Framing nailer misfires cost me 4 hours and a box of 3 inch nails

Last Tuesday on a deck build in Portland, my pneumatic nailer started dry firing mid run and I kept pulling the trigger without checking the magazine. By the time I realized what was happening, I had bent maybe 60 nails and ruined two joist hanger straps that had to be pulled and replaced. Has anyone else had a nailer jam like that and found the real cause, or was it just worn driver blades on my old Hitachi?

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lindab4924d ago

Air pressure might be the sneaky one here. If your compressor is cycling low or you got a long hose run on a hot day, the gun can short stroke and not feed a nail but still fire the piston. That feels exactly like a dry fire and it chews up driver blades fast, so you blame the blade when the real issue is psi drop. Check your gauge at the gun, not the tank, and watch what it does right when the compressor kicks on. Also peek at the o ring in the trigger valve, a worn one bleeds air just enough to cause skip fires. Old Hitachi parts are cheap, worth rebuilding before you toss it.

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