Finish Nailer

I have a Porter-Cable 16 gauge and Porter-Cable 18 gauge and they both work extremely well. I also have a Senco 23 gauge pin nailer and that is also a great nailer. The Senco probably wins on fit-and-finish, but not by a really large margin. I would say you can't go wrong with these two brands, which are the only ones I have experience with. Bostich is purportedly very good, too.

Mike

Review of the Senco 41XP Finish Nailer here if interested:

Dean Bielanowski Editor, Online Tool Reviews

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I've got a Porter Cable FN250b. Drives 3/4-inch to 2-1/2-inch, 16 gauge finish nails. Never had a problem with it in the more than fives years I've had it.

I have the PC DA250A 15 ga. which works well. I got the 15 ga. size because I have two friends from whom I can borrow the PC 16 ga. which I have used also.

A few times, but not often, the 16 gauge nails I use track with the grain of the wood I'm nailing into. It's more prevalent the longer the nail I'm using which makes sense. Have you noticed much/any tracking with your 15 gauge nails?

The real question is, "What are you going to do with it?" If you are a hobbist, like I am, it makes very little sense to sink a lot into a tool that will get not all that much use. Harbor Freight has a very nice on that will handle 2" pins for $24.00. Try it, if you want to upgrade to a "real" nailer, you have not lost much. Who knows, you might actually like it.

Deb

"Agki Strodon" wrote in news:AX8fc.6611$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

If you want a real finish nailer, you'll need 15gauge. I have the latest DeWalt and it works awesome. Powerful, lightweight, great feel and just wonderful to use.

If you can accept a brad nailer instead of a finish nailer then you need to see if you want 16 or 18 gauge. I have the orange Harbor Freight 18-gauge and it's the best $20 tool I've ever bought. Works well and even came with a rebuild kit. Before I bought the 15-gauge I borrowed a buddy's Harbor Freight 16-gauge brad nailer. It worked pretty well, but was pretty big and heavy. At one point I bought the Harbor Freight 15-gauge finish nailer. It was the worst $100 tool purchase I've made. I returned it after it jammed about 20 times and just about ruined my project. IMO, a lot of people in this newsgroup use 15 and 16 guage nailers in applications where an 18 guage would work just fine. Matt