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Craftsman's Palm-Air Nailer drives 3/4- to six-inch-long nails in tight spaces. It weighs about 2-1/2 pounds, and requires the use of an air compressor at 60 to 100 PSI.
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Pneumatic nailers, known as "nailguns," have changed the way builders work, and are as common on the jobsite nowadays as circular saws and cordless driver/drills. These handy tools use compressed air to hammer or shoot nails into wood. Typically, pneumatic nailers are dedicated to specialty uses such as framing and sheathing, finish, or roofing. For the homeowner, handyman, or remodeler these tools can appear out of reach.
Fortunately, a nailer dedicated to a specific task is not a necessity—for that matter, neither is the compressor. If you find yourself using a variety of fasteners, or work in tight spaces where swinging a hammer isn't practical, or in situations where there's either no place to plug in a compressor or no reasonable way to drag an air hose, you're in luck.
Palm Nailers
For efficiency in using a variety of nail sizes, ease of control, safety, and comfortable use in close quarters, it's hard to beat a palm nailer. Pam nailers weigh in at roughly three pounds, and as the name suggests, fit in the palm of your hand. A magnetic tip will hold the nail in place, and because you use bulk nails, there's no worries about buying the right type of nail for the tool. Unlike a regular pneumatic nailer, there's no trigger and no possibility for the ballistic misbehavior sometimes associated with regular nailguns. Because palm nailers depend upon a slight forward pressure by the user to trigger a rapid (from about 1,000 up to roughly 2,000 blows per minute) hammering action, there is no chance of an accidental discharge and nearly no possibility of a nail going someplace unintended. Depth control is straightforward—stop pressing on the tool and the nailer stops working. For applications where placement and depth must be precisely controlled, or where misdirected hammer blows are unacceptable, or when working conditions are cramped these tools can be handy. Manufacturer recommendations include nailing joist hangers, decking, fencing, and in some cases wood-to-concrete applications.
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Paslode's Cordless Framing Nailer drives 2-inch to 3-1/4-inch nails, making it suitable for most framing jobs. The nailer, which weighs about 7 pounds, does not require an air compressor or an electrical connection.
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Cordless Nailers
There are times when you want the speed and convenience of a nailer, but don't want the bother of a compressor and hoses. For random framing, punch list work, trim, places where there's no electricity for a compressor, or odd jobs on which it takes more time to drag the air hose to a location than do the work, there's a category of tools to suit the job.
These cordless tools work much like a pneumatic nailer, but rather than a blast of compressed air, they use an internal combustion "motor" to create an explosion which provides the nail driving force. Like their compressed air-driven counterparts, cordless nailers are available for a variety of jobs, including framing. Popular models, like the Paslode Cordless Utility Framing Nailer, carry up to 44 nails from 2-to-3-1/4-inches long. It is suitable for light framing, remodeling, soffits, decks, and repairs, with a nailing rate of 2 to 3 nails per second, and will fire about 1,200 times on each replaceable fuel cell. Other models are available for lighter duty jobs, including trim work.
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