Basic brad nailer/compressor?

[YorkshireMartin]

Can anyone recommend a budget brad nailer and compressor combination please? I've never had a compressor of any kind before.

It's just for finishing a few DIY jobs off then probably wont be used again for a long time, so cheap but functional is the order of the day.

Would it be possible at the low end of the price range to get a compressor that would work with both a nailer and for paint spraying. That would be ideal but they are two very different tasks and I might be expecting too much perhaps?

Cheers

 

[MattRoberts]

I bought this compressor 24L Air Compressor - 9.6 CFM, 2.5 HP, 1.5 KW, 230V, 24L, 115 PSI https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B018QOKU38/ ... -xbP177HTZ and this brad nailer Makita AF505 2-inch 18g Brad Nailer Complete with Nose Protector/ Oil/ Safety Glasses/ Carrying Case https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000PHNHMQ/ ... oybE9VAB25

So about £150 all in. Very happy with them both. The compressor is noisy as hell, but it's a compressor. Brad Nailer is great - zero jams and counting

 

[MikeJhn]

Compressor paint spraying is very old technology and is to be discouraged, due to environmental impact and the sprayers health, the way forward is HVLP spraying, there are a couple of links on here, do a search.

If you want a quiet compressor, look for a twin cylinder belt driven exaple, the twin cylinder means it recovers quickly and therefore is not operating as often, and the belt drive is just quieter.

Mike

 

[PAC1]

Why can you not manage with a hammer and punch if you just need it to finish a few diy jobs?

 

[dzj]

A 24L air compressor is enough for the brad nailer.
In theory, it could be also used for spraying smaller things. It would manage maybe 1m2 at a time.

 

[custard]

I'm in a similar position Martin. Once in a while an air brad nailer would be useful, but then months would go past without needing it again. So far at least I've concluded that an electric brad nailer is all I really need, actually a Warrington hammer, a nail punch, and a box of panel pins is probably all I really need, but I've compromised with an electric brad nailer! It's less about saving money, more about saving the 3 square feet of floor space that the compressor would occupy, plus all the time that would be spent on maintaining and repairing a cheap compressor!

This is the one I use, it'll sink an 18 gauge brad up to 50mm long into any softwood and quite a few hardwoods too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjTAsx-qumw

There are bigger and better electric brad nailers out there, there's an Italian (?) brand who's name I forget that's the Rolls Royce, but for half a dozen uses a year this does me fine.

Good luck!

 

[petermillard]

... there's an Italian (?) brand who's name I forget that's the Rolls Royce, but for half a dozen uses a year this does me fine...

That'd be Maestri - bullet-proof nailer/stapler, great tool, but really quite expensive now. Completely agree re. electric vs air; I'll just say that with a compressor, while you may start out with an 18ga pin gun you have the option of cheaply adding say, a 21ga veneer pinner or a 16ga 2nd fix nailer at a later date. I have the little Stanley 4.5litre compressor which I rate highly for this kind of occasional, light use - though I completely agree about using HVLP for spraying...

HTH Pete

 

[n0legs]

Compressor paint spraying is very old technology and is to be discouraged, due to environmental impact and the sprayers health, the way forward is HVLP spraying, there are a couple of links on here, do a search.
Mike

That's not quite right.
You can HVLP "spray" with an air compressor.
Sata 4000, 5000 (there are many more by other manufacturers) are both full HVLP guns for use with a compressor system. I know, I've used them both.

 

[MikeJhn]

I am sorry to disagree, but true HVLP spraying with a three or four stage turbine is so far beyond the capability of compressor spraying I can only assume you where using an inferior HVLP system, the difference between the two is very convincing, I think the whole HVLP system concept is bourne out by compressor spray gun companies trying to convince us that they can compete and bringing out what they call compatable guns, they can't its a completly different concept, any compressor gun that is supposedly HVLP compatable that I have used has so much bounce back in comparison I may as well have used a compressor gun.

Mike

 

[PAC1]

I have this nailer http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-apc-b ... iler/91803
And this compressor http://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-dn-8- ... 240v/22374
I do not use it regularly but probably every fortnight. It is not a big compressor and the gun can cope with up to 50mm brads but would not cope with anything bigger. I got it because I found electric nailers cannot cope with hardwoods like oak. This does a very good job with hardwoods

 

[Steve Maskery]

I've recently bought this:
http://www.sgs-engineering.com/sc50h-50 ... compressor
I'm absolutely delighted with it.

 

[n0legs]

I am sorry to disagree, but true HVLP spraying with a three or four stage turbine is so far beyond the capability of compressor spraying I can only assume you where using an inferior HVLP system, the difference between the two is very convincing, I think the whole HVLP system concept is bourne out by compressor spray gun companies trying to convince us that they can compete and bringing out what they call compatable guns, they can't its a completly different concept, any compressor gun that is supposedly HVLP compatable that I have used has so much bounce back in comparison I may as well have used a compressor gun.

Mike

Mike I think you should go and revise your research into HVLP. You seem to be blinkered to the issue in your belief that the turbine systems are the only HVLP. They are not.
Is your understanding of HVLP correct?
Do you realise the whole HVLP matter refers to the air cap pressure and the delivery of the materials?
I'm beginning to wonder if you have a tie to a manufacturer.

To be classed as HVLP the gun has to be able to produce a useable spray pattern at 10psi or lower. A compressor based system achieves this by it's internal design, thus giving it the ability to produce sub 10psi at it's air cap.
It's input pressure may be 25-30-35-40psi but its design enables the previously mentioned "magic" numbers.

If you, Mike, are ever up my way I will gladly take you to a professional spray shop and demonstrate "true HVLP" on a compressor based system. Just let me know.

To anyone else interested, turbines are not the be all and end all of HVLP spray painting. Go read the manufacturers data and literature.
The turbine systems are a HVLP solution, and some are very very good, but you won't run a nailer off one. My advice look at and read all you can find, but do not discount compressers on the HVLP painting issue alone.

That's it now, I'm done. Sorry OP, just getting a little p'd off with disinformation.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Thanks chaps. Didn't mean to start a war over the merits or otherwise of paint system vs. paint system. I think the goal of painting and nailing with the same machine is a bit beyond reach for me as this is experimental.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

Why can you not manage with a hammer and punch if you just need it to finish a few diy jobs?

Have you seen those spring punches? Certainly a very interesting invention.

 

[MikeJhn]

There is indeed a lot of mis information bandied about concerning the virtues of Compressors using a conversion gun to become a HVLP system, you only have to look at the two systems to begin to understand the basic difference, a true HVLP system use's a 20mm dia hose to supply air at a rate of upwards of 9cfm continuously at about 10psi, a compressor with a 8mm dia hose can only supply that volume of air continuously at a higher psi, that is why most so called conversion guns run at upwards of 25psi where you get back into overspray and bounce back, restricting the psi in the gun internally is the compromise this restricts the volume of air that is available to atomise the paint which is the whole point of HVLP spraying as opposed to the high psi of a full compressor system used to atomise the paint.

To my mind its very much like comparing the difference between using vacuum cleaner as opposed to a chip extractor one will do the others job, but not as effectively.

Mike