Nail Gun deal?

[deaconjim]

I have found a guy who has 5 Central Pnumatic framing guns for sale, still in the boxes. He says he bought them off a guy who gets "pallet deals". He is selling them for $50 each.

It sounds like a good deal, but I don't have a great deal of experience with nail guns, so I don't really know what to look for. I'm going to be building a house or two in the next year, so I would love to have a couple. Any advice?

[deaconjim]

Never mind, I've answered my own question. You can buy these for $79 brand new at Harbour Freight. I think I'll hold out for something that will last more than an hour.

[agmantoo]

Our local pawnshop has a good selection of brand name nail guns in the $50 range.

[CatsPaw]

Central Pneumatic (obviously chinese and harbor freight) could work fine if you only want to use them for awhile.

Try to get service for them....that's probably the biggest issue. I actually have a Central brad gun that works great and has for many years. But, I'm in the trades and service has to be first on the list. If something of mine breaks, I want to know that I can fix it.

[catahoula]

Good deals can be had on most tools via the "tool crib" it's an amazon.com affiliate, they sell brand names. I have bought most of my tools through the tool crib. I bought a porter cable pin nailer for less than $100 and a bostich oilless finish nailer for just a little over $100. It would be worth your time to check out thier website.

[rambler]

Yup, Harbor Freight, they are on sale again this week close to what the fellow is asking - not much of a deal from his trunk.

I was in your same situation this summer, & ended up getting a Stanley Bostich paper tape framer. It cost a bit, but can even shoot nails into joist hangers & many handy options - easy depth changine, etc. It also can use clipped or round head nails - some areas code does not allow clipped head. Such a prescision tool, I had a hard time putting money into a Chineese ecconomy product....

We've been very happy with the nailer on a barn restoration project.

What style of nails are stocked locally? There are wire, plastic, & paper tape styles, I'd look what is available on the shelves & try to go with that type. 'Here' wire is real popular, but paper tape is also popular. Plastic is hard to find.

My PT33F nailer has handled 4 different brands of nails, only had one jam all summer.

Would be real hard to depend on a cheaply engineered one.....

--->Paul

[deaconjim]

Thanks, guys. I obviously decided to pass on the nail guns. I did, however, get a great deal on a Delta 10" tablesaw and an air compressor (both from someone else). At least the shop did get some new toys this w/e.

[james dilley]

I bought one of them at Harbor freigh. It works for what I needed it for. Building poultry pens. It staples the wire fine enough.

[greg273]

As a daily user of nail guns, I'd avoid the wire-collated nails, if at all possible. Same for the glue/plastic type ones. That crap shoots off and pegs you in the face more times than you'll be happy with. And if you get a wire in the eye....
The paper-collated nails are the best. As are the Paslode Framing guns. Have yet to find a better one.
The Bostich guns are in my expierience, over-engineered, heavy, and prone to breakdowns.
The Paslode Impulse ("cordless") nailers are more trouble than they're worth. Good idea, but give me a break, they havent been updated since they came on the market years ago! Ours spend more time under repair than they do on the jobsite.

Hitachi makes a good coil-nailer. But I'd avoid any of that chinese junk. Their usefulness and life expectancy is reflected in their price.

[rambler]

I did some research & came to the same thing on the paper-strip nails being a tad better.

What about the Senco & Duofast (is it) brands?

--->Paul

[michiganfarmer]

I repair these guns. Senco and Hitachi are comlpicated guns to fix. I think paslode air nailers, and bostitch air nailers are the best on the market. They are fairly easy to fix, and are as durable as anything els on the market. The bigest influence on your purchase decision should be what brand is serviceable locally.

[greg273]

Duofast is chinese junk, also, I believe. I had the unfortunate expeirience to work with a crew that used these cheap throw-away 'tools'.
The Senco stapler is a good tool. Very fast, and the staples have much greater holding power than the nails.