Best cordless nailers

ear3

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Jul 24, 2014
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After busting three hoses on this last job, including a flexilla, I'm now thinking about transitioning to cordless for my nail gun setup, even though this means i have to buy in to yet another battery platform.  The other contractor on the job lent me his bosch 16ga. cordless nailer to try out, and I was pretty impressed with how it handled. My hesitance about the Bosch, though, is that it looks like they only offer the 16ga. finish nailer, at least here in the States. Ideally I would want the 16ga. finish nailer, 18ga. finish nailer and narrow crown stapler, as well as the 23ga. pin nailer all on the same battery platform.  Any guidance, suggestions or preferences would be appreciated.
 
Paslode works well for me, not sure if they offer all of your requirements though.

I have the framing and finishing nailers, just clean em up now and again and your
good to go. A battery went bad so I purchased one on Ebay and it was a good purchase.

 
It will be interesting to see replies on this, I'm also looking to go cordless for all my nailers.

It depends also what battery platfroms you already have... Makita do a 23ga pin nailer (also a smaller stapler) on either 14,4v or 18v. They also have the DBN500 either out or due out shortly which I believe is an 18ga. They make sense for me for lightweight nailers as I have masses of Makita cordless for general work.

I really like the look of the Senco Fusion nailers, I believe they do 18ga 16ga and 15ga - not too keen on a new battery platform which only does one tool - but been very happy with the plethora of Senco nailers I have owned and those I still own.
 
It might be a tall order to get all of the tools you want in the same brand let alone with the same battery.  I'm not ready to make the switch to cordless nailers.  I love the idea but it just doesn't seem like you can buy one made to last. 

BTW, what pressure is your compressor set to that burst three hoses??  I've had trouble with couplings but not hoses.
[member=37411]Edward A Reno III[/member]
 
Speaking about what's sold in the US...

Ryobi AirStrike has 15/16/18 and a narrow crown

Senco has 15/16/18 but no narrow crown.  They also offer 16 in angled or straight and they have a cordless auto-feed screw gun if there is an interest in that.  Senco is probably the best option out there overall and what I would pick.

Neither of them have a cordless pin though.
 
I have  a  paslode framing nailer. Not used  it that much  and when I did use it, it was notorious for  misfiring.
Last time  I used  it was about two years ago  and  was ready to  burn it.

Have a job coming up  where  it will come in handy  so pulled it out off  the box  to see  if it was firing.
And lo and behold it was. Though  I have very little faith in the tool.
In fact  I'll probably  buy an air nailer as back up  as  I carry a small compressor in the van now anyway.
 
I've got an older Paslode finish gun and a framing gun, love them both. Even though I've got a complete assortment of Bostitch air powered nailers, the Paslode guns are the ones I try to use all the time.

Having said that...the 2 largest issues with Paslode guns are the age of the gas cartridges and keeping the gun internally clean. I can't overstate the importance in having a currently dated gas cartridge available. Sometimes old gas cartridges will fire, but 80% of the time they won't or else they only fire sporadically. Very frustrating...

Also, these guns do have to be cleaned from time to time depending upon the cleanliness level of the environment they're used in. Easy to do but it MUST be done. Takes about 10-15 minutes.

 
I have both the 18g and 16g Ryobi Airstrike Nailers they are fully electric, used with 4.0Ah Batteries they are both excellent, not so good with the 1.5Ah battery though, I also have a 15g Porter Cable Bammer that uses gas, but I have to refuel the gas cans as they are not made anymore, I use MAP gas which fires hotter and quicker than propane and give a better strike.
 
Ridgid just put out a brushless cordless nailer.
The specs look pretty good.  I've been tempted to take the plunge on this one

https://www.ridgid.com/hyperdrive/

Would love  to know if anyone had comments or opinions.
It would be nice to ditch the compressor if the performance is similar.

 
Have used a senco fusion 18g nailer since release and the firing pin is stuck on it. Haven't had the chance to strip it all down to see if I can fix it, but others I know had the same problem. Was a great gun to use until it failed. I used it extensively on set.
 
Hi all I've used a few brands over the last 10 years and I can honestly say that the best in my opinion is bostitch I have 2 16g. had my first one for 4 years now only got the second one last week as the first started to make a noise after I cleaned it so got anew one. But had a look at it days ago and found I had bent one of the fan blades. So I bent it back and it not making any noise now so the new one will be my back up just in case. looking at getting the 18g aswellnow for finer work. You do have to clean them like the paslode but I clean mine aboutwalther century every 2 months and I use it every day. I do a lot of second fix. Trim to you guys over there. Hope this helps. Oh and they are half the price of a paslode over here
 
I have a Paslode Impulse 16ga cordless.  Its an awesome nailer with plenty of power.  My boss has the 16ga and the 18ga cordless.  He had the DeWalt, it was horrible and it broke costing a lot of money to get it fixed.

With my nailer I rarely clean it.  I have owned it for 8 years and still works great.  The only flaw in my opinion is in cold weather the nailer will not fire.  To solve that problem I keep the gas in my glove box which is pretty close to my heater core.  When working out side  I keep a gas canister in my coat pocket to keep it warm.  Once the nail gun gets hot its good. 

I use the nail gun all the time.  It has a nice belt hook.  Recently I worked installing ipe v-grove t&g on a ceiling.  Ipe is a pain to nail and the Paslode had no problems setting the nails. 
 
sae said:
Made in Japan, which is a nice change from all the made-with-the-lowest-bidder stuff where most power tools come from nowadays.

[member=38144]sae[/member]
Boy how times have changed, there was a time when if any item, other than cameras, had a made in Japan sticker on it, I'd just cringe and walk on by. However, after years of having to bear with the made in China onslaught, I now smile and look very positively on the made in Japan label. [big grin]
 
It wasn't the compressor, but rather a combination of hazardous working conditions and cheap hoses.  The flexilla got some nails in it -- thouigh they're far up enough that I still might cut it down and reattach the coupling -- just haven't gotten around to it.  The next one was torched when it accidentally laid to rest on a halogen work light.  The third was a piece of junk that I bought in frustration and resignation just to muddle through the last few days, and it cracked when I stretched it the wrong way.

My battery platforms are Milwaukee and Festool.  I also have the Ryobi, but its the 40V for garden tools.

Brice Burrell said:
It might be a tall order to get all of the tools you want in the same brand let alone with the same battery.  I'm not ready to make the switch to cordless nailers.  I love the idea but it just doesn't seem like you can buy one made to last. 

BTW, what pressure is your compressor set to that burst three hoses??  I've had trouble with couplings but not hoses.
[member=37411]Edward A Reno III[/member]
 
I've been using the Airstrike brad for over a year and love it. Great fun for many applications. I also have the newer 2 speed Dewalt framer. Great gun too. Clearing jams is a pain but I've only had one.
 
Paslode guns since '99 or thereabouts. The gas has doubled in price, but still worth every penny. Just wish they made a  23g micro pinner.
 
oneeyesquare said:
Just wish they made a  23g micro pinner.

Bostitch makes one and it works great.

FWIW...And here's my rationale, framers and finishers are usually used on-site whereas a pinner is usually used in the shop.
 
Cheese said:
oneeyesquare said:
Just wish they made a  23g micro pinner.

Bostitch makes one and it works great.

FWIW...And here's my rationale, framers and finishers are usually used on-site whereas a pinner is usually used in the shop.
Most trim guys would disagree I reckon, my 23g is used on every job in the field.
 
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