dewalt 1st fix nail gun review

[user 19915]

Thinking of purchasing a Dewalt 1st fix cordless nail gun What's your opinion on the Dewalt 1st fix nailer ? Mock

 

[baldkev]

Which one?
I have the 18v, 2nd edition. It fired maybe 800 rounds and then had to go in for repair under warranty. While it was away i bought a silverline pneumatic to tide me over snd as a spare. Basic but thumps like mike tyson!

I havent had much cause to use the 18v since. I have the 2nd fix as well which gas had a fair bit of use but now needs repair too.
I only have 5amp batteries, but they work well, couldnt comment on lower amp units. The 1st fix takes a good selection of nails, but note, they say not to use 90mm ringed..... which isnt great. I did use them but they dont always go in properly. Smooth was better. 70s and 50s were faultless. It did seem to struggle occasionally ( the odd jam ) usually knotty 4x2 etc.

I guess i gave up on my paslodes because of the gas and batteries, plus periodic cleaning which i often neglected.

I think if i had to choose one again, id buy pneumatic but i do have a choice of compressors on hand....

 

[Sandyn]

My son-in-law has a couple of the 18V units 5Ah batteries, which I have used, I didn't like them. I find them slow to fire and often jam with proper DeWalt nails. The advantage of course is no mains/compressor required, which is why he got them. They have a fair chunk of land with boundary fences to maintain (one of my jobs). I have an old silveline nailer, had it for 16 years, It blasts in 4" nails as fast as I can move the gun. Pull the trigger and the gun fires, no delay, just with a 9CFM compressor.

 

[gog64]

What kind of thing do you want to know? I’ve got a version 3 bought 2021. It’s great so far, but I’ve only fired about 3,000 nails through it so can’t vouch for longevity. It’s fairly heavy, so you know about it if you’re doing a long section of featherboard fence!

I did a fair bit of research before buying one. If buying second hand, v2 is apparently a big upgrade on v1, but v3 was only incremental updates. Having said that someone on here had a v1 that had been dead reliable for him and had done a lot of work.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many nails it will bang in on a 5a charge and it will bang in nails faster than this old duffer can offer up boards!

On the negative side, it’s only a 12 month warranty with this nail gun and I’ve found Dewalt service incredibly slow.

BTW I’ve just read Sandyns post. That’s not my experience, 90mm nails on auto are bang bang bang. Faster than I can move the gun anyway. Maybe he was using a v1?

 

[Peter Sefton]

Can't comment on the Dewalt but I do have the Hikoki 1st fix which is excellent if a little heavy, I used to have the Paslode but got feed up with the gas and constant need for TLC or servicing.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Sandyn]

BTW I’ve just read Sandyns post. That’s not my experience, 90mm nails on auto are bang bang bang. Faster than I can move the gun anyway. Maybe he was using a v1?

I'm not sure which version it was, but if the V1 was slower, then it will have been. I will look next time I'm there.

 

[murphy]

I had 2 DeWalt nail guns, and both often jammed, I sold the second one while it was still working and got the Ryobi with 5ah batteries, I have been using it quite a bit lately and am happy with it, it has not misfired or jammed once

 

[Molynoox]

I went through this same debate with myself about a year ago, I needed a framing nailer, didn't want the faff of gas, ended up with the Hikoki, seemed like a no brainer based on all the reviews, there were quite a few negative reviews of the Dewalt, but not so the Hikoki, but myabe that was the old Dewalt version, dunno
like somebody else mentioned, its heavy, but it works flawlessly, not had a single problem with it, not one jam
I'm happy with it anyway
Martin

 

[clogs]

I bought a paslode for a huge roofing job.....which run into many thousands of nails.....
Had I known of the probs I would have bought an AIR NAILER......
but it still did its job and saved so much wrist ache.....
I think it paid for itself even if I threw it away after this job....
Does anyoneknow why the gas goes off after long storage.....?

As for batt driven nailers never found one with the guts to work all the time everytime....the y just seem a bit lightweight....
Most of my big nailers have been sold and now only have a few of those cheapo nailers from Lidil...which work a treat.....and only one of those has quit ( due to the plastic piston breaking,
which I will make a new one once my lathe is running again)....
So it's air for me.....
oh, I did buy an Estwing pro framing hammer when I was last in the state which was a dream to use but some light fingered erk stole it......but to use it for hours on end is a no no....
as always find a local guy with one that u can try out.....

 

[JobandKnock]

Used one for 5 years (DCN692) before switching to Hikoki. Reliable gun, simple to repair (very little goes wrong on them). A bit heavy (but then my Hikoki is bigger and heavier) especially if you are used to using a gas nailer such as a Paslode. You will need to get used to working at the speed of the machine, though, and it won't sink 90mm ring nails until you've done a box or so of nails (running-in period). Nail jams were fairly rare and were often down to nails stored in too damp a place and in a few cases carp nails which wouldn't feed through a gas nailer, either. Even Paslode produce the odd ropey box, I've found, although some cheaper brands, like Champion are a nightmare, so I stick to DW, Hikoiki or rawlk if buying my own nails (which isn't often)

Trade user and have used gas nailers (Paslode, Hitachi, Senco, Rawl, etc) since the early 1990s, so think in terms of lots of nails when I'm using these guns. I also use a compressor and pneumatic guns as well on some jobs, but dragging that lot round, plus ropey power supplies on some sites, plus the extra maintenance and inspection/RAMS regimen and things like trip hazards means that compressor usage oin British sites is often limited, hence the need for a gas or cordless 1st fix as well

 

[JobandKnock]

While it was away i bought a silverline pneumatic to tide me over snd as a spare. Basic but thumps like mike tyson!

Not impressed with Silverline. Despite being warned my i/c bought a couple of those to use with my compressor whilst I was off running another job for a couple of weeks. They both lasted maybe 10 to 15k nails each before dying (to put that in perspective, the job we were doing required 13k 50mm ring nails a day into double skin plywood flooring), Utter garbage for what we do, I'm afraid. On pneumatic I've always stuck with the big brands - my current Senco did over 400k 50mm rings into plywood on the last job at the cost of one drive pin, and that was down to hitting nail heads in the underlayment many times, so is just part of the cost of doing diaphragm floors

I guess i gave up on my paslodes because of the gas and batteries, plus periodic cleaning which i often neglected.

You always seem to get a bad gas cannister on a Sunday afternoon after Screwfix have closed, I find, but they all seem to suffer from electronics problems to a greater or lesser extent. At least the modern ones will fire upside down (e.g. to nail a header to the underside of a joist) which my first black one with the old stick battery could rarely manage

... there were quite a few negative reviews of the Dewalt, but not so the Hikoki, but myabe that was the old Dewalt version, dunno...

DW were the first to produce a true cordless nailer, but their first generation tools (c. 2005/06) were only 2nd fix guns (15, 16, 18ga) and used the old NiH battery packs. They ran forever and I still service a couple which are pushing 15 years old. The first 2nd generation framing nailer, the DCN690, was a single speed model which got a poor reputation for its' inability to sink 90mm nails consistently - the replacement model, the 2-speed DCN692 which appeared about 2015/16 is far better. DW dropped the single speed gun about 4 or 5 years back.

Does anyoneknow why the gas goes off after long storage.....?

They can lose pressure, I believe that moisture can get into the cannister, and those cannisters also contain a small amount of lubricating oil without which the gun would fail (sieze). With out of date cannisters the oil can end up gumming up the gun as well.

BTW DW, Hikoki and Miklwaukee all make reliable 1st fix cordless nailers these days capable of sinkling 90mm rings once run-in. The Milwaukee uses a nitrogen cylinder whicjh is expensive and loses pressure over time, the Hikoki uses compressed air and needs to go back to either Hikoki or one service agenty (in Scotland) for repressurising from time to time whilst the DW uses a flywheel and doesn't have these issues but is slightly slower.

 

[user 19915]

Thanks, ill do a little more research but Dewalt out of the running at the moment

 

[JobandKnock]

Thanks, ill do a little more research but Dewalt out of the running at the moment

Just out of interest, why?

 

[baldkev]

What kind of thing do you want to know? I’ve got a version 3 bought 2021. It’s great so far, but I’ve only fired about 3,000 nails through it so can’t vouch for longevity. It’s fairly heavy, so you know about it if you’re doing a long section of featherboard fence!

I did a fair bit of research before buying one. If buying second hand, v2 is apparently a big upgrade on v1, but v3 was only incremental updates. Having said that someone on here had a v1 that had been dead reliable for him and had done a lot of work.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many nails it will bang in on a 5a charge and it will bang in nails faster than this old duffer can offer up boards!

On the negative side, it’s only a 12 month warranty with this nail gun and I’ve found Dewalt service incredibly slow.

BTW I’ve just read Sandyns post. That’s not my experience, 90mm nails on auto are bang bang bang. Faster than I can move the gun anyway. Maybe he was using a v1?

A guy i worked with earlier in the year had a dw692 ( like mine ) and bought about the same time ( they were both about a year old ) and his was able to fire quicker than mine.....

They both lasted maybe 10 to 15k nails each before dying

Hopefully mine will be ok, as a spare, it'll only be used when the dw is out of action. To be fair, im pretty sure i paid about 80 quid on an ebay promotion

 

[Lons]

If you look back at old posts there are some on the DeWalt, I'm not going to repeat it all except to say I was lucky enough to test one of the first prototypes, so V1 and only 4 amp batteries and I still have it, gets used fairly regularly, never flackered and very few jammed nails oh and absolutely no problems using 90mm both smooth and ringshanks. Difficult to say how many nails I've fired but definitely quite a few thousand. I sold on the Paslode I had soon after testing the DeWalt and have never regretted it for a minute.
My mate bought a V2 gun second hand, he's a landscaper and puts up a lot of fences so it's had a lot of use in the 12 months or so he's had it and he's perfectly happy

 

[Lightning bolt]

Bought dewalt 1st fix nailer in about 2014/15, not sure what version, laid 2 large rustic oak plank sub-floors/ceilings (oh what a feeling...)
In a castle, framed a 20' x 30' studio building & built a decent size timber frame & stick frame house with this gun.
Never any issues with it. The odd jam but easily released. So handy just having battery with no gas, leads/hoses etc...it's 18v/5amp I would defo recommend it. Using paslodes in the past it seemed like they needed loads of tlc.

 

[Billy_wizz]

The Milwaukee one generally gets good reviews from what I've seen

 

[JobandKnock]

The Milwaukee one generally gets good reviews from what I've seen

I'll bet nobody ever quotes the price of that nitrogen "spring" or its' expected volume of nails, though (interestingly Senco quote 100k nails for their Fusion nitrogen cartridges and replacement on those is around £150 plus fitting, I'm told). So they don't last forever and it is a valid question to ask, especially as this is a service centre fix unlike the annual or less service you need to perform on any gas nailer. My Hikoki did about 50k nails (mostly on rapid fire) before it needed recharging with compressed air at the service centre - but it was done under warranty and they told me they'd found a faulty seal. The normal service charge for that would be about £65 and they told me I should expect 150 to 250k nails between recharges, all depending on how hot the gun got in service - or in other words don't use it in bump fire mode for hours at a time until it gets so hot it siezes

 

[mr edd]

I have had the DeWalt mk3 for about 2 years now after my paslode died. Its been fine,
My only complaint is the hook, it won't hang from your toolbelt.

 

[SimonR]

I have both the first and second fix Dewalt guns, owned for over 18 months now. Previous was a Paslode, beast of a gun but quite temperamental. Both guns are not without faults, slightly heavy, and the first fix can rub a little on the outside of the thumb with heavy use. But, having said that, still think they are a good tool, quick charging, easy to load, easy to see when you forget where you have put it down, but i did have an issue with the second fix jamming, combination of heavy use and paslode nails in the Dewalt gun maybe, and they tell you not to oil, but i did, lithium grease, lightly applied and a real transformation, while i am not saying grease your tool, it worked for me
Would buy again