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One draw back of the 18 gauge trim nailer is that you can not use as long of a nail as you can in the 16 gauge trim nailer. It does a good job and nails through any wood and holds quite well for heavier trim jobs. I like this Dewalt nailer but it is quite heavy and bulky. I like the angled head because it allows you to get into tight places for trim work. So this makes the 16 gauge trim nailer better suited for your heavier projects.Over all I believe the Dewalt Cordless nailers are a good buy for your money because you do not have to worry about dragging a cord around with you. If you only do real light trim work, I would consider stepping down to the Dewalt 18 gauge angled nailer, because it is quite a bit lighter.
My other hand is free to help position the board exactly where I want it, the nail holes are smaller and easier to fill, and the battery lasts forever as far as I'm concerned. Initially, I was doing things by hand which meant drilling a pilot hole through the baseboard and the wall, hammering in a nail, and using my nailset to sink the nail. I'm a DIYer who has replaced my baseboards in my house and this nailer has been invaluable. What a pain.After putting a few baseboards in that way, I decided that was ridiculous and got the Dewalt nailer. For DIY tasks, this nailer works perfectly and is much more convenient than having to deal with pneumatic compression or Paslode gas cartridges. Now it's a simple 1-step, 1-hand process that speeds things up by a factor of 10.
At first I was skeptical, especially because I've given up on buying yellow tools. The weight is probably the only drawback, but it beats using passlode gas cartridges and much less problematic. I have'nt had a problem with nails not setting.ever. Its alot quicker especially when you only need to install a couple pieces of molding. I'm a trim carpenter, and custom cabinet installer, so I use this gun on a regular basis.
It has jammed a couple times, but usually if you hit a screw or nail in the wood. My company purchased the gun to avoid the whole compressor and hose situation. However, this gun has been in good working condition for over 1 year, and thats heavy use all year. Definitely worth the money. The battery is still holding up, and I rarely have to charge it.
We have done two rooms of crown molding and the battery shows no sign of slowing down. Heavy. I recommend this nailer to everyone. This is the greatest thing since sliced bread. A little, but my wife had no problems nailing up our crown molding.
No more lugging around a compressor and hose. It has a power setting that allows you to find the sweet spot for the wood you are working with. We had now issues driving 2.5in nails. The unit is big compared to an air version but never was an issue in corners.
Unfortunately, I'm not nearly as happy with the brad nailer, but that will be a different review. While most of the wood is pine, it's old first growth southern yellow pine that's almost as hard a oak. On days when we used it heavily, we'd just swap batteries every few hours when we took a break. I have the KA, and when we were doing trim we never had a problem running out of battery - in fact, many days we didn't have to switch at all. If I had one complaint, it's that there's no good position to put it down, other than standing on the battery.
My 26 year old daughter has no problems using it in any position either (it's her house). I love it. With all the wainscoting, beadboard, crown, baseboard, chair rail and every other imaginable kind of trim in this old victorian, the nailer functioned flawlessly. The bottom line.
Not having to deal with both batteries and gas tilted me in favor of the DeWalt. And while the weight didn't bother us using it, it's a lot when it's hanging on your belt by the hook.I like it so much a bought a DeWalt brad nailer when they came out. If you don't pay attention to the direction of the chisel point of the nails relative to the grain, the nail will follow the grain. In that position, it's top heavy, so you sure don't want to put it on the top of your step ladder while you're fiddling some piece of crown molding into position. This is all covered in the manual, although I don't recall it making a point of thinking about the positioning of the chisel point. I wanted the ease of use of a cordless, which pretty much narrowed it down to DeWalt or Paslode. The only negative is the weight, but that never really bothered us when we were actually using it. Well, it sure isn't light, although I find it comfortable to hold and easy to use, even standing on a step ladder putting up crown molding over my head.
Faced with a major overhaul of a 120 year old house, I wasn't looking forward to doing all the trim with a hammer and nailset, so I purchased a finish nailer. We shot many, many boxes of nails and wore out two rubber noseguards without a single jam.The only issue is shooting thin nails into hard word. Sometimes it'll even make a u-turn, so you need to think about where you put your hands when using this tool. It uses the same nails as the Paslode (in fact, that's all I use since none of my local stores carry the DeWalt nails).
I never counted how many nails you could do on a charge - we never ran it down. Other reviewers has mentioned the DeWalt is heavy. Same for knots or other defects in the wood. Actually better than my straight magazine brad nailer, which is much smaller overall.Pay attention to which model you're looking at when comparing prices - the 618K has one battery while the 618KA comes with two, and batteries are expensive.
Sometimes you need to turn the nailer so the long edge of the chisel point is across the grain so it cut through it instead of following it.The angled magazine makes it surprisiningly easy to get into small locations.
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