I am getting ready to finish my basement. I have a compressor and 16 and 18 GA brad nailers, but no framing nailer. I have seen framing nailers using clipped and round head nails and 21 and 34 degree angles. What are the advantages/disadvantages of the different types and what may best suit my needs?
Thanks in advance.
Daniel
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Daniel
There is some debate that the round heads will hold better. personally I would like to see some actual tests that show that to be the case. It may be true, but I don't know if the difference would be that great to warrant the practice to avoid use of the clipped nail heads.
I do know that when pulling out nails with the clipped heads sometimes the heads tend to rip off - thus making it harder to get the shank out.( if that happens to you, pound your nail puller into the shank from 2 directions a few times until you can get enough of the shank to bend it over with the tip of your nail puller and pry it out, or you may have to keep going back and forth at it, if it's stubborn.)
Make it your practice to angle your nails slightly, alternate directions. (if you don't already) One: that will give more holding strengh ( you maybe know that already from using your brad nailer in some situations) 2: it will prevent the nails from poking thru when you are nailing double studs together. (also use 3" not 3 1/4" nails) I once got a nasty slice on my hand, when one of our newbies nailed straight into the stud and the nail poked out the other side.
I know you are refering to a stick nailer, so I will tell you that one advantage to the clipped nails is that you can fit more nails in, and will have to reload less often. Not a huge deal, but something to consider.
You might consider a coil nailer if you just want to have one gun. Stick nailers, alot of framers like because you can get the nose in tighter places. the adavtage to a coiler is they hold a lot more nails, and for some reason with a stick nailer if you want to use 2 1/4" nails they are more expensive than 3" nails. go figure. Not so with coil nails. which only come with round heads.
as for the angle, I don't know but I stronly doubt there is any difference. The angle of the nails are only different because different makes of guns use different angles. Once, before I knew any better I tried to put some Bostitch nails in a Paslode gun I had bought.I couldn't figure out why it kept jamming. lol.... So i had to go out and buy the more expensive Paslode nails. Then it got stolen, now I have Bostitch guns, and am stuck with a bunch of stupid Paslode nails.
Edited 5/11/2005 2:21 pm ET by nails2
Edited 5/11/2005 4:48 pm ET by nails2
A lot of building jurisdictions around the country have updated their codes and are now saying "no" to the use of clipped head nails.
That may be why there are some great deals on eBay for clipped head nailers, new, almost new, and slightly used. A lot of them.
The guy I work with that owns all the tools has Paslode 350 framing guns, and I have fired a lot of nails through his. Don't know the angle, though.
Check your compressor's delivery capacity. A framer gulps a lot more air than a brad gun. A pancake comp will run a framer for spiking up some blocking, or a little punch list work, but for slapping up sticks, and especially for sheathing, you will need the appropriate air supply.
Edited 5/11/2005 1:55 pm ET by Gene Davis
I didn't know that stick nailers came exclusive to the type of nail. I thought that the nails were designed to fit the gun. Startng with the clipped headed nails; and now they have developed the rounded headed clip to fit into those same nailers. Why would you have to get rid of the gun. There must be something I don't know. I would be glad for an update on that.
I am not sure of what I am talking about, but let me try this anyways.
The Paslode F350S framer gun was designed to fire a clipped head nail. Paslode makes nails for this gun. The angle is 30 degrees. Other nail makers sell 30 degree stick nails. "Stick" means coils with straight collation, as opposed to "coil."
There are manufacturers that make nails, that don't make the guns that fire them. Hardware jobbers refer to these nails as "generic" nails.
Manufacturers like Paslode and Bostitch make more money selling nails than guns. Many large industrial accounts get their nail guns for free, including maintenance, in exchange for supply agreements for the fasteners.
In some cases, generic nails will work as well as, maybe even better than, OEM nails, depending on the gun.
Because of the code changes re clipped head versus full-round-head nails, the manufacturers of guns that were designed for clipped head nails have introduced newly designed nails to go in these guns. These new nails are supposed to be more full-headed than clipped.
In head styles, there are clipped heads, D-heads, offset round heads, and full round heads.
Depending on the jurisdiction, if clipped heads aren't OK, offset rounds or even D-heads might pass muster.
Paslode didn't discontinue the F350S, but they may have made a modest little change to its drive pin, in guns shipping now.
Paslode did in fact discontinue its clipped head nails for the F350S, and is now shipping some other head-style nail for it, under new part numbers. I don't believe the nails have full-round heads, however. A full-round headed nail won't collate tightly into the "sticks" that go in these guns, unless there is something happening I don't know about, and they are able to space the nails and collate them into sticks.
FYI,
The new nails for Paslode do have a round head, but it is offset. I use a f350s and currently using the new round head 2 1/4in ringshank on some fence work. Works great. Not a miss fire yet. Been through about 4k of them so far.
Just my 2 cents.
Mike
As Gene said, some places do not allow clipped heads. California is one, something about the nails don't hold as well and they are not code because of the earthquake risk. I doubt it matters but if your pulling permits then it could be an issue to take up with the building inspector. If you just doing a basement, your compressor should be fine unless it is one of the tiny senco compressors.
I believe the degree on the nail is just the style, clipped are the 34 degree, the nails are tight to one another whereas the 22 degree are spaced a bit. The guns that run the 34's will hold more nails than the 22's.
When you look for a gun, make sure that you will be able to find the nails for that gun. Around me, 22's are much more popular so I bought a hitachi nr83a. FHB did an article on this topic http://www.taunton.com/store/pages/fh_toc_145.asp
Edited 5/11/2005 3:45 pm ET by DDay