George Vondriska

Finish Nailer Buying Advice

George Vondriska
Duration:   5  mins

Description

A finish nailer can make your woodworking projects easier while making you a more efficient woodworker. Using the Bosch 16 ga. Straight Finish Nailer, George Vondriska explains what you should look for when buying a finish nailer. A WoodWorkers Guild of America (WWGOA) original video.

16 ga. Straight Finish Nailer provided by Bosch. For more information, visit www.boschtools.com.

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6 Responses to “Finish Nailer Buying Advice”

  1. Daryl Chan

    This is a very helpful video. Thanks.

  2. Dave Rukavina

    This looked more like a commercial for the Bosch 16 gauge nailer than a buying guide. I would have liked to see more information on which gauge to use (by project type, by wood species, etc.) or which length brads/nails to use (and, by extension, which nailer to buy). Side topics which could have been addressed include safety and accessories. Overall, I think this was rather superficial and incomplete.

  3. Dave Rukavina

    This looked more like a commercial for the Bosch 16 ga. nailer than a buying guide. I wish it would have had more advice on which gauge to choose (by project, by wood species, etc.) or which length nails/brads to use (and, by extension, which gun to buy). Side topics which could have been included might have been safety and accesories. I saw this as fairly superficial and incomplete.

  4. cotejito

    thanks

  5. Wayne Williams in Garland, TX

    The video was: Tips for using a Finish Nailer - WoodWorkers Guild of America

  6. Wayne Williams in Garland, TX

    Hi George, thanks for the new video. I watched one of your other videos on finishing nailers and you made a point to drive the nail perpendicular to the wood, but on this video you use it parallel to the wood. What has changed?

A finish nailer is really a great addition to the shop, and there are so many places where this can make your work more efficient and a whole lot easier to do. So, let's talk about, if you're buying a finish nailer, what you should look for. First thing we want to talk about is gauges. Nailers are available in different gauges, 23-gauge, 18-gauge, 15-gauge, 16-gauge. Remember that, with gauges, as the number gets bigger, the thing gets smaller.

So a 23-gauge nailer is a smaller pin than a 16-gauge nailer, like I have here. When you're nailing heavier stock, for instance, moldings in a house, then you want to have a larger nail to make sure you have enough holding power for that stuff. Now let's look at the gun itself and some stuff that you might want to look for. Here on the handle of the gun, one of the things, one of the evolutions in guns, I really like are the soft grips that they're putting on 'em. I'm in my shop a long time each day and having that a little bit easier to hold on to and less slippery than it would be if it was just a metal handle, is very, very nice.

The other thing we want to look for is, if you get a jam, what do you have to do in order to fix that? So what I'm talking about here is tool-free nail clearing. So the way that happens on this gun is, if I push this veil down, that allows this to snap open. If I had nails in here, they could come out right here. So it's a great feature because, when I'm working, suddenly I got a nail jammed in there, I don't have to run around looking for just the right tool in order to open up the nose of the finish nailer.

The other thing I like is tool-free depth of punch. So what I'm talking about there is, when we drive nails into different thicknesses of material, we're gonna want to control how far it goes in, and in pine, that's gonna be different than in oak. So let's have a look at how this works on this gun. Fastening these two components together. Now, the shot that I just did right there, the head of the nail is even with my material.

No room for wood fill. So what I'm looking for in a gun is the ability to control that tool-free. On this particular gun, I can do that by turning this dial , and that's gonna change the depth to which this gun can drive the nail into the material. So it's very, very easy to do on the fly, which is very convenient. The other thing that's handy is that, when I shoot a nail, course, it uses air.

So, air has to come out of the gun someplace 'cause it's going into the gun someplace. So what I want is an exhaust here on the top of the gun that I can control. So if you've been to the eye doctor recently, when they do a glaucoma test, at least back in the day, they put that puff of air up against your eyeball. I don't want a glaucoma test every time I use my nail gun. So when I can change the direction of that exhausting air, then it's not blowing in my face.

Very, very convenient. The other thing that we're looking for here is the ability to control whether we do what's called sequential nailing or bump nailing. In sequential nailing, I'm gonna contact my material, push the safety down, squeeze the trigger. Now, each time I want to shoot a nail, I have to do that action again. In bump nailing, I can hold the trigger, and every time I contact , I can put in a nail.

So on this particular gun, the way that's controlled is by this lever here. I'm currently in the bump nail mode. If I do that, now I'm in sequential nailing, and it won't allow me to bump nail. Now here's something that can be really frustrating when you're using a nailer, a pneumatic stapler, and that is, if it continues to drive, the piston continues to go, even though you're out of nails in here. And what we want to avoid is what's called dry firing, which means you have no nails, but that plunger comes down and it leaves a little impression in your material, and it can look as though you put a nail in.

And unfortunately you get the bad news when you pick the parts up and they come apart. So on some guns, including this one, if I take the nails out , so now we know the gun is empty and I contact my material , the gun knows it's empty and it won't allow me to fire. So a lot of great features available on guns. There's a shopping list for you of things you can look for when you're shopping for a gun for your woodshop.

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