Customer Reviews

Porta-Nails 402P Porta-Nailer Manual Flooring Cleat Nailer

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought the 402P Porta-Nailer and 10,000 nails. Just finished installing 740 sf. of 3/4" Red Birch hardwood. No adjustment was required on the nailer as mentioned in an earlier review - nor could I see how one would adjust this nailer.

I nailed until the cartridge was empty every single time - no problem. I actually liked the ratcheting mechanism, despite reading poor reviews about this. The ratcheting mechanism allows you to take smaller swings when in a closet or close to the wall - allowing you to get one and possibly two extra rows nailed before hand nailing was necessary. Be careful when nailing close to a wall. I was a bit careless at first and took some good chunks out of the drywall when nailing close to the wall.

The nailer worked flawlessly. I averaged 75 sf/1000 nails with 3 1/4" wide flooring on a 6" nailing schedule. The box of 10,000 nails did come with the corners a bit crunched, which meant broken rows of nails, but I was able to feed the broken rows into the nailer and use them all up with no problems. I did not get a single jamb in the entire 740 sf. All nails drove flush, absolutely none sticking out.

I found that most nails would set with two swings. You could do it in one swing if you wanted, but I found that a weaker swing followed by one last hard swing seemed to pull the floor together a bit tighter. It was still necessary to pry some of the warped boards over with a pinch bar. This nailer won't straighten out the severely warped boards.

I found it neccessary to hand nail the first and last 12" due to the geometry of this nailer. Note that I did not order the face nailer. I did all of my face nailing by hand.

My only beef was that the wooden handle on the hammer was extremely rough - would rip your hand apart in no time - very poorly done in my opinion. I found it necessary to buff the handle smooth with a flap sandpaper wheel before using it. I would recommend that you spend the 10-15 minutes to do this before using the hammer. The rubber tip on the nailer came off once during the job, but was easy to pop back on.

If I had to do it again, I would certainly buy this nailer and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. I shopped around and the nails and nailer were significantly cheaper (about 60%) of the price of purchasing them locally. This is my first hardwood floor install and I found it relatively easy to install. Note that I also used a table saw + miter saw to install the hardwood.

I just completed installing 2000 sq ft of prefinished 3/4" tongue and groove with this nailer. Its lightweight and well made, comes with a how-to video and its own carrying case.

Of the tens of thousands of nails I hammered, this tool only failed twice, and that was because I needed to clean and oil the ram mechanism. Customer service was knowledgeable and helpful.

I would advise buying the Porta-Nail Nail Punch and the Face Nailer Plate as well.

Now that I am finished with my floor, I will be lending this nailer out to my father who plans on doing his own floor.

I just completed using this tool to lay hardwood throughout my entire house, and was very happy with the tools performance. When I first got the tool, it took a little bit of time to get used to how the tool works, and to adjust the ratchet/depth of drive. I suggest you take a few small pieces of floor and test it out before you start on your main project.

After about 5,000 nails, I needed to fine tune it again, but in almost 20,000 nails more, it has not needed any more adjusting. I prefer the mechanical nailers for pre-finished woods, because there is no sealer that goes on after nailing the floor down to seal gaps. With pre-finished floors, any gap that you leave is there for the life of the floor. Unless the board was warped very badly, the porta nailer was able to draw the floorboards up tight.

The tool requires the use of the included mallet, which is very heavy, and can tire you out quickly. This isn't a tool problem, because you do need all the force the mallet delivers to drive the nail and draw the floor up tight. I'm very happy with the tool, and if I had to lay more flooring, I'd reach for it again without hesitation.
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I borrowed my buddies 401 Porta-Nails and liked it so much I bought the newer 402. I have used a Bostitch air nailer and liked it as well. Both tools performed great. Here are the main reasons I choose the Porta-Nails:
1. The 402 is much lighter than an air driven nailer.
2. No air hose to drag around and knock your nailer and other tools over.
3. The nails for the Porta-Nails cost 1/4 as much as the Bostitch nails.
4. The Porta-Nails is made in the USA
5. After using the Bostitch for several hours my back just about killed me, the Porta-Nails didn't bother my back at all.
6. The Porta-Nails holds many more nails than the Bostitch.

I lost no productivity with the Porta-Nails.

Shane

This nailer is one of the best ive ever used. I dont subscribe to pneumatic nailers... i dont believe they get a tight enough fit... I always use the manual models and this is great. First the ratchet system is a must... when one hit does drive the nail the head stays down and you know when the nail is perfectly seated...this feature is not on alot of other models... Also when you get the hang of it you can drive the nail almost and give it that one last whack to really seat the board tight...This is the 10th floor ive installed and the first time ive used the porta nailer...ill always buy this one... the optional face nailer option isnt necassary... just use a good length finish nailer.

I bought one of these at first for a small project of 400 Sq ft. Worked great till the hammerhead broke off in mid swing. needless to say I was ticked and called Porta-nails and they immediately shipped out a replacement hammer. I finished my job with such ease that I had to get couple more my crew. We now use 3 porta-nails 402p nailers and have had trouble free use so far. Although I liked using the Pneumatic nailers, what I found was the using this nailer with the Ratcheting mechanism made the floor installation come out with an extraordinarily tight finish. This actually allowed me to hammer some of the bows out of the flooring for a tight finish. I find with the Pneumatic nailer, it drove the nails beautifully but since it didn't require that little extra muscle, it did not drive the boards together as well. Regardless of what you choose, Porta-nails is a great product and I am extremely happy with it. We no use this for professional installations as well. 2 are set as regular angle floor nailers and 1 is set to be a face nailer. If you can afford to get 2 nailers, I would definitely suggest having once angle and 1 face nailer on hand during installation.

I installed 650 sq.ft. of bamboo flooring with the Porta-Nailer 402P and it didn't jam once! Most nails set properly with two hits of the hefty Porta-Nailer hammer. There are two issues:
1. The bamboo/metric face-plate isn't standard on any of the Porta-Nailer kits, so you have to purchase it separately ($40-45).
2. The face-nailer shoe is useless on solid vertical bamboo - it splits the flooring no matter which direction you position the nail. However, it was easy to pre-drill holes for the nails and nail them manually close to walls (where the nailer doesn't fit), setting them with the Porta-Nailer nailset (also an extra purchase @ $15).
Overall, a great, well-designed tool; comfortable and easy to use.

I've done about 1500 sq ft with this Porta Nailer and not had a problem. The ratchet feature is great. The machine realy pulls the boards together well. The face shoe is a good addition though it doesn't work as easily, without an edge to grab on to it is harder to keep in position. The center punch tool I found almost useless since the nails are flat and it slides right off when hit unless the nail is already below the wood surface.
It is a well made product and didn't jam

I have installed about 1000 square feet of oak 2 1/4" hardwood flooring with this nailer and it has performed perfectly.
***Update: It is close to 1 year later and I still love this nailer! I have had no problems and can do nothing but praise it's performance. I didn't really let the boards acclimate very long when I brought them in the house, but they are still holding stong with very tight joints.

Had never installed flooring before and this tool made it a breeze. Did have a jamb with nails and it was when there were less than 2 inches left. Worked really well at getting flooring in tight. Make sure to order plenty of nails (figure one every 6" on a 7" nailing or more if using shorts) as this may hold up your project.