Electric Nailers

[jhart]

I got the Jac Pac (similar to the Kobalt posted by rjwaldren) for a Christmas present and love it. Can use all of the various nailers I have and easy to tote around to fix some of the minor jobs needing to be done with apartments I own. Two of the buildings are tri plexes and need to climb 3 stories of stairs. Have one of the small PC compressors, but this thing is slick. Not sure I would have spent the money on it myself, but was a really nice gift. Costs $3.00 to refill tank at Dick's Sporting Goods.

[Anna]

I've had the Palmgren Hipshot for more than a year now. I love it. It takes a couple seconds for the air pressure to recover, but you can certainly do a brad per 2 or 3 seconds. I've been using the 1.25" brads mostly, and the 0.75" brads sometimes with the 1/4" cabinet backs. It packs a pretty good whallop, and the only time I had a nail not go in under the surface is when I use it too quickly before the pressure recovers.

It comes with the two batteries and charger. There's a charge leak and the battery drains if left in the Hipshot, so I keep the other battery charged.

It's a very convenient gizmo, especially for those projects where you just need a couple brads to hold the piece and you don't want to fire up the big compressor. It's easily one of my favorite tools.

[Bruce Cohen]

David,

Going back to your original question, try to stay away from the staple/brad combo. When you're shooting brads, you'll leave the indent of the bar that drives the staples in your stock. This is one of many reasons why combo tools sometimes may not be the best solution.

As to non-compressed air guns, I totally advocate compressed ari driven, barring the noise (less if it's oil filled), they can't be beat IMHO.

Bruce

[jonmulzer]

I have a 5 gallon portable air tank like you use for blowing up tires. If I need to just shoot a nail or two somewhere that I would not want to drag the compressor I fill it up to 130psi and take it to the job. You really would be surprised how long it will last. This idea may or may not work for you, but I had one laying around and only needed to buy a fitting or two.

[Tequila]

The Palmgren hipshot just dropped to $45.24 at Amazon. I pulled the trigger.

[rnelson0]

So the palmgren and kobalt are small air compressor tanks that I would use with a regular pneumatic tool like a brad nailer? If so, that may work out well - there's an overstock store that regularly carries a combo Bostitch Brad and Finish nailer.

[LCHIEN]

So the palmgren and kobalt are small air compressor tanks that I would use with a regular pneumatic tool like a brad nailer? If so, that may work out well - there's an overstock store that regularly carries a combo Bostitch Brad and Finish nailer.

you are correct they both work with pneumatic nailers.

They are two different animals though.

The Kobalt is a high pressure CO2 tank which can be charged to several hundred PSI by sporting good store catering to paintballers. It has a high pressure to low pressure regulator to drive the air guns at standard pressures around 90 PSI, while the high tank pressure allows more air energy to be stored allowing a lot of shots compared with just a few shots if air was stored at 100 PSI, say. You can fire as rapidly as you desire with the stored CO2 gas.

The Palmgren is a battery operated portable air compressor, I assume with a regulator. this allows operating an air gun as fast as the little compressor can keep up - one poster said every 2 seconds, for about 200 shots with 18 ga. probably around half that for a 16 ga finisher.

[Tequila]

To add to Loring's post, the tradeoff seems to be that the Palmgren will be slower overall, but with no ongoing costs (except electricity to charge the batteries). The Kobalt will be able to run quicker, but you'll need to periodically pay to have the tank recharged.

[LCHIEN]

good points, Tequila,
OTOH, the Palmgren will require periodic battery replacement, perhaps every two or three years. Too bad its not a standard battery pack you can share with other tools. Perhaps Dewalt or Ryobi will make a similar unit to use their tool line battery packs.
The Kobalt will require periodic recharging at a store (not at home) but the storage element (a tank vs. a battery) will last practically forever.
Charge Life is also a factor to consider. Battery charges last only around a month and a charged tank... may hold its charge many months?
So there's several tradeoffs in speed, longeveity of the equipment, longevity of charge, speed of shooting, amount of shooting and even cost per shot to consider.

depends whether this is something you do often or ocassionally and how much you want to spend.

[rjwaldren]

I currently have the lowes kobalt co2 regulator that I bought as a $25 dollar customer return Evidently they couldn't figure out why it leaked (no teflon tape)

will use regular paintball tanks (cheap refills) and probably could be converted to nitrogen.

Nitrogen tanks for paintball should have their own regulator permanently affixed and are drop in replacements CO2. So barring problems with series regulators (isn't that a no-no?) it would be great - 3000+ psi stored with better expansion characteristics than CO2. It seems I've seen similar kits that were nitrogen based.

[scmhogg]

The Palmgren arrived yesterday. See First Impressions...

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=37250

Steve

[Sid]

I got a 7-gallon portable tank for about $20 on sale at Farm & Fleet. Pump it up to 125 from my compressor, set its regulator at 80-90 psi, and it will shoot plenty of brads for a small job before needing to be recharged. Refilling it is quicker than charging a battery, and I don't want yet another battery to eventually replace.

Sid