Cheap Brad Nailer

super99

Well-known Member
I have a bottom of the line 18 guage brad nailer from Menards, I don't use it much, so I can't see spending a lot of $$ for a good one for what I do with it. It does OK with the brads, but the last time I used it, the nails kept jambing in the magazine. It would nail a few nails OK and then the nails would slide down into the slot and jamb, I would have to take it apart and pry the stick of nails out. I got the nails at Menards, so they should be the right ones. Is it the nails or the operator??
 

Had the same basic issue with a Porter Cable brad nailer and with Arrow staple guns. The issue seems to be the stickum holding the nails/staples together. I used some solvent and cleaned out the channel and then used a thin film of silicone lube. Seemed to help a lot.

Cheapy brads or staples (off brands with a lot of Chinese characters on the box) are still an issue.
 
I have a Hitachi that is excellent but going to retire it and go cordless/airless like all the contractors around me have done with even their large framing or roofing nailers.

I do clean the magazine some and keep the thing oiled per the book, and I use some spray dry lube in the magazine and run quality brads/nails. Works great but I am tired of fooling with air hose. But I nearly never have a jam.
 
I have a Ryobi brad gun that was given to me and it works great.
I like Ryobi tools and have over 20 of them.
Use some of them all the time on the farm and in my shop.
Have 5 batteries and 2 chargers.
I love my Ryobi weed whacker.
Light weight and easy on my old back.
 
I have had many different brands of brad nailers from cheap to expensive. The one that has impressed me the most was a $70
Surebonder (hard case included). It is supposedly designed to use 3/4" to 2" nails. I have used a lot of 5/8" nail with no problems. It shoots Paslode, Grip Rite, and Do It nails good. I have only had a hand full of jams in thousands of nail put thought it. Nearly every jam was when using 2" brads and could be traced to low air from not allowing the compressor to build up when shooting alot of brads without stopping. I would not hesitate to buy another one.
 
No offense but I have had the same 18 ga. Stanley Bostich brad nailer for at least 12 years and have run a LOT of nails through it. The only time it has jammed is when the nail hits a drywall screw behind the trim I was shooting on.
For me the aggravation - and time lost - from a cheap tool is just not worth a few bucks in savings.
 
I would try a different brand of nails. Sometimes a nailer just doesn't like one brand or another. Sometimes a gun will jamb using the same brand of nails as the nailer too. I know the worst thing you can put in a Bostitch framing nailer is Bostitch nails. You might try lubricating the gun. If the nails are not dispensing correctly that can cause them to jamb.
 
I would guess that the nailer is the issue.

I have both finishing and brad nailers from Bostich that I have had for about 15 years and have never had a jam. I try to use Bostich nails but most recently had to use an off-brand finish nails from Menard's and I had no issues at all. These nailers were used on a basement remodel using tongue and groove wood car siding and when finished I could count the number of nails used and the box count totaled to just under 7,000. A real torture test but they passed.

Take a look at the drive path and see if there's any buildup in there or possibly a sliver of an old nail that is gumming things up.
 

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