finish nailer

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cowchaser

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Joined
Sep 14, 2007
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927
Location
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA.
After 2 years of putting it off I must start the remodel on our house. Needless to say this isn't something I want to do because the house we had before this one took me almost a year to end up transfering and selling it 2 weeks after completion. Not going to gut every room, but a few of them. So with all the new trim work I just don't want to spend time hand nailing. Any recommendations on a finish nailer?
 
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I'm a huge fan of the Milwaukee nailers....I bought the line of nailers when they first came out.Could not be happier. I went thru countless finish nail guns. I think the next best one that I found was my Porter Cable


Dale
 
Every day at work I put an average of 2500 nails through this Hitachi NT65A3 Finish Nailer, 16-Gauge:

http://www.hitachipowertools.com/store_item.php?iID=159&arrPath=1,9,44,p159,

We beat these things up pretty bad, we've got 7 of them, 5 Paslodes, and a bunch of other miscellaneous brands. We all prefer these for the bazillion feet of trim that we do. They've survived falls off scaffolds, total submersion, poor maintenance practices [:I], and I've only seen one have to go to the repair shop for a broken spring. They are real workhorses. We use them for everything, hanging doors, all types of trim, oak handrails and balusters, custom built-ins, you name it, we've nailed it.

They never jam unless you try to drive a nail into something like a steel beam or the head of a drywall screw, and fixing the jams is very simple and tool free. We use 2" galvanized nails for everything, unless we need a little extra stretch to bite into something a little farther away (stupid framers work in 1/2" precision), we'll load up the 2 1/2". It'll hold 150 nails, so we're not constantly having to reload them as much. The nails are cheap, and they leave a nice small hole, too.

Here's my baby, she's not as pretty as the one in the above link, but it still works like new:
hitachi.jpg


Here at the house I have a Porter Cable 15 gauge angled nailer, but the cost of the nails is so high that I rarely use it.

Hope this helps! :)
 
Porter Cable, never had a problem with the ones I have. I have 6 different PC's. IMO, for the DIY guy they are the best deal for the money. You can usually get at least 16 and 18 along with 18 ga stapler and air compressor for under $300. There may be better models for contrators, but they are also more $. I haven't found nails for the PC to be anymore than for any other gun. As for 16 and 18 ga nails, they're pretty much all alike. For others, I usually buy Paslode nails.
 
I also have a PC. Just use it around the shop. Have probably put a thousand or so nails thorough it and never had a jam. Have a smaller brad nailer too. Also PC. Less use but also no problems.
Just my 2 cents.
 
Originally posted by cowchaser

After 2 years of putting it off I must start the remodel on our house. Needless to say this isn't something I want to do because the house we had before this one took me almost a year to end up transfering and selling it 2 weeks after completion. Not going to gut every room, but a few of them. So with all the new trim work I just don't want to spend time hand nailing. Any recommendations on a finish nailer?
Click to expand...

I know how you feel. About a month after a year remodel project of the main floor of a tri-level. My wife decides to sell. Oh well, I like it where I am now, better, anyway.

I have a Porter Cable finish nailer and a brad nailer and love them both. I then bought a PC Framing nailer to boot. All of them have got loads of use. And never a problem.
 
Originally posted by rlharding

Karl....You take your baby home with you!!!!!:)
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Well, you sorta get used to the one that you use...we're all kind of possessive of our nailers. They're all the same, but you know...creatures of habit and all...heh [:I]

We switch vans around a lot, depending on who's unloaded at what job site for a few days and who's going where the next day, so I always keep 'my' pair of impact drivers, my baby, and my tool belt with me so no matter where I end up, I'm always comfy. :)

She does make a cold snuggle at night, though...I guess you can't have everything...heh
 
Karl you ever seen anyone remove dark stain from cabinets? Mine are dark dark and we hate it. I was thinking just using an orbital sander and seeing what happens. Problem I will have is they are raised panel and I know I can't get all that out down the grooves.
 
Originally posted by cowchaser

Karl you ever seen anyone remove dark stain from cabinets? Mine are dark dark and we hate it. I was thinking just using an orbital sander and seeing what happens. Problem I will have is they are raised panel and I know I can't get all that out down the grooves.
Click to expand...

I've spent a lot of time restoring antiques and furniture, and to get rid of the kind of color you're talking about without sanding into the profiles around the grooves is going to take a fairly rigorous stripping process. With freestanding furniture, we had the option of taking the whole thing to the stripping booth, where we could really go at it with liquid stripper and detergents.

To do it that kind of thing on base and wall units, you'd have to remove them and then reinstall them. You can remove the doors and drawer fronts and have them done somewhere, but for the others you'd have to strip them in place, which is a bloody mess, no two ways about it. Have you considered base coat and glaze, making them look like the current high end cabinets that we're installing these days?

Basically it boils down to painting them with a vivid version of the final color that you want, and then glazing/distressing them with something to tone the color into what you really want.

Other than stripping them down in place, removing the stain will require pulling them out and having them stripped professionally, which incurs the cost of removing, processing, AND reinstalling them, most of which is likely to cost more than just buying new cabinets to replace them.

If it were me, I'd paint them and do the glaze thing. Email me if you want to see some pictures displaying the final look that I'm talking about.

Hope this helps!
 
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