Customer Reviews

Porta-Nails 501P Face Nailer (without Mallet)

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

 

 

I used the 401 model to nail several hundred feet of white oak T&G flooring, and it worked pretty well. I thought this product, the 501, would be a great time-saver once I got close to the opposite wall. I was wrong! The base is very slick, so the tool, which basically works like a big stapler, moved around a lot, making it difficult to set the nail properly. I could see how it might work if you could drive the nail in one strike, but I couldn't do that and the tool was not very forgiving. Anyway, I ruined about $25 worth of flooring before I gave up on this tool. I replaced it with a Porter Cable air nailer and quickly finished the job. I DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TOOL.

Face nailing is the most tedious part of any flooring job, and buying a face nailer would seem to be a good idea. But I highly recommend purchasing a pneumatic finish nailer instead. It will cost more, but it's MUCH more flexible and will save you hours of tedious hand nailing work (even days on a big job). With this face nailer, you're stuck face nailing the first three rows, which leaves a lot of holes in the boards along the wall. You can avoid this by hand-nailing the 2nd and 3rd rows at an angle, but this is extremely tedious and requires great hammer skills. With an air nailer, you can face nail the first run and then begin nailing the tongues at an angle, before you're able to use the angle nailer. You can also finish the last few rows much more easily. Finally, you can use the air nailer for the shoe molding (and any other trim jobs). I recommend a 15-gauge finish nailer with 2" nails. Get the most powerful one you can, since it takes power to counter-sink finish nails in oak. Bostitch makes a nice, small, lightweight nailer which is available in two power ranges - 300 pounds of force and 400 pounds of force. I recommend the more powerful one, even though it costs $100 more. Otherwise, you'll be hand-countersinking all the nails in order to get them deep enough. You'll need to drive more nails with the pneumatic gun in order to stabilize the boards, but it's a easy as pointing and pulling the trigger, so it's not a problem.

Nailer works well. If you hit it properly, it drove the nail with two blows. This product saves a great amount of time over hand nailing. The product could be improved by adding an extra stabilizer on both sides. The product could be steadied by placing foot on either side when nailing, preventing the nailer from jumping away from the nail after the first blow. Easy to use after the first two or three boards.

Unlike the gentleman who derides this product, I found the face nailer a much better means of fastening strip hardwook flooring than a pneumatic nailer. The serrated edge of the nails from Porta-Nails CANNOT be beaten for holding power. Sure, one could use a pneumatic nailer, as have I, to fasten starting and ending rows, but the rows will likely need to be glued down with subflooring adhesive as well as either face-nailed or toe-nailed through the tongue (which is awkward with a finish nailer). This product (in conjunction with the 401P) gives the tightest floor installation possible.