I want to buy a finish nailer gun, what should I get?

Question

...for installing pre-hung doors(needs to fire 2 1/2 finish nails and 1 1/4 finish nails) and for installing moulding(crown moulding and baseboards). What is 16-guage, 18-gauge, etc...? Also, should I get a nailer that uses a compressor or DC current(cordless)?

Answer 1

http://www.bostitch.com
I've been using bostitch products for 30 years without a problem.Look at different sellers for a deal,I just bought a new pancake compressor and got a 2 in. nailer free at Lowes.Go with compressed air,air tools last forever with simple care,plus you can use the compressor for other things as well.

Answer 2

well I sell tools at Home Depot and I come accross alot of people looking for airpowered tools. The one that is very impressive is the Ridgid line up. The are everybit as good as any other gun out there. They take the best of each tool and put it into theirs. both guns are really good to have but to do the job you want with the nail size your looking to shoot you want to get a 16g gun. they will shoot a nail upto 2 1/2" long as little as a 1 1/4" basically what the 16g gun does is pick up where the 18g gun leaves off. With the Ridgid line up you will get a 90day if your not happy with the tool bring it back for your full $$ back. plus you get a LIFETIME WARANTY. on everything, so you can say to the wife if you have one.."honey this is the last airgun I will have to buy" believe me that does work sometimes...lol. Other good guns are Porter Cabel and for the airless the best is Passload. A very good cordless nailer is the Dewalt 18V finishing nailer, but it is very pricy.

Answer 3

I would never go with a "cordless" gun, because it will fail eventually. Its almost like those "mechanical pellet guns", the mechanisms will fail after so many times, where, with air, "thats" the driving force.

With a compress air gun, as long as you keep the pressure up (Dont do like I did, and forget to turn on the air compressor, and the compressor got around 20 psi and I had blow by, on the trigger, and the gun was useless then!), you wont have any problem. Remember to add that drop or two of oil, or it "will" seize up eventually! Oil lubricates the gun and keeps it in fine working order.

I would go with 18 guage now... (Its almost a standard guage).

For installing molding, I used my brad gun, and it worked just fine. (I put up some nice crown molding and baseboards with a brad gun).

I too like Bostich air guns. Very good and reliable, unless your a dummy like me and cant seem to remember to do this and that :)

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 4

I own several models, and, like the folks ahead of me, prefer the Bostich.
I would recommend going to a home improvement store such as Lowe's, Home Depot, Menards, ETC. Hold the gun, see how it feels, look at the features, make an educated decision. There are so many different types and styles it's mind boggling.
Gauge refers to the diameter of the nail/staple. The larger the number, the smaller the diameter.

Answer 5

check this out

http://www.paslode-cordless.com/

click on the products tab at bottom of the page and look at the finish nailer

Gauge is the thickness of the nail it shoots. 16-gauge is thicker than the 18-gauge. Sounds like you need the 16.

Answer 6

DeWalt nail gun