Nail Gun - Palings into hardwood rails + Pallet Timber

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I have a to replace my old dilapidated front paling fence from scratch. I would also like to build some shelving for my shed made from recycled pallets. I will be using both hardwood - for the fence railings and softwood for the pallet.

I have an air compressor.

Can anyone recommend a decent mid-ranged brand? Not top of the trade market - however, not the use once and throw it away quality either.

Would the nail gun I need called a "framing gun", or are they called something else?

I would like to buy instead of hire.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[crash]

From my understanding - is choose the size of nails you are going to be using and buy a nail gun around them. Some will allow you to use 2 or 3 different sizes in them.

[stealth]

Try a local tool place, one that does repairs. You might be able to pick up a cheap air nail gun or overhauled gun. Most of the tradies use gas operated guns nowadays so the air ones could be on offer cheap. Worth a try.

[pop058]

OR, you could drop around and borrow mine

[Don 130]

You will need a framing gun, and to nail the palings, use 50mm D head galvanised nails. In order for these to fit into a framing gun you'll need a blockout to hold the nails up. I have one for use in my Senco SN70 because it's designed for 70mm nails. I can make a blackout for my gun with a piece of 50mm x 3mm Aluminium flat bar about 6omm long. If you end up getting the same gun, let me know and I'll send you a tracing of the blockout.
Don.

[big guy]

I suggest you use stainless screws and countersink than putty over.
if you use a gun and drive galv nails, that coating often chips off and they rust plus the timber often twists and you pop that palings. you could drive twist shank nails in that are galv and by using a hammer the galvanising often stays on better than by gun.

as for what tradies use, it depends if the site they are working on has power or not. A 1st fix gun drive longer nails but nails cost, you need to charge the battery in gun and they require gas cartridges, that all costs.

I suggest if you still want to use a gun cause they are cool and make it quicker, hire one. that way you don't need to clean, lube and or repair them or lay out much cash.

Cheers

[loanrangie]

I suggest you use stainless screws and countersink than putty over.
if you use a gun and drive galv nails, that coating often chips off and they rust plus the timber often twists and you pop that palings. you could drive twist shank nails in that are galv and by using a hammer the galvanising often stays on better than by gun.

as for what tradies use, it depends if the site they are working on has power or not. A 1st fix gun drive longer nails but nails cost, you need to charge the battery in gun and they require gas cartridges, that all costs.

I suggest if you still want to use a gun cause they are cool and make it quicker, hire one. that way you don't need to clean, lube and or repair them or lay out much cash.

Cheers

Why waste ss screws and putty on a pailing fence , way overkill and the screws will cost more than the timber , for a deck maybe but not a fence.

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[TheBrownHornet]

Hi Lionel,

I'll second Big Guy's suggestion of using screws to attach the pailings.

I went down exactly the same path that you're considering a number of years ago rebuilding my old picket fence with new jarrah railings and attaching the pickets with 50mm gal nails from a pneumatic framing nailer.

For the first couple of years everything was great but after a couple of seasons of expansion and contraction the railings simply fail to hold the nails securely and the odd picket starts to come off. I live on a pretty heavily pedestrian trafficked road so people swinging on the fence certainly helped some of them come off.

I found myself replacing all the nails with decent screws and haven't lost a picket in the last few years. Keep in mind that going down the screw route was a time consuming, painful process but i think worth it in the long term.

I used galvanised screws to fix the pickets. They're too weak to screw straight into hard wood so I had to pre-drill and counter sink each one.

Hope that is of some help.

Regards

Graham

[Redback]

Good luck screwing SS screws into hardwood pallings and rails, most nail guns for decking and fencing will not seat the nail fully with hardwood palings and rails, decking is usually OK, but aussie hardwood palings are bloody tuff and the last 5MM or so will need to be finished with a hammer.

Something we found out afterwoods, and it's only a few that don't fully seat so not all that bad, if you get it good a straight it's OK, we got a cheap ebay gun for $189 and it worked just as well as the $700 jobbie our neighbour had, we were advised if we were going to use hardwood, to pre-drill and wet the palings before nailing too.

We bought this one
Coil Nail GUN Nailer Industrial Grade AIR Tools 32 65mm PRO Series | eBay