Best Nail Gun? Nailing Power in Wood & Composite Decking, Speed, Tip Grip, Noise, Weight

I'm a huge fan of getting rid of the air hose and going with battery powered tools so the question is which one of these battery-powered framing nailers is the best and the first test we'll see which nailer delivers the most consistent performance then we'll see which nailer has the power to drive Nails into composite material we'll see how the nailers perform in cold temperature finally we'll see if the nailers lose performance as the batteries drain at a price of 329 dollars for just the nailer and not the battery and charger is this Craftsman brand it's a 21 degree nailer that has a brushless motor includes tool free depth adjustment the LED light indicates a jam includes a rafter hook includes onboard tool storage the nail length is from two to three and a quarter inches includes dry fire lockout the Craftsman is made in Mexico the reference to the angle includes both the magazine angle and the nail collation this 21 degree strip contains 25 Nails where the 30 degree strip contains 37. the 21 degree Nails have a full head while the 30 degree heavy clipped head so a 30 degree nailer will typically hold more Nails in a 21 degree assuming the cartridge length is the same the Craftsman holds up to 49 nails and a Craftsman with a 4 amp hour battery and the nails weighs 10.6 pounds and a Craftsman is very loud at 108.5 decibels pneumatic tools deliver immediate performance without any delay and a Craftsman needs just over a half a second to spin up before deploying a nail the 21 and 30 degree nails are three and a quarter inches in length by 0.131 hot dip galvanized smooth shank nails I use a 4 ampere battery for the Craftsman DeWalt rigid in Milwaukee I adjusted the nail depth for each of the nailers so that the heads of the nails will be fully seated within the boards so let's see which nailers offer the most consistent nail depth I'll place 10 pounds on top of the nailer so that the amount of downward force on the nailer stays the same and a Craftsman has a ramp up time between driving the first nail and it needs time to recover between driving nails and there's quite a bit of recoil with the Craftsman lifting the nail gun off the board and four nails are seated perfectly while One Nail is too high and five are too low at a price of 349 dollars or just twenty dollars more than the Craftsman is this rigid brand just like the Craftsman 21 degree framing nailer with a brushless motor it claims to have the power of a Pneumatic nailer it can drive three nails per second up to 750 nails per charge selectable mode switch allows for contact actuation or single sequential actuation mode holds up to 33 Nails the Ridgid uses Nails two inch to three and a half the rigid is made in China and ridge is a little bit heavier than the Craftsman at 10.7 pounds and the rigid makes a lot less noise than the Craftsman at 87.9 and the Ridgid delivers almost immediate results in both the sequential and bump fire mode unlike the Craftsman there's no motor sound or audible ramp up sound with the Ridgid and the Ridgid seems to have a lot less recoil compared to the Craftsman with the nailer staying on the board and the Ridgid offers a little more consistency than the Craftsman with six Perfect Nails two that are too deep and two that are too shallow but very good results overall at a price of 350 dollars for just the nailer and not the battery and charger is this DeWalt brand 30 degree nailer with a brushless motor it claims to offer consistent nail penetration into both soft and hard joints two-speed selector switch optimizes speed for fastening links easy access to nose piece for removal of jam Nails it has an LED light to indicate a jam works with nails from two to three and a half inches in length it holds up to 55 Nails the DeWalt is made in Mexico and the Dual solid is yet at just over 10 pounds and the DeWalt is about a a lot as a Craftsman at 107.3 decibels just like the Craftsman the dwell needs over half a second to wind up before driving a nail in sequential fire mode if the DeWalt is already revved up in bump fire mode it immediately drives a nail when the contact tip fully seats and the DeWalt has quite a bit of recoil just like the Craftsman and the DeWalt has seven perfect nails and three too deep at a price of 369 dollars for the battery charger and the nailer is this Metabo HPT 21 degree nailer with a brushless motor comes with a battery charger as well as a 3 amp hour battery it claims to have pneumatic power with 18 volt cordless Freedom with a flip of the switch you can transition from sequential mode to bump fire air spring drive system delivers similar performance as a Pneumatic nailer and a rafter hook on the Metabo HPT definitely seems a little too large there's zero ramp up time it handles a two to three and a half inch nail 37 nail capacity the Metabo HPT is made in China and the Metabo HPT with a 3 amp hour battery weighs 10.5 pounds 100.3 decibels for the Metabo HPT immediate action for the Metabo and sequential and in bump fire mode and metabolo is all set up and ready to test and the metal seems to have about the same amount of recoil as the rigid and far less than the DeWalt in the Craftsman and Metabo also performed very well with seven perfect drives and three that are just a little too deep at a price of 379 dollars for just the nailer and not the battery and charger is this Milwaukee brand brushless motor and designed for 21 degrees it claims to have power to nail engineered Lumber three nails per second works with nails two to three and a half inches in length the Milwaukee is made in China and Milwaukee is by far the heaviest shed at over 12 pounds 89.8 decibels for the Milwaukee the Milwaukee performed just as well as the Metabo in sequential and bump fire mode with immediate results and there's no ramp up or revving sound with the Milwaukee and Milwaukee seems to have about the same amount of recoil as the Metabo and Milwaukee seems to have done the best job yet with eight perfect drives one too deep and one too shallow at a price of 460 dollars for the battery charger and the nailer is this pass load brand Superior battery life 9000 shots per charge it claims to be the lightest cordless nail on the market the passload is at 30 degree nailer deploying the rafter hook with one hand is pretty challenging you can adjust the nail depth by squeezing the probe stop release buttons towards each other which will allow the contacting elements to be moved up or down the pass load fuel cells cost around 14 the drop-in fuel system delivers Instant Power for 1200 Nails the tool is designed and assembled in USA the batteries made Japan and the charger is made in China and a contact tip on the pass load is very sharp and is the most aggressive tip in the lineup and the pass loads by far the lightest yet at 7.9 pounds 104.8 decibels for the pass load Vincent results from the pass load and the pass load has a fan motor that runs while the tool is in use the pass load seems to have the least amount of recoil of all the nailers but that's a pretty subjective assessment and a pass load made six perfect drives and two and two however the pass load underperformed on One Nail quite a bit leaving the nail sticking up a quarter of an inch 208 can be a big factor in tool selection and the pass load is by far the lightest at less than eight pounds the DeWalt is very close to 10 pounds Metabo HPT 10.49 Craftsman 10.6 Ridge at 10.7 and Milwaukee 12.06 pounds tool noises another factor to consider and the rigid in Milwaukee are less than 90 decibels 100.3 decibels for the Metabo HPT pass load 104.8 DeWalt 107.3 in Craftsman 108.5 decibels some of the nailers claim to drive three nails per second since the Craftsman doesn't have a bump fire mode I'll have to time the trigger in the contact action at the right time if the Craftsman isn't given enough time to ramp up between Nails it won't fire 20.1 seconds for 25 Nails is pretty slow I had the Ridgid in bump fire mode so keeping the trigger squeezed the nail will automatically fire when the contact tip is pressed into the board I didn't give the Ridgid enough time between Nails on one attempt and it didn't fire and the Ridgid is a lot faster than the Craftsman at 12.3 seconds and the duel is in bump fire mode and there's a small Delay from the time the tip impacts the board until the DeWalt drives the nail and the DeWalt is faster than the Craftsman but slower than the rented at 15 seconds and the Metabo is set to bump fire mode when the trigger squeeze the Metabo won't fire the nailer unless it's given enough time to reconstitute between the nails and I push the Metabo too hard and the Metabo didn't fire several times during the test with a little practice I could probably do better than 17.9 seconds for 25 nails and the Milwaukee's in bonfire mode and fires very quickly I must have had a knot in the board because several Nails in the same area didn't fully see in 10.4 seconds is the fastest time yet and El Paso does offer a bump fire trigger but the nailer I purchased did not come with the bump fire option so timing the contact tip impact in the trigger squeeze sequence is definitely holding back the nailer 14.1 seconds for 25 Nails is the third fastest time yet so the Milwaukee is the fastest at 10.4 seconds the Ridgid finished in second at 12.3 and the pass load 14.1 seconds before we move on to composite wood let's first test the nailers on Oak in the highest power setting a big thanks to a friend named David for supplying the Oak and a Craftsman has a lot of recoil without the 10 pounds on top of the nailer and the Craftsman didn't have enough power on the maximum setting to bury the head of the nail and a Ridgid has less recoil than the Craftsman but just like the Craftsman the Ridgid drove the nails in but not quite enough to bury the head of the nail just like the Craftsman the DeWalt has a lot of recoil and the DeWalt performed very close to the same as the Craftsman and the Ridgid and the oak really put the Metabo to the test and it really struggled the first nail is sticking up about a quarter of an inch and the second nail didn't fully seat either and the Milwaukee seemed to have a lot less recoil than the Craftsman and the DeWalt and the Milwaukee has more than enough power for the Oak and completely buried the head of the nails very impressive and the pass load seems to have a little bit more recoil than the Milwaukee and the Paso did a pretty good job with one of the nails but left some unfinished business with the other with quite a few battery tools the performance of the tool drops off quickly as the battery voltage drops so let's see if the nailer's performance drops off as the batteries drain I'll start off with fully charged batteries which is very close to 20.7 volts the mostly drained batteries below 18 volts with the nailer set to the most powerful setting the Craftsman didn't drive the nail in quite as deep with the partially drained battery and the rigid with the fully charged battery instead of the highest setting buried the nail and with the battery at under 18 volts in two bars it did just as well as a fully charged battery and just like the Ridgid the DeWalt performed just as well with the partially drained battery and the Metabo also performed just as well driving the nail in the board with the partially drained battery and the Milwaukee also performed just as well with the parsley drained battery I'll skip the pass load since it uses a fuel system so only the Craftsman dropped off just a little but all the other nailers performed just as well with a partially drained battery let's place the nailers in the freezer that set to zero degrees Fahrenheit and we'll see how they perform in very cold weather conditions at around 0 degrees Fahrenheit the Craftsman couldn't quite get revved up enough to send the nail so let's see if the Craftsman performs better with the warmed up battery and the Craftsman partially drove in the nail and I had to reset the Craftsman before driving the second nail unfortunately the Craftsman just doesn't perform well in cold temperature and the cold temperature disabled it rigid and it wasn't able to drive a nail in even with a warmed up battery and the duo was too cold to spin up with the warmed up battery the dwell drove in both Nails most of the way even with the warmed up battery the Metabo wouldn't drive Nails after firing off the first nail with the cold battery the Milwaukee wooden fire the second nail until I installed a warm battery and Milwaukee's done the best job yet at driving in nails and the password sounds pretty unhappy but it worked just fine in the cold it did well in the first two nails but it left some unfinished business on the second two most of the framing nailer Brands claimed that they make enough power to drive Nails in the composite Lumber so let's see how the nailers perform driving nails into four inches of composite Lumber all the nailers have had several hours to warm up and the Craftsman drove in the first nail most of the way but the nailer appears to be jammed after resetting the tool by removing and installing the battery and then rotating the reset lever the Craftsman is ready to go and the Craftsman needs reset once again after the second nail after attempting the third nail the Craftsman needs attention and all three nails are sticking out of the board around a quarter to 7 16 of an inch after cold temperature exposure the rigid will no longer fire I had to add air to the pressure tank on the nailer and the pressure tank is now at 125 psi and the nailer made three attempts to drive in all three nails without any malfunctions unfortunately the ridge left behind some unfinished business with the nail sticking out around 7 16 to 9 16 of an inch and the DeWalt attempted to drive in the first nail but is performing just like the Craftsman and needs reset before driving the second and third nails and the duel came up short on all three nails and it performed very close to the same as a Craftsman so it came up short around one quarter to 7 16 of an inch and a Metabo made all three attempts without any mechanical or electronic malfunctions but it really struggled to drive in the nails and a Metabo left behind a lot of unfinished business with the nails above the surface of the board by about three quarters of an inch and the Milwaukee made very easy work of the first nail and Milwaukee performed just as well in the second and third Nails driving in all three nails without any mechanical or electronic malfunctions very impressive and a Paso really struggled on the first nail and the past looks struggled just as much on the second and third downs but no jams or malfunctions and all the nails are sticking out by about an inch to an inch and a quarter so the Milwaukee came out on top fully driving in all three Nails DeWalt finished in second at 0.3 inches and Craftsman 0.32 let's see if the nailers perform better without 10 pounds of downward force on top of the nailer and then with a lot of downward force and a Craftsman didn't seem to be hurt or benefit by more or less downward force and the Ridgid performed better without any weight on top of the nailer compared to applying a lot of downward Force around a quarter of an inch without any force and 7 16 with a lot of downward force on the nailer and the DeWalt performed very close to the same driving in the nails with and without a lot of downward Force around a quarter of an inch and the Metabo continues to struggle on this test both with and without downward Force just over three quarters of an inch on both attempts and the Milwaukee continued to perform extremely well with and without a lot of downward force on the nailer it actually performed a little bit better without extra downward force and the passlo continues to be really challenged 7 8 of an inch without any downward force and almost an inch and a quarter with a lot of downward Force so the nailers performed about the same or just a little bit better without a lot of downward force on the nailer a poorly designed nailer tip can really make it difficult to achieve a 45 to 50 degree angle when toenailing and the Craftsman really struggling this test and lost grip at 18.9 degrees and origin performed even better than the DeWalt but it still struggled at 26.1 degrees and the tip on the DeWalt looks the same as a Craftsman and it performed almost the same at 18.4 degrees and a Metabo it was very well designed for driving in nails at an angle and when toenailing and the Metabo finally lost grip at 56.2 degrees and the Milwaukee's tip is very well designed designed it also performed very well at 52.6 degrees and El Paso it has an amazing set of teeth on the nailer and it's by far the best designed for driving nails at an angle and the password finally lost grip at 76.1 degrees very impressive so the contact tip on the pass load offers by far the best grip on wood when nailing at an angle Metabo finished in second at 56.2 and Milwaukee 52.6 degrees if you're looking for nailer for home construction or for home renovation it's really helpful to have a nailer that'll fit between the studs and it'll offer a perfectly parallel nail shot at 13 and three quarter inches in height the Craftsman easily fits between the studs at 15 inches in height the rigid is a little too tall from top to bottom to fit between the studs and allow for a perpendicular or a straight nail shot just like the Craftsman the dwell is an inch and a quarter shorter than the Ridgid giving it plenty of space to work between studs on 16 inch centers and a metabol will fit between studs at 16 inch centers but there's very little wiggle room just like the Metabo the Milwaukee also fits between studs at 16 inch centers but it's a pretty tight fit and the fit between the studs with the pass load seems very close to the same as the Milwaukee so the Craftsman and the DeWalt are the most common pack from top to bottom and the rigid is at least compact if the front of the nailer is bumping up against a wall and you need to drive a nail straight down and not at an angle the Craftsman is at 2.1 inches of offset and the Ridgid is at 2.4 and the dwell in the Craftsman are very close to the same at 2.1 inches and a Metabo offers a lot better access against a vertical surface than the Craftsman DeWalt in the Ridgid at only 1.75 inches at 2.1 inches the Milwaukee's offset is very close to the same as the Craftsman in the DeWalt and the pass load offers the best offset profile of all the brands at only 1.63 inches so passload finished in first but the Metabo is in a very close second and some applications driving a nail vertically next to an object might be necessary and a pass load is able to place a nail 1.63 inches away from a vertical surface Metabo 1.75 Craftsman DeWalt Milwaukee 2.13 inches taking into consideration just tool performance and not categories such as tool weight or noise the Milwaukee came out on top with an average finish of 1.5 pass loaded rigid had an average finish of 3.25 the Milwaukee definitely seems to be the best nailer in the lineup however it is pretty heavy and around 12 pounds all the videos in this channel including this one our viewers suggested so if you have a video idea I hope you take time to leave a comment thanks so much for watching please take care and look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 1,085,252

Keywords: project farm, Framing nailer, best framing nailer, cordless framing nailer review project farm, cordless framing nailer comparison, best cordless framing nailer, cordless framing nail gun, cordless framing nail gun review, cordless framing nail gun comparison, battery nail gun, Milwaukee battery framing nailer, ridgid battery framing nailer, dewalt battery framing nailer, paslode battery framing nailer, craftsman battery framing nailer, metabo battery framing nailer

Id: 2O6eH1VFgwY

Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023