Framing Nailer

[London42]

Hi Folks,

Anyone used the full head Porter Cable framing nailer? I've got a clipped head one so I am OK with big nailers. My concern is the angle of the magazine (22 degrees as apposed to 34) does it get in the way? any trouble with nail jams?

any feedback would be usfull.

Thanks,
Ralph from London

[Danford C Jennings]

Ralph,

I'm kicking this back up to the top. I don't know of any framing carps that frequent this site. You might want to go over [link:www.finehomebuilding.com|here]; I know a lot of the guys there, most are framers by trade.

Dano

[kcW]

Thanks for kicking it back up Dano, I'd have missed it.

I used to frame for the money, but have quit that now. I found that stick nailers are generally a pain and prefer coil nailers. They are not as long and hold more nails. That being said, the airless PC nailer is awfully handy when you're nailing up truss bracing and subfascia etc.

FWIW

Tim

[London42]

Thanks Dano,

Didn't Know about that forum.

Ralph

[London42]

Tim,

Thanks for your thoughts - I hadn't cosidered a coil nailer - are they heavy? The stick nailers are bad enough.

Ralph

[kcW]

Ralph

No, compared to a stick nailer, they aren't heavy. The frame is metal but the magazine is plastic. I've always used Stanley, but other coil nailers look similar. And don't worry about the plastic getting broken. We never had that problem.

Tim

[rrich]

Ralph,
I just acquired a framing nailer, PC too, about 2 weeks ago. It works great and I have no complaints. My impression of the angle of the magazine is required because of the 'stair step' angle of the nails.

There was a nailer for $200 at Harbor Freight that was a knock off of the Porter Cable. The Porter Cable was $225 at Home Depot. I had a project and went through a half of a box of nails.

A word of caution. Wear safety goggles. The nails are held in the stair step pattern by plastic. When the nailer is fired these bits of plastic are tossed about, mostly sideways but you can't be too careful.

The nailer takes two strips of nails. Loading is a very simple operation. Just don't try to use loose nails as they don't feed very well. I was using the nailer overhead most of the time. I couldn't hold the nailer up long enough to get tired as I had to move my position.

In all the PC nailer is a good quality machine. Maybe the pros will disagree but for my projects it's great. They may wear it out in two or three years but it would take me 10 years to do the same.

Rich

[srpoly]

Hey there Ralph-
I've had that PC stick nailer for several years now and I love it. It does everything I need it to do and has never failed. I have built my shop w/attached store room, remodeled my house, and built my dad a house. All with PC guns. For the money, I don't think you can go wrong.
FWIW
--Dave D

[London42]

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