Palm Nailer

I bought a new Ridgid plam nailer, because a few places I need to add braces between studs there is no elbow room, there is no room and the block wall is to my left, and I am right handed, with copper pipes and rigid elecrtrical conduits in the way, so no way to use a hammer. Also needed to use those Simpson ties on some roof and ceiling pieces.

I opened the box and tried six nails (8d) and each one I tried I bent the nail. I was not even pushing real hard.

Any special tricks?

Reply to
MiamiCuse
Loading thread data ...

Nailing into old wood can be difficult. I was trying to hand nail some just the other day and bent several nails.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

I don't have any tricks for using them, just a warning - get good a anti-vibration glove, one with gel-foam pads to wear when using the thing. I personally would find some alternative since one of those would kick my carpal tunnel into overdrive and I probably wouldn't be able to use my hand for a month. A cordless impact driver and some good deck screws come to mind, I use that regularly without much CT problems.

Reply to
Pete C.

Never found old wood hard to nail into unless it happened to be dense or knotty. Old wood dries and splits easily IME. Green dense wood can be tough, even pine. Palm nailers are pretty foolproof. Probably hitting metal or you got some soft nails. Try them in some scrap wood.

--Vic

Reply to
Vic Smith

If the nails were cheap, like from Menards, I would try nails from another source.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Don't agree withe critique of Menard's nails. Used their MM brand for years, very good quality, American made IIRC. Problem may have been that the palm nailers don't work with air pressure too high or with box nails. OTOH, the Craftsman Li Ion nailer handles the mean one surprisingly well. Craftsman might be doing some serious upgrading to their non hand tool line if this is an example. Bears watching.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

It's amazing you had the patience for six nail attempts. You're inspiring.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

As James said old wood can be a bear. Never having used a PN my only suggestion would be to use hex head screws or pre-drill the hole with a bit about half the size of the nail.

Personally I find that hex head screws, a bit with a 6" shaft and a cordless drill allow me to do a lot of things I can not do with a hammer or nail gun.

Reply to
Colbyt

I bought some finisheing nails from Menards that were so soft I could almost bend them with my hands. Bought some others from our local ACE hardware that workeding corectly. Also have found that machine screws from Menards seem to vary somewhat in size within a given box, some thread too easily and some are difficult to thread. Made in China, of course. So I always go to ACE for anything where size, strength are critical.

Reply to
hrhofmann

RicodJour wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@o11g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

I agree. I tried 4 long ring shank underlayment nails before calling a GC.

Reply to
Red Green

Agreed... Definitely sounds like operator error/inexperience is the issue here... There is always a shiny new tool that someone doesn't know what it should be used for that needs to burn a hole in their pocket...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

RicodJour, to explain it a bit better, the plumber that roughed in my shower ended up cutting one stud complelely away (it's a load bearing wall) when all he needed to do was drill two 3/4" holes. I made a square cut of the stud above and below, and inserted a new piece to fit tightly in between, then I wanted to nail in two sister studs to each side, but the copper pipes and electrical conduits were in the way of me getting a hammer in there to be able to have any sort of swing more than two inches, and I had to swing from left to right with my left hand (I am right handed), that's why I tried a palm nailer thinking it could deliver more punch with less "latitude".

Reply to
MiamiCuse

Can you get a drill/driver in there? If I can't fit my pneumatic nailers into a space, I screw things together, now.

Reply to
krw

LOL... It sounds to me like you could have taken care of the entire problem with tiny piece of stud you fitted back in and a short piece of angle iron to reinforce it -- sistering additional studs onto your repair sounds excessive in this situation...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.