Fixing a nailer

[poolhound]

My 18g brad nailer is misbehaving. Goes phht weakly and nothing happens. No jammed nails. Did it once before, took it apart, couldn't see anything and it started working after i reassembled. Tried same this time but no joy.

Ideas?

[capncarl]

How old? ( the nailer, not you) pneumatic tools seals get brittle with age and crack and break all to pieces. Your may look ok but not sealing well, and it’s just waiting for an important project to let you down. I’ve recently had to replace Porter Cable stapler, a brad nailer and a finishing nailer.... and threw away 2 more staplers, all were 10-15 yrs old and all plastic seals had disintegrated. I replaced them with Harbor Freight pneumatics, they were about half the price of the rebuild kits for the old tools. They work just as well.

[poolhound]

How old? ( the nailer, not you) pneumatic tools seals get brittle with age and crack and break all to pieces. Your may look ok but not sealing well, and it’s just waiting for an important project to let you down. I’ve recently had to replace Porter Cable stapler, a brad nailer and a finishing nailer.... and threw away 2 more staplers, all were 10-15 yrs old and all plastic seals had disintegrated. I replaced them with Harbor Freight pneumatics, they were about half the price of the rebuild kits for the old tools. They work just as well.

Hmmm, they could be 10 yrs old, hate to dump it but not going to spend major $$s on it either. I do also have a bostitch 18g which I have used for backup so I guess thats now my go to brad nailer now.

[LCHIEN]

I have found that like capncarl that parts seals and plastic pieces inside the nailers get old and break down or disintegrate with time.

Its often a pain to track down the parts, I repaired a craftsman once only to have it break again, parts cost with shipping nearly half or more hwat a replacement cost.
Forget getting parts for HF units. Bostich units I had also broke after time so cost and brand name are no protection or insurance.
Now I just replace with a cheap unit from HF (or sometimes the Amazon cheap units are less). Its a lot easier and more sure than trying to repair..

[mpc]

I had one of my Ryobi nail guns (the pin nailer if I remember right) somewhat fail: it would fire but could not drive pins fully. It sounded like there was an internal air leak... as if the main o-ring sealing the piston was dry. I removed the battery and nails/pins, opened the cover for jammed nail clean-out, and held the gun so the nailing tip was pointing straight up... and shot some light lubricant downwards, toward the piston mechanism. Try to spray all the way around where you imagine the o-ring to be. I "swished" the tool around in my hand a bit to spread the oil too. Let it sit tip-upright so the oil can soak in for a few minutes, then flip it tip-down so any excess oil will drain out. That totally cured my gun.

If a little oil helps but doesn't totally fix a nail gun, then I would think the o-ring has completely dried out. Replacing it might be possible but another option is to use the "rubber renue" type of products sold to repair slipping rubber belts and drive wheels on electronics gear - tape decks, record players, etc. There are also "rubber rejuvenator" products on the market; most of these are designed to make rubber trim on cars appear black again after they've suffered sun fade; these will not help dried-out o-rings.

mpc