Over at Amazon, they have a couple of Hitachi air nailers so low priced, even I couldn’t resist picking them up.
Several readers have written in about these deals (thank you all!), and although I wrote about them in my Black Friday coverage, it seemed justified to give these nailers their own deal post.
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I also picked up a light Hitachi air hose, 1/4″ x 50′, for $15. (Update: the price went up after this post was published.)
Hitachi 18 gauge Brad Nailer, NT50AE2, for $40
Shown above, the Hitachi brad nailer is in “how can they even do this?!” pricing territory. It’s a very well-regarded air nailer, with tons of mostly-positive user reviews.
I plan on using ours as a ToolGuyd review baseline, and in personal projects.
Hitachi 23 gauge Pin Nailer, NP35A, for $69
I’ve wanted my own pin nailer for a while, and took advantage of this deal to get one. I bought mine from Acme Tool, but Amazon has it for the same price.
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One thing I debated before pulling the trigger on the purchase was the nail size capacity, which is 5/8″ to 1-3/8″, but I ultimately concluded that it’s unlikely I will ever need to use pin nails smaller than 5/8″.
Price: $69
Buy Now(via Amazon)
Update: Sorry, the price is and was $69.
Hitachi Narrow Crown Stapler, N3804AB3, for $70
In the midst of Black Friday excitement, I decided to pick up a Hitachi narrow crown stapler as well. Its sale price wasn’t quite as goods as the others, but I still saved some money.
I plan on using the stapler for some cabinetry projects I have coming up, and also as a baseline for future review comparisons.
Buy Now(via Amazon)
Tom
Have the 18ga and it’s a joy to use. Really light weight, but not flimsy if that makes sense. 2 drops of oil at the start of each session and never had any issues. Only small note is watch what brand nails you get – some are a hair long for this gun.
fred
Lowes also has the N3804AB3 for $69.98
They are advertising new lower prices on a number of Hitachi nailers as well
The NR90AE and NR90ADPR framing nailers are now $149 each
The Hitachi cordless finishing nailers are now $269 each
Zach
The pinner is showing up at $69 for me. 🙁
Ray D
How is this compare to Dewalt’s $49 Brad Nailer?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-18-Gauge-Pneumatic-2-in-Brad-Nailer-Kit-DWFP12231/204334593
Greg
dewalt nailers are rebranded Bostitch nailers. I have the Bostich smart point nailers in 15, 16, 18ga and a 21 deg framing nailer. They are by far the best nailers I have ever used. Not taking anything away from the Hitachi nailers, but I don’t see how the Bostitch stuff could be improved upon. For pin nailers (21 or 23 ga), I would look to Cadex, Grex, etc. I own the Cadex and couldn’t be happier.
fred
I have a Cadex 21ga and a Grex 23ga pinner. I use the 21ga. more because I find that it has better holding power with little difference in hole size/visibility.
In the business – we had many Bostitch pneumatics and found little if any fault with them. A few of their flooring staplers seemed a bit finicky – but that may have been due to the product we were laying down. For flooring – we came to like the Powernail brand guns. We also liked the Hitachi angle finish nailes and coil roofing nailers we had. That can also be said for a Makita siding nailer we used. We had a Fasco scrail gun, and Tiger Claw decking guns. We had some Senco pneumatics (like a senclamp gun and corrugated fastener gun) and some Faco staple guns that we used in one shop. With Paslode – we only had their Impulse cordless tools – no pneumatics.
Other brands I’ve heard some good things about are Omer(pinners) and BEA (staple guns)
fred
While talking about pneumatics – every one in a while I see Freeman sets being bid upon as the prize on Price is Right. The only time I’ve ever seen a Freemen tool in use was on a farm fencing job where they were using a Freeman fence stapler. I know that HD sells Freeman tools – but have not heard much (yeah or nay) about them.
In my hunting around – I did find an alternative cordless fence stapler based on a Paslode gun (from ITW New Zealand):
https://www.stock-ade.com/
Troy
The air hose is coming up at $26.99.
Stuart
Sorry, it was still $15 when the post went up.
I’m guessing Amazon’s algorithm bumped the price back up to regular price. Maybe they had a quota they could sell at the lower price.
fred
For $15 this air hose at Home Depot might be a good buy:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-3-8-in-x-50-ft-Hybrid-Air-Hose-AB-50C/301969941
fred
Stuart:
Re the staple gun you said:
“I plan on using the stapler for some cabinetry projects I have coming up”
Maybe for stapling thin plywood backs into their rabbets ?
Building cabinets would also be a good time to try out your new router table as well. Some nice rail and stile cabinet doors with decorative raised panels or other inlay (like decorative glass, or bronze wire grills) always look nice. Are you doing overlay or inset doors? Either way you might build your face frames pocket-hole style – or with more traditional joinery. My recent casework has all been with my domino machine – but I still like pocket hole joinery for quick and strong face frames.
Stuart
Yep!
Plus, I have an IKEA Trofast for kids’ toy storage, and it really needs a back, so I picked up some hardboard. I do have some small ribbed nails I bought at the same time, but I think staples will hold a lot better.
I figured staples will hold better for various small fastener needs, and where visibility isn’t a big issue.
I’m not up to fancy cabinet doors. Everything I’ve built recently, or will build in coming months, will be for utility, simply based on time. That office tool cabinet I started a year and a half ago and expanded a few months ago? I still haven’t made any more progress on finishing it (shellac + poly), or adding drawer fronts.
Jon
Has anyone given Big Sky Tool a look? I have had nothing but amazing experiences with them. I have gotten the 23ga pinner, 18ga narrow crown stapler and 15ga finish nailer (all Hitachi) refurbished from them. I am cheap so I get the “Grade C” refurbs and have nary a problem with any of them. Big Sky also does daily tool deals that are quite good buys if you are in the market for the particular tool of the day.
Zach
I’ve never seen the 15ga nailer show up on the daily deals there, hoping for it myself.
How do the Grade C units look?
Jon
They look great. When I first saw them I imagined that the original purchaser bought the gun, stuck it on a shelf up high and when it eventually fell out when they were cleaning they said: “I should return this”.
Drew M
I got the N3804AB3 for $60. so, neener neener! 😉
I already had the narrow crown gun. It was my first Hitachi gun and I liked it so much that I got the micro-pinner $60, the brad gun $40 (to replace my half broken Senco) and a framing gun for $140.
Jason
Stuart, with so many different types of nailers and staplers out there – could you possibly do a write-up some time on the different types of pneumatic tools & fasteners and their uses? My experience with air tools is limited to using an air stapler to put up insulation, but I think I could get a lot of jobs done faster with air – just not sure what tool to use and when.
(What’s a narrow crown staple? What’s a pin nailer and when would you use it? that sort of thing!)
Stuart
I can put this on my to-do list, but keep in mind that I’m not a professional user. A residential contractor or professional tradesman might have different uses that I won’t or cannot cover.
Generally, the larger the nail, the more the holding power and the larger the hole that needs filling.
A pin nailer or brad nailer can be used in woodworking to help keep things in place while glue dries. Sometimes they’re used when installing trim, other times the next step up is a 16 gauge or 15 gauge finish nailer.
With a pinless nailer, you get some mechanical strength, but usually that’s secondary to a stronger holding mechanism, such as glue. At least, from what I’ve seen.
I bought the 1/4″ crown stapler because I have a number of projects coming up, and it seems like a good way to add mechanical fastening. It also looks to help prevent rotation. I consider it as being 2 short brad nails with a 1/4″ bridge between them.
I use different nailers for different things, but I might be able to get by using fewer tools. It’s like having an 8 oz hammer, 16oz hammer, 22oz hammer, and 2 lb deadblow. You could probably use a 16 oz hammer for everything, but having different hammers can provide benefits.
fred
Stuart – what you said – then add all the specialty trades and pneumatic fastening tools used in industrial and commercial settings and you have a whole bundle of types and sizes. Then their are variants even within tool – like clipped head versus round head framing nails, how they are collated, and at what angle. Some nailer styles (like roofing guns) typically come with round magazines for coils of collated nails. Others guns come with straight or angled magazines for strips of collated nails. Common wire nail gauges start at #9 (heavy) and run t #23 light. With 23 and 21 being common for pinners, 18 for brad guns, 16 and 15 for finish nails. Then there are “Scrails”, siding nails, roofing nails, framing nails. metal connector nails and T-Nails (wood to concrete fastening) to talk about a few extra types that are fired using pneumatic guns. Flooring T-cleats and L-Cleats come in some different gauges like 20, 18, and 16. Pneumatic staple guns come sizes to fire various crown widths. Ones that I know about start at 3/16 inch and include 7/32, 1/4, 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch crowns). Most fire round-top staples – but some use flat-top staples like the ubiquitous T-50 style. The smaller crown widths might find use in carpet and upholstery trades. Larger sizes more in construction and roofing. There are also different gauge staples associated with many of the crown sizes. So a 3/16 crown 23 ga staple might be used in upholstery. and a 9 ga. 3/4 inch crown staple could be used for tacking up barbed wire fencing. There are pneumatic staplers for PEX tubing, I recall a Craftsman pneumatic cable stapler too. There are also specialty pneumatic “staplers” that fire corrugated fasteners and “Senclamps” – we used these in the shop for some staircase fabrication. In the cabinet shop – we also had a shipping station – where we had pneumatic carton staplers.
So compiling an exhaustive compendium of pneumatic nail guns and staplers might be exhausting.
Grady
I too would like to see a pneumatic tool write-up, which tool when and where, also air vs electric.
While on the subject, how about a roofing vs fencing nailer.
Thanks, keep up the good work!
fred
It seems that some folks use siding nailers for wood fencing as well. We did the occasional fence repair – and used one of our Makita siding guns:
https://www.amazon.com/Makita-AN611-4-Inch-2-Inch-Siding/dp/B00004YOJU/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1512253665&sr=1-1&keywords=an611
But if you go to a site like Nail Gun Depot – you will see ones from Hitachi, Bostitch, Senco, and others. I don’t recall ever seeing a battery cordless siding nail gun. But ITW has an impulse cordless roofing nailer that they sell under the Paslode and Duo-Fast brands. Working at elevation on roofs and siding or out at the back of a property on a fence – would really benefit from not dragging a cord or air hose – but maybe the technology is not there yet.