Customer Reviews

DEWALT D51238K 5/8-Inch to 2-Inch 18-Gauge Brad Nailer

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Boy I like this nailer. I have owned it for almost 2 years and have no complaints. I've never had a misfire. It drives 2 inch nails with ease. Best of all it's light. I used it for window and door molding and cabinet work. This gun is easy to load, and easy to change the depth of the shot.

Some nice features are:

1. As the nails run low, an indicator appears to show that you have 6 nails left. Then it moves to show a countdown to show when you are empty. It's nice not to have to open the magazine to see how many nails you have. And of course the indicator that appears is yellow.

2. You can direct the exhaust airflow anywhere you want.

3. If the nail jams, which has only happend when I hit something below, the head easily opens so you can extract the bent nail.

I also have the 15 ga. nailer and would highly recommend both of these. I've also recommended this nailer to 2 friends and they have also had excellent results. Way to go DeWALT!!

Update: add another year of use, still working strong. No problems at all.

I bought a DeWalt nail gun near the end of last year. Since then I've driven several boxes of nails with it, mostly without any hitches. I've used it nearly every day for building cabinets and installing mouldings. This is my third brad nailer. My first one was a Senco SLP20, a fabulous gun. I never had any problems with the Senco other than the safty being on the front side of the driver... that made it difficult to shoot nails at a bit of an angle if needed. My only other complaint about the Senco was its limited capacity in length of nails, 1 5/8". After the Senco was stolen out of the back of my truck I bought a Hatachi brad nailer... the DeWalt was not yet on the market. Overall, the Hatachi was a nice quality gun and had the 2" nail depth capacity I really needed for my work. However, it would often double fire on me because the safty was so sensitive. This problem occurred so much I finally gave it to my son (a weekend warrior) after the DeWalt came on the market. I was real excited about the new DeWalt brad nailer because of the nice features, particularly the design which put the safty behind the driver. It worked flawlessly right out of the box and I almost never looked back. At the time I was looking at the DeWalt gun I was also considering the new Senco gun that shot 2" nails.

Now after about six months I'm beginning to think I made a mistake buying the DeWalt. A recent problem has occurred that's quite troubling: The gun stopped firing and recycling properly. I thought maybe at first it was due to a blown O-ring or something like that. The only way I could get the cylendar to return was to uncouple the air hose. Then, I could shoot one nail before having to uncouple the hose again. Needless to say this was a pain in the rear. Another son, who is also in construction, told me he encountered the same propblem with his DeWalt brad nailer... which was even newer than mine. He was finally able to get his to work by adding oil to the driver and guide after opening up the quick release mechanism. I tried this, but used a super thin lubricant instead of the oil that came with the gun. It didn't work. Later I went back and it fired fine for about 10 shots and then stopped again. I've let it set for a couple of days now and just tried it again. It seems to work fine now, but obviously I'm concerned because I don't feel I can rely on it when doing a job on site... and that could really cost me time and money. So, I'm once again thinking hard about buying yet another brad nailer, the newly designed Senco 2" gun. I've really liked the DeWalt, but am concerned about it's relyability. I'm also put off because it may be necessary to buy a third nail gun in less than two years... this is getting expensive.

I just bought this nailer at Home Depot several months ago for our trim crew. We specifically use 18G bradders for shoe and other small moldings. This unit is the best we've ever come in contact with. The guys tried the Porter Cab tools and they don't seem to have the power to set nails and they don't feel nearly as durable as the Dewalt. The depth setting mechanism on this tool is tops as well

I recently purchased this 18 gauge Brad Nailer and a Porter Cable Pancake Compressor for Christmas. I waited to write a review until I had time to test it properly and I am still not certain that I am giving the Nailer a proper review. To start with I thought that all of the fittings for connecting to a compressor would come with the Nail Gun but these items were not included. I purchased the necessary fittings, which were very inexpensive, set it up and started testing it. Since I have never used a Nail Gun before, I changed the trigger to the sequential trigger provided in the kit to prevent accidentially shooting too many nails in one place. I am happy with the way the Gun feels, with the depth it shoots brads, how easy it is to change the depth, eveything EXCEPT that sometimes it dry fires for no reason. I have tried doing the things the instructions suggest to prevent this but I was still able to dry fire once about every 15 shots. Other than this the gun is really nice and I hope that I can talk to someone at Dewalt to resolve this problem. As of Jan. 2 I can not get through to anyone at Dewalt for assistance. I will write again as soon as I get assistance and the problem is resolved or if the problem remains I will down grade my review.

I bought this P.O.S. in June '04, so this review is a testament to my cheapness and masochism (I have suffered this gun for years). Before buying I saw some reviews that talked about problems with jams and misfires. But I already had the DeWalt angled 15 ga. 2 1/2" and loved it (still do -- never one problem and my tools get heavy use), so I bought the little 18 ga. gun thinking those other guys' problems were flukes. I got several months of good use before I starting having problems too: 1st shot after connecting to air - dry fire; jams - nail gets bent over inside the magazine; nail clip will overlap itself and jam; plunger won't recycle; random dry fires - several in sequence.... believe me, the frustration of having dry fires after clearing a jam and then once again going through complex alignment of the trim only to have another misfire. AAAARRRGGHHH!!!! Really, it is stupidity on my part that I have put up with this. I have easily spent enough time clearing jams and dealing with the problems of this gun to pay for another gun many times over. Problem was that there would be periods when there were no problems (rat psychology says that intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful). So I endured it. But when I finish this review I am ordering the Milwaukee 18 ga. gun. Hopefully my self-imposed suffering will come to an end.

I notice that most of the reviews for this gun are (still) good, so if you go ahead and buy it I hope you fare better than I did. But if you do buy and get a piece of crap, remember that you too were warned. And if you do get junk, cut your loss quick!

I received this nail gun as a free gift from DeWalt for purchasing a certain amount of products from them. I had previously used only Spot Nails and Omer nail guns, available only through a supplier, but as soon as I tried the DeWalt, I could tell it was superior even to my Spot Nails gun. I've used it for two years now in the cabinet and molding industry, and as my shop has grown, I will be getting a few more of these nail gun for my guys to use. I have recommended this gun to all of my friends in the industry. I do not blindly endorse DeWalt products, but this nail gun really is a good product.

I bought this nailer aprox. 6 months ago from amazon. I love it. I have been using it 5 days a week. I bought it based on my satisfaction with other Dewalt tools. I have not been disapointed at all. I plan on buying the 15 gauge angled head nailer when my current one gives up the ghost.

I bought this nailer at Lowes when laying down Brazilian cherrry hardwood floors. I used it extensively and was very pleased with its performance, especially given the fact how hard that wood is! I used it first and last rows by the wall, on molding, baseboard, and other applications. It misfired twice, though it may have been due to incorrect angle used. When I was deciding between brad nailers at Lowes (I needed one that day, that's why I didn't get it at Amazon as I usually do), they had Bostitch and Hitachi models in addition to Dewalt. The yellow one was $10 more, but it appeared to be well designed, light and comfortable in my hand. After months of heavy use, I can only confirm that my initial impression was correct. I would encourage you to go to the store and try one, it's possible one will feel better than the other in your hand. All I can say though is that if you decide to go with this model, you are likely to be pleased as much as I am. Highly recommended tool!

Bought this nailer for applying window trim in a screen room being enclosed with glass to convert it to a 4-season room. Sure beats holding the nail & llightly tapping it with a hammer & then worrying about accidentally hitting the glass with the hammer. There is no recoil & the only thing slowing me down is how fast the sleeve of nails disappears! No misfires, no problems, a real joy to use. Got the work done in at least 1/3 the time compared to a hammer & nail.

I bought this gun a few months ago at Lowes. Most of my experience with this gun is with using 2" nails. I can report to all that this gun frequently mis-fires (dry fire). Also, the gun doesn't always 'reset' back into the proper firing position. DeWalt has missed the mark with this gun and I would not recommend it to anyone. In my opinion this gun should be recalled. Don't be lured by the good looks and light weight - the substance is not behing the style. Thank goodness Lowes took this product back - I told the customer service person that it's a RTV (return to vendor)...