18v Milwaukee Brad Nailer

[Walter Cronkat]

I've got the M23, 18 Gauge Brad nailer, and 15 gauge finish nailer from Milwaukee for almost a year now. The 23 gauge and 15 gauge are amazing with no complaints. The 18 Gauge works great, when it works.. It jams for me about every 5-10 nails. Makes it nearly useless to use. I've used Senco and Dewalt brand brads. Anyone have this gun with similar problems? What nails do you use? Or is my gun defective and I should have it repaired/replaced?

 

[Samo]

I've noticed that the length of the 18 gauge pin matters and that the head needs to float between the rail slots.
May not be your issue.  This will be obvious as a pin will be stuck to the rail and not feed correctly.  Otherwise, I'd try customer service.  I called about the Chainsaw leaking bar oil and they actually responded  [eek]  But don't buy the M18-16" chainsaw.

 

[Walter Cronkat]

I can get 1'' nails to shoot consistently without jamming, but not anything longer. I use 1 1/2" the most. Forget about trying to shoot 2'' I've tried floating between the rail slots, doesnt help. When it jams, it wants to shove 2 nails through at a time. Or it will sink one nail leaving 1/2" above the wood surface.

 

[Packard]

I have the 18 gage and the 15 gage.

No problems with the 18 gage.

The 15 gage is supposed to handle 2-1/2” long nails.  I tried two brands and neither would load into the magazine.

Are you having issues with all nail sizes?  Or just the longer ones?

 

[Walter Cronkat]

I use senco in the 15 gauge, works beautifully.

With the 18 gauge I do have problems mainly with anything longer than 1", but like I said that essentially makes it useless for me as I shoot mainly 1.5" and it jams constantly with that length.

 

[Banana]

I had/have an 18 gauge (different brand) that was only jamming on longer brads.  In my case it was that the piston drive pin wasn't returning all the way up thus shorter nails had no issue as they could slide underneath drive pin.  I disassembled and trimmed a gasket per mfg instructions and all was good.  The Milwaukees are a unique design and so I'm guessing it will have to be serviced by them. So probably not the brand of brad nail.  Sometimes, if you can catch the Milwaukee rep at a box store, they will exchange on the spot rather than you having to send it in.  At least that's worked for me twice but I had purchased those from that box store.  Those tools weren't that new, I had owned them each for about a year prior.