Here’s a note I just emailed to Porta-nailer. They may or may not answer promptly, so I thought I’d go fishing in this vast pool of knowledge:
After face-nailing about 100 square feet of 3/4″ oak flooring, my brand new Model 402 (actually, it’s the 402 with the different shoes) started jamming, usually by “sending” two nails into the small slot between the shoe plate and the wear plate.
Is there something I can do to fix this problem? I noticed that the jamming caused the two plates not to meet perfectly–a slight bulge. Could this be why two nails are allowed to descend?
Could, perhaps, face-nailing through that much wood is not something the 402 is designed for? (The boards are not tongue and groove, so we must face-nail. The force required to set the nails does not at all resemble the gentle pounding depicted on your video. Perhaps my (young) carpenter is striking the ram too forcefully?
I’d be very grateful for any help–we’ve got at least 250 square feet to go….”
Richard Bienvenu
Boone County, MO
Replies
Face nailing? I never knew you could swap out the shoe and face nail with it.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
The "kit" I bought has in fact 3 different shoes.
I just noticed that I misnamed one of the parts: I should have written between the "wear plate" and the "_sheer_ plate."
And one is for face nailing? With the angled drive, you have to stand on the back to keep it from moving I suppose?
Learn something new everyday. Now that I think back, I have demo'd underlay that had a porta-nail like fastener in it.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I looked up the 402 and found you need a special shoe 40225 in addition to the ones for the diff thickness flooring. That I suppose is the one you have on it now. Also found the face nailer only, 404. This info was not from the porta-nail site, so no mention was made on operation in hardwood. What does PN say about this problem?Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I had a staper running two at a time about every other fire from the day I bought it. Sent it in for warranty twice with no results. I finally pulled the (nose piece)? off and milled it down a bit to reduce the nail advance clearance. has worked perfectly ever since. Maybe a similar problem??. Any way Thought it might be an idea. It sucks when new tools dont work. Good luck
"I finally pulled the (nose piece)? off and milled it down a bit to reduce the nail advance clearance. has worked perfectly ever since. "
Thanks for reminding me why I hang out here. I'd never have thought of that on my own.~ WebTrooper ~
"But dont take my word for it. I was wrong once and it could happen again!"
Update: the problem was not so much jamming, but something far worse: the tool would drive the nail to within about 1/8" of the surface and, then, when one struck it again the driver (blade-like thing) would skip off the nail head and make a neat little hole in the flooring. The entire tool would have to be struck to wrench it out of the flooring.
We put the job on hold and waited for Porta-nailer to reopen after the Thanksgiving weekend. Our suspicion that the bulge in the shear plate was allowing the driver to take the path of least and resistance and jump off the nail head was confirmed by the tech helper at Porta-nailer. She immediately suggested that the shear plate was defective--not hardened enough and said that she'd send a replacement. Later that day she emailed me and said that they had a new batch (redesigned or something) of shear plates coming in and would also send me one of those.
So, I guess that they'd had other instances of this not-so-little problem.
She--and Porta-nailer--were very helpful, tho' I'd have preferred not to encounter this problem.
Thanks to all who replied. I haven't yet tried out the new plates (she sent both a wear plate and a shear plate), but will let y'all know what happened.