Air Powered Framing Nailer

[Andy Barron]

I have aquired a 34 degree 50-90mm clipped head framing nailer made by Rongpeng in China (yes I know).

My question is about the compressor to feed it. I have a Seeley 50L 8 Bar compressor and it won't knock the nails in all the way.

However I took it to a mates workshop where they have a 200L 10 Bar compressor and the nailer eats the 90mm nails at a feed pressuer of 6 Bar.

Now to my way of thinking as 6 Bar is enough pressure to knock nails in whilst my compressor may not keep up with a nail a second or so it should at least knock the first nail in ok.

Only thing I could think of was there are restrictions in my compressor somewhere causing pressure drop at the gun (used same hose etc on my mates rig). Any ideas anyone?

Cheers

Andy

[Alan]

Output pressure regulator turned down? Most air tools run at 90PSI IIRC. With any luck your compressor has an ajustable pressure regulator and an output pressure guage to see what the current output pressure is. I have powered my Clarke air nailer from a similar 50l compressor in the past and it's worked perfectly.

Alan.

[Andy Hall]

I would be suspicious of the behaviour of the output regulator on your compressor.

I have a large Senco framing nailer and originally ran it on a 25 litre SIP compressor with no problems at all. Of course it runs perfectly happily on a 150litre compressor as well.

The air volume used with a framing nailer is going to be larger than with a smaller 15-18 gauge nailer but nowhere near as much as with tools like drills, angle grinders and sprayers. You can determine this easily with how frequently the motor starts. I would suspect on your home compressor, even with this problem, it is not that often.

However, when you squeeze the trigger on a framing nailer there is certainly a rapid pressure drop.

If the regulator is not maintaining reasonable pressure quickly enough then you will get the effect you describe.

Also if you think about it logically, at your friend's place, you used the same tool and hose as at home, and the size of the receiver of the compressor is not important. It only leaves one thing - the regulator.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Andy Barron]

Thanks for your help, It's kinda what I thought and since the compressor is new I guess I need to go and get the supplier to sort it out.

Thanks again.

Andy.

[Andy Barron]

Now I am really confused, we took the bung out of the end of the tank and put in a proper regulator (Norgren or something) and still get the same behaviour. I am not very good at physics but by my reckoning if you allow 2 litres of air per shot and the 50 litre tank pressure is 8 bar then the drop in pressure in the tank is going to be about 0.3 Bar per shot so it ought to work.

If any ones got any other ideas I'd really appreciate hearing them.

Cheers Andy

[Andy Hall]

Have you tried the nailer and hose back on your friend's compressor? It's a slim chance that something happened to the nailer in the meantime. I assume you've oiled it etc. according to the maker's recommendations??

[Michael Mcneil]

Lots of things can go wrong with them but I imagine the main reason is that a compressor with a large tank rated to hold an higher pressure will never drop to the critical limit. With a smaller tank and a lower pressure setting, the drop will get critical almost immediately. It should knock the first nail home from a full tank though.

That's if your gauge is reading correctly. One of those cheapo compressors with a small tank and a supplied gun using the correct pins will not shoot in more that 2 or 3 before jamming. Both machines I used were of that capacity, I can't remember any details though except that you could get the same compressor fitted to a series of larger tanks for little more than a few quid extra.

I might still get one if I can convince myself that a seriously long hose would not reduce it's potency even more. (And I could use the 240 v on any site I go to!)

Until then I think Paslode is the way to go. It won't be long for the Chinese to cotton on there is a market out there for cheap Paslode immitations.

[Andy Hall]

What do you mean by "critical limit"? The point at which the compressor motor runs because the receiver pressure has dropped?

This should not make any difference. I have a large Senco framing nailer and when it was run on a 25 litre compressor, the motor would only run every 20 or so nails.

That's likely to be the poor quality of the gun more than anything else. Regarding the gauge, the OP has replaced the original with a Norgren regulator - their stuff is good quality.

I've used the Senco one on 50m of hose with no issues at all.

They are quite noisy and smelly and the consumables quite expensive.

[Andy]

Thanks for all your help, if I had some means to measure the high speed pressure pulse in the tank when the gun is fired I might be able to prove this critical limit thing although as I said before I don't think the instantaneous pressure drop should be more than 0.3 Bar.

I guess I am just going to have to find another compressor, fortunately I can send the old one back because of the way I specified what I wanted when I bought it.

Anyone got any recommendations, the SIP Airpower ones look ok, I think I'd go for a belt drive one this time though.

Thanks again for all your help.

Andy

[Andy Hall]

It should run on a very small compressor, though. Have you checked the nailer back on your friend's compressor?

I previously had a small SIP 25 litre model which worked well for nailers.

I needed a larger model to provide air for more air-hungry tools and longer runs at spraying so now have a 150litre SIP Airmate P3/150

Good product. These people (still) seem to have the best pricing