itself. Our pin nailers dont have a protective tip so its a very small metal tip in direct contact with the work. Often times when you fire the pin your pressing down a bit, the anvil in the nailer drives the pin pushing you back off the work slightly, then your hand pressure bangs the tip back into the work leaving a dent. I find dialing up the pressure a bit and having barely any pressure on the work and just allowing your hand to slightly bounce away from the work when the pin nail fires leaves the nail below the surface and no mark.

The Cadex seems a bit more affordable but its just darn hard to pay the same money for a small pin nailer as you would for a full size, 21 degree, plastic collated, fully magnesium, framing nailer. Im sure Ill pull the plug one day.

[Martin Wasner]

The marring of the workpiece issue for us is alway an issue of kickback/recoil on the nailer itself. Our pin nailers dont have a protective tip so its a very small metal tip in direct contact with the work. Often times when you fire the pin your pressing down a bit, the anvil in the nailer drives the pin pushing you back off the work slightly, then your hand pressure bangs the tip back into the work leaving a dent.

Try shooting the nail, but leaving the trigger depressed until the tip of the gun leaves the surface. As in pull away, then release the trigger back to the rest position.

For some reason that seems to help with splitting as well. I'm not sure that's in my head or not....

[Dick Mahany]

Very late to the party here, but I have a Senco FinishPro 23 lxp and am happy with it. Drives up to 2" headless pins and has been a great addition to tools that I never thought that I would need, but won't part with it.

A friend showed me how he cross nails decorative molding directly to sheetrock with a little adhesive for faux wainscoting, and I was pretty happy with how simple, fast and effective this was for decorative applications.

I have also used it to attach crown molding detail to upper cabinets while waiting for glue to dry and never had to go back and fill holes. Admittedly I have only used about 1500 pins, so not a pro user.

It has misfed a couple of times, but no big deal and recovery was simple and quick. I'd buy it again if it died.

[peter gagliardi]

Pricing on the small guns is not unrealistic. Don't forget, all the same machining and amount of parts happens pretty much big or small.
Just the volume of metal/plastic used changes.
Next to my 25 year old Senco's, the Cadex guns are far and away my favorite to use.
The Omer was stupid money 15 years ago, and it couldn't even feed genuine Omer pins.
I started looking for another brand of quality pin to use in it.
I found the Cadex after a bit of research, and bought their pins.
About 2 months after switching pins, the Omer broke- the pin driver shattered.
Probably only shot about 2000 pins with it.
By that time, I had had it with that tool. I put it on the shelf, while I was still exercising good judgement, before I started using bad judgement.
Which would have been to flog the gun repeatedly into the concrete floor while attached to the thick rubber air hose.
At that point, it would have a good excuse for not working properly.
I didn't do it, but the thought came vividly and quickly to mind.
Anyway, the pins were excellent, and I was in the market for a new gun.
It was between the Grex and the Cadex.

To this day, I believe the Cadex was the best choice and the better gun.
I used both before committing.