In the case of a major jam (where the stall release lever can't clear the problem – such as a bent nail caught in the nose) it may be necessary to unship the battery, undo and clear the nose and release the stall before reinserting the battery. Instead two hex screws either side of the silver top are undone and the entire top is pulled clear with the springs and driver pin readily accessible for replacement (they are in a “casette” which is held in place by three screws). To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. What wasn’t initially obvious is that the strip must be slid into a channel, on the tip side of the magazine.

just under 8lbs) it is a fairly heavy tool (although lighter than the first generation 16ga first fix gun I still use) and whilst I consider it to be reasonably well balanced in the hand, for that reason I have to admit it won't for everyone. The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Speed Setting 1 reduces power consumption (allowing more nails per charge) and also reduces the amount of hand-arm vibration you receive with each nail (and thus lowers user fatigue). I've therefore wanted a battery-only 1st fix nailer from a main stream power tool manufacturer with Li-Ion batteries which could be interchanged with my main stream cordless tools for years – in fact ever since I heard that deWalt were working on one back around 2005 or 2006.

It was surprising to me that this tool can fire a nail, like a gun fires a bullet, through the air and not have a prerequisite for firing to first have the no-mar tip nosepiece being compressed against the workpiece. I finally bit the bullet and bought the DeWalt unit and it has been a completely different experience. I only got one jam which I sorted out in seconds and it punched the nails right in from the word go. I've now used about 4 boxes of nails (3300 nails per box – it's been mainly 90mm plain shanks as well), so I think I've got a reasonable idea of how the tool works.

I'd read a number of extremely negative comments about the DCN690 and one or two bad comments about this tool. Electric nail guns use electricity to drive nails, and they are often lighter and more compact than other types. I've loaned mine to several other carpenter's I've worked with and most expressed surprise at how well the gun actually performs (maybe the scuttlebut on the 'net has had some effect on people's perceptions), but they were divided 50/50 over the weight of the tool.Then you may find some non-OEM gas can oil-up the inside of your gun and stop it working (Champion, especially, for some reason). At least the most modern guns have cured some of the worst ills which early models had – such as my first Paslode which refused point blank to work upside-down (try doing in-situ joist replacement or solid strutting in volume and you'll understand why you need a gun instead of a hammer and why you need it to work upside down), the battery constantly falling out, batteries needing to be removed when the gun was rested for more than 5 minutes because the flashing light would flatted it and NiCd batteries which were, to say the least, fragile (as were the chargers). I know other brands make them but I’m a huge dewalt 20v guy I’m wondering if anyone had heard about a 23 gauge pin nailer I have the other cordless guns and a “micro” pinner would make life a lot better. After about three months reasonably heavy use in a professional environment I think that a lot of the comments I've read on the net were made by people who simply hadn't used the gun enough to even run it in, let alone understand how to use it to the best.

In fact the only aspect of this gun I still dislike is the weight – but even there I've learned to live with it. battery will drive about 700 nails, but in reality I found that when driving through C24 softwood into 150 year old pitch pine that I was getting about 450 to 500 90mm plain nails out of a 5. The DCN692 cordless nailer is compatible with the newer XR range of 18 volt Li-Ion battery packs (in the USA these are sold as 20 volt, sic). There is a fairly standard looking thumb wheel depth control fitted to the nose of the tool to vary the amount a nail head will be sunk into the material.

When DW finally did release their first stab at this, the single-speed DCN690, back in 2013, it was very late, heavy, slow and frankly a bit gutless. Speed Setting 1 is optimized for driving shorter nails (51 to 70mm long), while Speed Setting 2 is for 71 to 90mm nails. Stalls and jams can happen with any first fix gun, so the stall release lever on the front of the nailer is designed to overcome this when it happens.

The tool will really and truly bump fire, even 90mm nails (despite DW advising otherwise) but getting it to properly sink nail heads may take a little practice – it operates in a different way to gas nailers and that can take some adjustment on the part of the operator. The mechanism might be similar to and scaled up from the original second fix guns, but maintenance is considerably improved. The Hikoki NP18DSALW4Z 18V 23 Gauge Pin Nailer is a lightweight and compact piece of equipment, ideal for working with nails between 15 and 35mm in length.Straight out of the box the DCN692 would sink a nail to just below the surface but it wouldn't punch it 3 to 4mm under like most gas nailers can. Gas also has a sell by date, so yes, it can go out of date and then it may or may not work and it might oil-up the insides of the gun which will mean a strip down and clean is required (and there are shifty little so and so's at some builder's merchants who will happily short change you by selling you out of date gas unless you watch them like a hawk). One of the advantages of using a nail gun is that it saves time and effort compared to using manual tools.