How to Select Nail Guns
Nail guns or "nailers" make work easier by taking the pounding out of nailing. A single pull of the trigger shoots a nail into the exact spot and even sets it below the surface of the wood if that is what you want. There are a wide selection of nail guns available from different manufacturers and for many different tasks. Whether framing a wall, putting up crown molding or laying a floor to building cabinets and hobby work, nails guns save a lot of labor and effort. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Pneumatic or Cordless
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Decide if your work or environment best supports a pneumatic nailer, rather than a cordless machine.
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Choose pneumatic nailers if speed is a factor or trailing a length of compressor hose doesn't matter.
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Select cordless nailers if speed is not a factor. You won't have to drag a compressor and hose around. Cordless nailers off-gas tiny amounts of exhaust from their internal combustion chamber.
Type of Nail Gun
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Choose a framing nailer if you will be doing rough framing work, like building walls, sheds or garages. Anytime you are fastening lumber pieces to each other, a framing nailer is the tool for the job. Other uses are for fastening plywood sheeting to walls, floors and roofs.
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Buy or rent a finish nail gun when your work entails finished lumber products such as moldings, cabinets and any finished lumber product.
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Use an angled finish nail gun for trim work. The straight or flat finish nailers seem to get in the way of themselves and the angled variety solve this issue.
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Fasten easily split products with a brad nailer. Brad nailers shoot very thin, square nails in lengths from 1/2 inch to 2 inches. Very hard woods are sometimes easier to nail with a brad nail gun because the thicker finish nails are not always driven all the way in.
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Select a pneumatic floor nailer for hardwood plank tongue and groove flooring products that must be nailed down. Manual floor nailers can require multiple strikes with a mallet to fully seat the nails, which make pneumatic the way to go. A straight finish nailer will be useful for face nailing planks close to the wall and transition moldings.
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Nail down roofing shingles with a coiled roofing nailer. A coiled roofing nailer can cut the labor time in half for installing shingles. Remember to use four nails to a full shingle. Cordless varieties exist for roofing, but most people find them too slow.
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Tips & Warnings
Many professionals find a cordless nailer too slow. Small air compressors can handle most jobs and give you the power you need, but being tethered to the air compressor can be a pain. If your use is likely to be infrequent, then a cordless nail gun might be right for you. They cost a little more, but you won't have to set up an air compressor each time you want to use it. Do your research and don't be afraid to buy or rent different brands. All brag they have the best, but some brands are better for some tasks than others. One brand might be great for shop work while another brand is best for installing trim. Consider the fasteners when selecting a nail gun. Not all nail guns use the same nails. There are a wide variety of fasteners out there, and different models use different types of fasteners. Some nailers, especially finish and framing nailers, have two modes of operation. Bump and go nailers fire as fast as you can bump the nose against a work surface while single shots only fire if the nose is pressed down and the trigger squeezed. Each shot will require lifting the nose and another trigger squeeze.
Always wear safety glasses when using a nail gun of any kind. Fasteners can fly in any direction if they hit another nail or other hard object in the wood. Never disable the nose or trigger safety to shoot a nail across the room. The flying nails hit with a force strong enough to kill or maim if they hit in the wrong place.
