Which 23 gauge micro pinner?

[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/headl...?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). You can also email them here and they have always responded to me in the past: LINK

[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.

[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 )

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.

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 )

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.