I'm getting more & more customers wanting FE board fences and whilst you can buy standard panels, they are often the wrong size.
Putting up a FE fence is easy enough, but nailing the boards to the arris rails is the time consuming bit.
In the workshop I have a small compressor & nail gun that fires 18g brads.
Questions. Would 18g brads be suitable for FE boards? If not, what size would be OK & would I need a bigger compressor?
Being a Handyman you have to draw the line when its starts to become expensive to do some jobs...you're are bordering onto becoming full time builder?
Has he registered
The short answer is they are not ideal for that application. However if you use longish brads (30 - 40mm) and stick three or four in every place you would stick one larger nail then they will hold reasonably well. I have planked a shed like that in the past and they are still holding a few years later.
For nail size you would probably be looking at a second fix or a framing nailer. Something that can handle a reasonable gauge of nail at 50mm. For most air nailers, a compressor with a 25L accumulator, auto stop start, and a free air delivery of 4 cfm or more is usually plenty.
I would have thought in your case a better solution would be a gas nailer like a Paslode or the newer Hitachi versions. They cost slightly more to run, but offer much faster setup times, no need for extension leads or an electrical supply at all, and there is no need to cart about a compressor or air line. You could have it in the van to use on spec rather than needing to plan ahead.
I have a selection of compressed air nailers, going from a small 22g pin type, through 18g brad, 16g and 15g standard and a much larger framing nailer.
18g brads would definitely be too small for this application unless you are looking for early repeat business. 15g would be about optimal and could be run from a small compressor.The large framing nailer is OK on a 25l compressor, but I wouldn't use it for rapid fire work on anything smaller.
Otherwise, perhaps a Paslode would make sense for the work you do, although the consumables cost is more.
Nice thought - I could pretend to be Tommy Waslsh :-)
I've always regarded those as a potential PITA - I'd rather use a compressor. Batteries to charge, fuel cells to worry about, brads 5 times the price - and my mate who owns the hire shop won't hire them (Paslode) out anymore because he's had so many problems with them.
For the price of a Paslode I could buy another bigger compressor & whatever air tools I needed & still have change.
We could get you the braces....
What size compressor do you have?
SWMBO bought me some last birthday :-)
Small one, 6 litre reciever, 1.5hp, 80l/min
Nah! I just keep my eyes open for gaps in the market & this seems to be one locally. I don't mind investing in the kit to do the job if it means I can earn a few quid extra. Good money in small fencing jobs.
They can be. I had to return my first Paslode when it became unreliable (Screwfix were fine about it).
However battery recharges are very infrequent, much, much less so than cordless tools and the gas cartridges are sized to at least last as long as required to use the whole box of nails they come with (mine always, really consistently last 10% longer).
I can see several reasons not to hire them out other than reliability, safety being a significant one - all too easy not to remove the gas cartridge before clearing a jam - and I suspect the bolt cycling, even on a gun with no nails in it, could cause a really nasty injury.
For floorboards they're absolutely great, but big downside for fencing would be the weight and awkwardness of holding boards in place whilst nailing with one hand. That's ok for a few nails, a bit tiring for
1000'sOTOH you can get stainless or hard galv'd nails - and AIUI you do a lot of decking.
I've also got a Tacwise cordless nailer/stapler (which I got at a huge discount) - but the downside which would make it unusable is how slowly it cycles to draw the bolt back for the next nail - it would drive you crazy.
I've no experience of air nailers, but they sound a better prospect than the other two.
be OK for a 15g nailer
Might be a bit undersized for a framing nailer.
The only thing to watch with 15 g nailers is that some will only go down to 32mm as minimum length of nail. That's OK for boarding a shed since one would be going into at least 50mm of framing timber, but might be marginal for a fence - actually maybe not if the framing is
32mm itself. There are 25mm 15g nails available, but not all nailers will take them.15g nails are not *much* bigger than 16g, but the nails have more substantial heads which is really the issue.
There is indeed, and now is the perfect time of year. Squally and windy weather and people wanting a quick fix to slightly broken fences before the summer. Definitely a distress purchase, I think.
Thats another possible use - fixing the boards is time consuming & although I prefer screws, nails would be much faster.
I had an SIP cordless nailer - gave it away in the end.
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A framing nailer can do this and you can get nails with a spiral shank which hold better than the straight or even ring shank types.
For deck work, where you would want a fairly high hit rate, you would need a more substantial compressor. 15l should be enough, but 25l better and able to do more. You could use a 25l for site work, but I would say that that's about the largest for in and out in a day type applications.
Yes, I agree with you - there's something nicely aesthetic about screws in decking. You might be able to offer screwed decking as a slightly higher priced "quality" option?
Tacwise isn't that bad - but is probably the only power tool I've bought that hasn't had sufficient use to justify it's existence.
Only if he buys it in B&Q :-) (Oh no, that's warped, not screwed).
I used stainless screws for my home-made fencing. Still none of the rust stains I hate so much :-)
Our new place came with what was once a nice shed - about 8x12' pent. Alas the roof had gone as had half the floor, and the back right corner was well rotten as well. Anyway, did a resurrection job on it, new roof and floor, and then used the good boards from the old floor to replank rotten corner. I found using a framing nailer and 2" nails I could just about run at the capacity of the compressor for short bursts - doing a nail every 0.5 sec or so up a run of boards. So realistically the 25L was more than enough.
I think if you use them correctly then the fuel cell will do the full pack of nails, and the charging is infrequent since it only uses electrical power for ignition.
I am told the Hitachi version irons out some of the shortcomings of the Paslode as well.
I was going to suggest screws too; the heads of the basic Screwfix pozis don't stain in tanalised wood (they do darken inside)
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