Review on BOSTITCH PN50 Compact Impact Nailer by Loren Jacobson

I bought this for a barn project and have been hammering various nails. I will share the good and the less than perfect. Read the instructions first. I'm just as guilty as anyone for missing directions. read them. Two features to note: - As with any pneumatic tool, use some oil every day. - It often goes into open air mode where it blows out air but does nothing. This is normal and nothing to worry about. Click on it and it will stop. It's nothing important. This is a function of how the internal valve works. This is discussed in detail in the guide. This inexpensive nailing device is equipped with a high-quality quick-release swivel. That's great. I can hold it when the hose goes in different directions. I actually bought the peg not knowing I wouldn't need it but I would use it on another instrument. Using this tool is trivial. Insert the head of the nail into the end, position and press. The tool does the rest. The tool has a built-in magnet that will hold the nail so it doesn't fall out. The only trick is that you can accidentally shoot the tool while inserting the nail. I did this often enough to learn to be careful. It didn't seem particularly dangerous. He didn't shoot me with nails or anything. But several times he slapped my fingers. It doesn't hurt like being hit with a hammer. The driving speed is similar to the speed of normal nailing. The benefit, however, is that you can get into much tighter spots, although there are some limitations. I've never liked driving nails between 16 inch wall studs or floor joists. It's just a little tight to swing the hammer around and that makes it a pain in the ass. Everything is great with this tool. Tapping with the fingers, especially with shorter nails, is also much less common. On the downside, you'll need a little more free space for what you're working on. First I built the floor of my barn and then the walls. When walls are pounded together, this little hammer tends to hit the ground and pound the underside of the nails. It's okay, but I wanted to mention it. The process is probably louder than the hammering. I wore hearing protection. But you get noise from your compressor (and mine is really loud even though I kept it in the garage and ran a long hose). The instrument makes a "bzzz" sound as it makes a lot of small clicks instead of a few big ones. Sewing protection was good. Note that the movement of the workpiece is less than the hammer blow. See the previous paragraph, but basically it looks like a very fast kid hammering in a nail, not an adult. If I wasn't loading my walls down while hitting with the hammer, they still went slowly across the deck, but not nearly as fast as with a standard hammer. I thought it was cute. Note that some people have said you can't countersink nails. It is not true. They tend to end up slightly raised, but it took me about 3 minutes to learn the technique of dropping them a little lower. Or just keep a hammer handy to finish off the final blow. I definitely recommend this tool. It is very inexpensive and can drive any nail. It won't work with big-headed nails like roofing nails, but that's what a roofing nailer is for. I didn't feel like I saved any time, but I could have saved my hands due to the amount of nails I was driving and didn't have the frustration of swinging a hammer between 16" centers. And who can have too many air tools?