I just bought a Hitachi NV65AH off eBay to do a hardi siding job. They say it works fine, but the pics show a lot of paint wear. I’ve done a lot of reading and it seems to be a pretty fair siding nailer, and one reviewer said it looked 10 years old after 6 months due to the cheap paint job wearing off. I got it for $147.50.
Anybody have any comments on the gun? I know some like the Max siding gun. I bought this one because it seems made for the purpose and I don’t have a roofing gun and I wanted something that would do the job.
Edited 1/14/2006 12:21 pm ET by MarkH
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You want performance or Good looks???
Mr. T.
Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store...
Maybe Christmas means a little bit more...
Then he got the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!!!
I was wondering if they don't age gracefully. But works is what I'm after. I saw the shield around the nose is missing, costs about $5. I don't know what the shield is used for.
I bought a used Hitachi framing gun for $150 from ebay. Looks like hammered sh!t, but works great.
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It's only satisfying if you eat it.
Supposedly Hitachi guns are durable.
Mine's got a bit more green on it. Hope it's a good one too.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7579305804&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting
Looks a lot like the paint on mine and it's only 8 months old.
The shield is really nice for deflecting the wire pieces off the nails that come flying out. I didn't replace mine right away and when the gun is just above head height and on your right side, those wire bullets come directly at your face.
Great gun though, best one on the market.
Thanks for the info. I'll look into getting a shield or rigging something up before putting it to use. I plan on using plastic collated nails, but still better safe than sorry.
mark, we install hardie siding on our new houses exclusively, the 65ah is the best gun for the job! we also use maze plastic collated nails for the galvinzed coating here on the texas coast. the guns are four years old with a minimun of problems. with plastic collated nails there is no reason for the safety shield. all my guns are off ebay and looks don't count its the performancethat matters! jack
Why would you buy something that looks like that for 150.00 and not even know if it will last shooting 10 nails or not? I don't get it. You have a 50% chance of loosing 150.00. If you can afford to do that, I'm sure you can afford to buy the gun new, right?I'm not trying to be a smart ####. I'm just saying that it's not like you bought it from a friend of yours or from the place where you buy your tools from and they rebuilt it or something. It's just that tools are our life and that's what makes us money. They are the most important thing to us and times are tuff as far a making money and they make the money for us so my thinking on buying a tool that looks like it's been left outside in the rain and has been totally abused from someone who you don't know isn't worth it.If that gun lasts you one week and is shot. Now you go buy another one from ebay for 150.00. For 75.00 more you could have a brand new one. I'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money but for anything else knock yourself out but for buying tools that make our living it doesn't seem worth it. If 150.00 was what you could afford at the time, then I'm sorry for my post.Joe Carola
Edited 1/16/2006 11:38 pm ET by Framer
Thanks for your comments. I have had good luck buying used for the most part, and find looks to be deceptive. Some of the worst looking stuff I have bought works good as new, and this gun is noted for durability. Also, as stated, Hitachi guns seem to lose their new out of the box look fairly fast, so it may be a pretty much low hours tool. I'll clean it and replace the seals if it has any problems, I probably will do it anyway. I bought a nice looking fairly unused snowblower for $25, but can't keep it running. Probably looked nice because it never would run right.
Edited to add that the seller has been on ebay since 99 with 1353 feedbacks, 100% positive. And he said he tested it and it works fine. I would be very leary of buying something like this from someone with lesser ratings. I know all the caveats about buying used and from someone you don't really know, but it's a gamble I'm willing to try for a small thrill once in a while.
Edited 1/17/2006 9:52 am ET by MarkH
Joe
My only concern about buying it was that it was stolen. I figured it was worth a $150 risk to try out a new style of gun. I don't frame very much, and couldn't see dropping the $370 for a new one. IF(big if) I expand my business further, and get into more framing I will gladly buy 1 or 2 new ones.
The gun has worked flawlessly, and I've shot about a case of 10d nails through it.
Here's the add for a new one, from http://www.amazon.com/tools
Hitachi NV83A2 2" to 3-1/4" Coil Framer with Depth of DriveOther products by Hitachi
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To see our low price, add this item to your cart. You can always remove it later. Why don't we show the price?Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.Hurry, order now and we'll ship this item when it becomes available. You can cancel your order at any time. Your credit card will not be charged until we have shipped your order. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. 3 used & new available from $369.99 --------------------------
It's only satisfying if you eat it.
I always wonder where the eBay tools come from. But even the new ones on eBay could be stolen mdse. Happens all the time at the stores.
I always wonder where the eBay tools come from. But even the new ones on eBay could be stolen mdse. Happens all the time at the stores.
Unfortunately, that's the world we live in. I always worry about it, but there is no way to verify anything we buy. --------------------------
It's only satisfying if you eat it.
I never bought anything from ebay before. My friend was telling me a couple moths ago that he bought a trailer on ebay from some guy and send him the money and some how the trailer was sold already. My friend is out his money and I don't really know the whole story because he told me it's a loooooooooong story and the cops are involved.I have one Hitachi NVA83A for about 4-5 years now and love it. The rest are Paslode Power Master Plus. Now that I use the Hitachi if my Paslodes go I will go with all Hitachi Coil guns because they never seem to run out of nails. It's a great gun. Good Luck with yours.Joe Carola
I got the gun and it works excellent. Does show that it has been used a lot though. I did a bit of cleaning and oiling on the exterior moving parts, and it's ready to go. Yes, I oiled the inards before trying it out.
had that exact same gun bought it new around 6 years ago for high 300's if memory serves. have installed hundreds of squares with it , it owes me nothing. i love it, i take care of it, it serves me well. i'd by another in a blink...... good luck sounds like you did well for yourself. alias
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I bought mine new off ebay and after one job the paint is all scratched up as I was laying it down on a Rustgo scaffold that has been used for drywit and was covered with the stuff. However it is a great tool for the job.
Mark, I've got two of those guns and like them a lot. They like a lot of oil. Not just down the male connector, but I also give it 5 or 6 drops down the snout if I know it's going to get a work out. The first thing I do when I take a new coil nailer out of the box is tear off that plastic shield. If my framing guns don't need it, then my coil nailers don't either. I think it's to protect you from little pieces of metal if you're using wire collated coils. I always buy plastic collated for the siding guns.
I wouldn't worry about the paint job. All my Hitachi guns are banged up looking. The important thing is that Hitachi makes very good nailers that take a ton of jobsite abuse. For a buck and a half, you did really good on that purchase. I think I paid $250 for a reconditioned one a few months ago. They go for $350 to $400 new.
If I were you, I take it apart and clean it as soon as I got it. Probably replace the rings ($20ish) while I had it open. All that a lot of malfunctioning nailers need is a good cleaning.
When depth of drive is crucial, I think it's very important to be using a compressor sized to the task at hand. Coil nailing usually means an awful lot of fairly rapid firing. I see guys with little twin stack or pancakes pretty much cycling constantly and then they bitch about how the depth of drive is inconsistent. Go figure.
EDIT: Another note about the plastic shield. Even if you replace it, you will find that they get clouded with oil, dirt, and sawdust gunk in a fairly short amount of time. This pretty much renders them useless as you can't see what you're doing. I just skip it.
Edited 1/15/2006 10:58 am ET by dieselpig
Thanks, I'm feeling a bit better now about the purchase. So Hitachis with well worn paint may actually not have much use according to what I've heard from all you guys. And the shields on most of the used units seem to be pretty much impossible to see through.
I also bought a box of 6000 B & C Eagle 1 1/2 hdg plastic collated nails for $15 on Ebay (can't seem to pass up a good buy). The sheathing on this house is 1/4" plywood. It is a WW2 government issue prefab officers off base cape cod with true 2x4 studs 16" oc. According to James hardie the 1 1/2" nails will work, but certainteed recommends a 2" nail. I was planning on buying the Maze nails, but Hitachi has their own hardie nails for planks and another one for hardie shingles. Oh well. What length would you use?
I checked the completed items and I got the lowest price on that gun, but it was the worse looking one too.
Edited 1/15/2006 12:11 pm ET by MarkH