So.. my wife has bought another house for us to renovate and live-in. I’ll be replacing the kitchen cabinets, with IKEA products and doing some minor interior wall alterations and see a new fence in my immediate future. The long run will probably see three bathroom facelifts as well.
I’ve heard that nailing the backs onto the IKEA cabinet boxes with a hammer can be a time consuming effort, and I know that a power nailer can also make for better results when altering interior framing on finished walls. I imagine a power nailer would also make short work on fence construction. I like my hammer because it’s cordless and can do all these projects… but I”m thinking it might be time to add another power tool to the collection.
How would I get the best bang for my buck? Is there a single cordless power nailer that can do all these jobs? OR do I need two? OR should I just rent?
I’m not a professional renovator, so I won’t be using the tool on a frequent basis.
Thanks for your input.
Replies
At least two
For the Fence, and any framing you will want a framing nailer.
For trim, and the backs on the Ikea boxes, a 16-guage, trim nailer, or an 18-guage brad nailer.
For occaisional use I'd say buy the trim nailer with a compressor as a kit.
Plan on renting the framing nailer and a suitable compressor.
There are airless trim nailers, but they typically cost more than a kit consisting of nailer and compressor. And, the compressor comes in handy on it's own.
Why couldn't you use screws instead?
Cordless impact kits drive screws like butter, and are reversable if you make a goof (like we DIYers tend to do). Pros would argue that driving screws is slower than driving nails, but speed is less important for DIYers anyway as we tend to spend more of our time figuring out what should be done next.
screws for Ikea cab
Jus about all Ikea cabinets have their own fastening methods.
Where you need nails is on the backboards. They supply small flathead nails that are a pain to hold and hammer into the particle board. Screws would split the small K board edge. A cordless finish nailer 18 g with 1/2" nails would fit well to do the job
For those backers, wouldn't a stapler be better than a finish nail with little to no head?
It depends how much of this you do...
I bought a porter cable combo kit (compressor, 2.5" 16 guage finish nailer, 1.25" 18 guage brad nailer, 1" finish stapler) at Home Depot for around $300. I then bought a Bostich framing Nailer (F21pl), a bostitch cap stapler, and a used roofing nailer. I borrowed he Father-in-law's stapler for sheathing. I have gotten quite a bit of use out of all of them, and the roofing nailer, framing nailer and cap stapler seem to always be on loan to other family to build homes, shops, etc...
What do I use the most? The finish nailer and brad nailer are what I use most since I am doing trim right now, but if I was putting the backs on cabinets you might want one of the finish staplers. I am picturing that really thin backing stuff that would pull off a headless nail or brad pretty easily. The staples hold that stuff on really well, and it makes the job go really fast.
A Framing nailer is handy if you are doing a lot, but from what you just described, your hammer and a good drill/driver or impact driver would probably be more appropriate. On the other hand, Framing Nailers are pretty cool! I use my framing nailer with the little 4 gallon compressor that came with the combo kit and haven't had any trouble. Of course if you are way faster than I am, you could run it out of air pretty quick, but I find that I am always trying to twist a stud or taking time to get things aligned, so I never have run out of air.
+1 for combo kits
I bought a Bostich compressor with 3 gun package from Blowes about 2 years ago for less than $300. OMG, I ought to have done it years ago, it has turned out to be very useful. Given your requirements, I would go this route.
Good luck.
Thanks for the quick answers and sound advice... I'm going to HD to check out the Porter Cable two nailer kit. I imagine it will be be perfect.
I'll also check out the screws and staples options, to be honest I never thought of using screws in wood framing because I've always viewed that as a shear connection. I did think about staples for the cabinets backs though... just needed a reminder.
What paul didn't mention was there are screws..........
and then there are fasteners properly spec'd for the specific application that just happen to be screws or lags.
Do not use drywall screws as the fastener of choice unless you are sure their use is applicable.
GRK, Simpson and Fastenmaster produce screws for many purposes.
For wood framing, I won't use a screw under #9 size. Simpson now makes screws specificly designed for metal shear connectors - HD has them now.
>>>I've heard that nailing
>>>I've heard that nailing the backs onto the IKEA cabinet boxes with a hammer can be a time consuming effort, and I know that a power nailer can also make for better results when altering interior framing on finished walls.
I've built lots of Ikea cabs and yes, a small air nailer is a huge help.
However, we're talking about 18 gauage brads or staples, not framing nails. For the cabinet backs I prefer 18 guage staples; they hold better than brads in the pressboard and particle board that Ikea uses.
As for framing, that gun is pretty much at the opposite end of the spectrum of nailers. Fraiming nailers typically shoot up to 3.25" spikes.