Air Nailers

[Poppykins]

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone can advise me please? Posting on behalf of my Dad, he makes bird tables, planters and garden furniture and has been nattering for an 'air nailer', finally bought him the one he was after Silverline 50mm-90mm (It won't let me post the link on here).

He's tried it on the lowest setting and it's just too powerful and is smashing all the wood up, can anyone recommend a less powerful air nailer 50-90mm? Many thanks.

 

[Roughcut]

It might be that he has the air pressure too high on his compressor.
If there is a regulator on the compressor set it to 40-50 psi and see how it performs.

 

[Poppykins]

He said he had it set to 40psi but what's happening is that where as he normally drill the hole then screws the wood together. But when he fires it it goes in like a bullet and splits the wood? Maybe it's too powerful for his type of work, he tried it in all different thicknesses of wood, decking etc but still no good. Thanks for replying.

 

[RickN]

Firstly I'd not recommend anything at all with a silverline badge on it, It's right up there on the "Buy cheap buy twice" Scale.

Secondly, assuming the gun isn't defective, I'd experiment with the operating pressure, sounds suspiciously like a defective regulator on the compressor to me, but without seeing it in operation it's hard to give a definitive answer.

 

[RobinBHM]

Is it this nailer:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-282 ... B000LG0VT8

I wonder if this nailer uses nails that are too big for the application? What happens if he tries nailing some softwood 4 x 2's together?

It takes 10 - 12 gauge nails which are probably used mostly in framing applications like building stud walls. For bird tables egc maybe a 16 gauge gun would be better.

 

[Nelsun]

You can lessen the explosiveness by orientating the nails to go in perpendicular to grain direction. This is hard to explain in text but keeping the longer width dimension following the grain direction is the thing. You're basically trying to not send the nail into the grain and forcing it apart if that makes any sense.

 

[Poppykins]

Thanks for all the advice, Dad actually mentioned that perhaps a 16 gauge one might be better so you're right. Thanks again everyone and I won't buy Silverline again.

 

[acewoodturner]

Plenty of good quality second hand Bostitch ones on Ebay. I have about 6 different ones and have only bought one new which was a 23 guage pinner. The others range from a 16 guage nailer to a big framing nailer for fencing. I love using them all and they are good for knocking up jigs in the workshop quickly.

 

[Poppykins]

Thank you all very much, I've just bought him a DeWalt 16 gauge finishing nailer so fingers crossed this will be better for his purpose. Thanks everyone.

 

[powertools]

There is nothing wrong with silver line framing nailers they are just the wrong tool for the job you are doing.