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Thread: "contact trip" on framing nailers

  1. #1

    "contact trip" on framing nailers

    I have a Bostitch f21pl nailer that has served me well for at least ten years. However, it has always bothered me that it would not "contact trip" and I had to depress the trigger each time. Well, I found a part from Bostitch (CNTK5) to allow it to do just that. I installed it tonight and it works, but the problem I am having is that unless I am very cautious to only have a very brief depression of both the safety and the trigger it fires two nails, resulting in one not going in all the way or jamming the gun. I can't find anything in the manual that addresses this. I tried adjusting the depth and the air pressure and it did not make a difference. Thoughts?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Lafayette, IN
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    4,563
    It's technique. It's hard to describe, but you have to almost bounce it off the surface and let it recoil. If you try to hold it to the surface, the recoil will push it off just enough to reset the firing mechanism, then your force holding it to the surface causes it to fire again.
    Jason

    "Don't get stuck on stupid." --Lt. Gen. Russel Honore


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Canonsburg PA
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    71
    I have a PC framing nailer that works exactly as you describe. It takes some getting use to but you can fasten a 4x8 sheet in well under a minute. I am not sure I would want that type of action in a nailer where placement was critical.

  4. #4
    So I am gathering that it is either/or and it is not conducive to having both modes?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Alberta
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    2,162
    Gunter you can either push the tip in and try to fire only one fastener or just "bump fire" the way most all pros do. It is very possible to place fasteners with precision and speed. As a carpenter I have been doing this for 30 years. I pretty well never fire by pushing the tip in first. When I need to place something,I will use a hand nail then go with the nailer.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,876
    My PC framing nailer got a free upgrade to a selective trigger. This allows single fire or rotate a cam and it is bump fire. PC would mail you a replacement trigger for free to help avoid lawsuits? I thin kthat is the way the new trigger worked until it got stolen from my backyard.
    Bill D

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,675
    My Senco LOVES to double fire...often at the most inopportune time/position. Go figure...
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    It was never a problem back when the guns were heavy, like the Senco SN4. As framing nailers got lighter, you have to have quicker reflexes as the gun bounces off the wood after the first fire. If you don't stop your pushing down immediately after the first fire, the push will send it back down after the bounce, but before you can take your finger off the trigger. Often, that second one fires while you're backing off the pressure, and that keeps it from being driven all the way in.

    I still use my SN4 for a lot of things. I bought it new in 1975. I have a couple of newer, lighter framing guns, but I pick the best one for what I'm doing, and the old, heavy one gets the call if the job calls for many repetitions of bump firing.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    8,973
    We built these trusses in place in an 1850 house by pulling up the 2x12x16's through a small access ceiling door. There were some number of thousands of 3-1/2" framing nails to shoot. The trusses solved several structural problems with that house, including severely sagging rafters.

    My SN4 had a split firing seal, and my old rebuild kit also had the big white firing seal split. We put enough screws in everthing to pull all the parts together using clamps, but then needed to fire the thousands of nails. The lightweight guns weren't going to get it done. Even with an operator (me) with good technique, I just got too tired to keep the fast pace up.

    I shut that job down until the new firing seal for the SN4 came. With that gun back in service, it was a breeze, not including holding the heavy gun up.

  10. #10
    Thanks, guys. Sounds like maybe I need some practice. I replaced the trigger with the old one for now. I see there are some newer guns that have switches to let you select the firing mode. That's tempting, but this Bostitch has seen me through two major remodels and has taken tons of abuse and is still working great so I don't know if I could part with it.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    TX / LA border.. Toledo Bend
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Roehl View Post
    It's technique. It's hard to describe, but you have to almost bounce it off the surface and let it recoil. If you try to hold it to the surface, the recoil will push it off just enough to reset the firing mechanism, then your force holding it to the surface causes it to fire again.
    This is also my experience... it all has to do w technique "english".. needs to be learned w some experience.

    I think using a gun in this setting is like using a circ saw w no guard.. Gotta be REALLY conscious of what that thing can contact... A bad move of your foot or hand when this is laying on a floor or scaffold, going down a ladder and not noticing co workers head below.. will end up w a memorable day.

    Marc
    I'm pretty new here, not as as experienced as most. Please don't hesitate to correct me

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    TX / LA border.. Toledo Bend
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    746
    And, one thing worse than planting a nail in someones head, would be TWO nails !!



    Marc
    I'm pretty new here, not as as experienced as most. Please don't hesitate to correct me

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    Vancouver Canada
    Posts
    716
    One of the reasons I NEVER let my "guys" use my Paslode stick framing gun was because my old model is a bump fire and all my finishing nailers are trigger activated. Newer nailers are the norm for newer carps., and they had trouble with mine spitting out nails like a machine gun LOL!
    Young enough to remember doing it;
    Old enough to wish I could do it again.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Ingleside, IL
    Posts
    1,417
    Back in the mist of time when I worked for an outfit referred to as wReck and Destroy, the super came to me and told me to put his buddy on trim since he's tired of the Chicago winters. This guy was a stud on roofs - setting trusses and nailing off the sheeting like a madman, all bump and run nailing. So I bring him into a house ready for trim, set him up, and show him the trim gun: how you need to press it and pull the trigger, not bump and go like he's used to. Even made him explain it back to me. Then he takes the gun from me, and before I can say WTH, he presses it against his palm, pulls the trigger and shoots a 2" trim nail thru his hand. Needless to say he was back on roofs as soon as he was back to work, and he's probably still setting trusses in heaven or somewhere else.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Carey View Post
    Back in the mist of time when I worked for an outfit referred to as wReck and Destroy, the super came to me and told me to put his buddy on trim since he's tired of the Chicago winters. This guy was a stud on roofs - setting trusses and nailing off the sheeting like a madman, all bump and run nailing. So I bring him into a house ready for trim, set him up, and show him the trim gun: how you need to press it and pull the trigger, not bump and go like he's used to. Even made him explain it back to me. Then he takes the gun from me, and before I can say WTH, he presses it against his palm, pulls the trigger and shoots a 2" trim nail thru his hand. Needless to say he was back on roofs as soon as he was back to work, and he's probably still setting trusses in heaven or somewhere else.
    Seems to me that this was not the result of a misunderstanding of the firing mechanism, but rather a misunderstanding of the rule of cause and effect.

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