Nail gun recommendations

[Josh the IH guy]

Hey guys,
I'm looking at buying a roofing nailer and framing nailer. I'm not a pro. I'm going to add a 20x16 room to our house, and might build a little shed. These will see light farm use from time to time.

So, I'm looking for good guns. I also dont want to spend professional gun prices. What do you guys have, and what should I stay away from?

 

[ive]

I would get a paslode. Reliable and no air lines needed.

 

[The Cobbler]

for occasional use I would look for good used or Harbor Freight . Pretty much all lower end tools work pretty well .
I liked the old style Hitachi guns, they were robust, easy to get parts for , easy to repair. I had a made in Taiwan brad nailer that came with a compressor deal, 2 of my guys liked it more than the Hitachi guns. After many hundreds of thousands of brads, the driver broke. I managed to get 3 off of Ebay that fit. back in business and now more than a lifetime supply of drivers .

 

[DHCrocks]

Sorry no specifics just throwing in my 2 cents. I have a couple of old Senco that must be 15-20 years old and they were leaking, and wouldn't fire. Guess what, they still stock repair kits for their old guns even though the models have been replaced by newer ones. That there is a big plus for me. Make sure the guns you buy have support air tools need maintenance from time to time.

One nice feature I would look for is oiless guns. I recently got a Dewalt and was surprised when it said do not oil.... OMG this is huge, It so much more convenient then having to oil your gun each day. That is a feature I would get if getting a new gun.

 

[The Cobbler]

I think oiless guns have more plastic inside, like the cylinders

 

[nadogail]

Several years ago I bought the Harbor Freight Adjustable Framing nail gun, it can shoot any of the three angle collated nails. It paid for it self in two days,
i still use it whenever I have more than a handful of nails to drive.

 

[Andy8430]

My 2 cents... I prefer Bostitch nail guns, however I think the advice above is good. Look for used name brand (Bostitch, Hitachi, etc.) or buy new from harbor freight to keep cost down.

 

[GeoBruin]

Another vote for Harbor Freight. They have three lines of increasing quality. It seems like more metal and less plastic is used as you go up the scale but I've never had any of them fail on me.

 

[Indexmill]

The work you describe is not insignificant. Buy descent used guns. As already said, older Hitachi are excellent as are older Porter Cable. Easy to find on CL and FBM and all parts easily available. Simple to rebuild. Of course, Bostitch are anlothe good choice.

For home use, ignore the airless, cordless and top tier models. Get a pancake compressor, a poly line and get to building your **** for reasonable money.

I know people who have had excellent luck with the cheap Chinese knock-offs available on eBay and Amazon. Really quite remarkable.