TOOL TEST
My Ryobi Cordless Brad Nailer, I've wrapped it in masking tape to prevent a buildup of epoxy, and its worth being really careful about cleaning up the "nose" as a little hardened glue in there makes it unreliable. Great Machine, not so much for finesse or style but hey, its a "really useful engine".
Ok, I admit it. I’m a serial
boatbuilder, it’s an incurable thing that I just have to learn to live
with. It means that I have almost always
got a boat building project going in my shop, usually a small plywood boat but
occasionally something bigger, plus there is the maintenance on the ship and
repairs or helping out other people. One
of the tasks that takes time and effort is holding pieces of plywood in place
until the glue sets. When you think about it that takes a lot of time, clamps
don’t always work, screws need pilot holes and generally need to be pulled out
and the holes filled up later on, plus it takes more hands than I’ve got to
hold the piece, drill the hole, then put the screw in. It’s a pain, and that’s
without the issue of the screw being glued in by the epoxy and not wanting to
come out when the time comes to remove it.
A couple of SCAMP Camps ago (By the way, heres the schedule for next years camps
http://www.smallcraftacademy.com/ Hope to see some of you there) Howard Rice, co instructor and top notch organiser in these build classes turned up at Port Townsend with a serious timesaver in the form of a cordless brad nailer and a couple of boxes of stainless steel brads ( fine tee headed nails)
http://www.smallcraftacademy.com/ Hope to see some of you there) Howard Rice, co instructor and top notch organiser in these build classes turned up at Port Townsend with a serious timesaver in the form of a cordless brad nailer and a couple of boxes of stainless steel brads ( fine tee headed nails)
I figure that saved us three or four hours per boat, a plank could
be buttered up with glue, held in place and fastened in minutes, same with
inwales, frames and “off” centercase
assembly. The ability to just hold a
piece in place, put the nose of the nailer up against the piece and pull the
trigger, repeatedly if needed, and have it securely fastened is wonderful.
Last SCAMP Camp, (August 2014) Howard came into the build at very
short notice and had not time to bring his kit of tools with him. So, with my own
shop in mind I went out and bought one for myself.
I love it, great thing. What more can I say?
A few words though, Home Depots on line catalogue advertised these
as a full system, battery, charger and nailer, all in the same box.
I printed off the ad, sent
friend Beth off with the ad in hand to fetch one, and she did well. She figured
out that there were no batteries in the box so bought two, but missed the fact
that there was no charger. BEWARE.
The tool itself is fairly cheap, but you need to budget on a couple
of Lithium Ion Batteries and a charger in addition to the nailer, so the cost
ramps up. Also, it’s seriously frustrating to get home with your new toy only
to find that you cant use it without batteries or charger. Ten yard penalty Mr Ryobi! 20 yard penalty Home Depot.
However, in use, (once I got all the bits together) its great, there
are stainless steel brads available on line, mine are from Steelhead
Fastenings and are 1in length stainless steel brads catalogue number STB181SS . They are fine little tee head pins that hold
quite well even in edge grain plywood, and as the machine can be set to put the
heads of the brads well below the surface of the wood its usual practice to
leave them in there rather than pull them out.
I also found out that there are plastic nails available from www.duckworksmagazine.com that will
fit and work. Chuck Leinweber gave me a
handful to play with and yes, they work on everything apart from really dense
hardwood. You can plane them off, sand them, cut them with a chisel or saw
through them, no harm to the tools. They
hold ok although not as strong as the steel ones so you might need to pull the
trigger twice to ensure that they hold, but its nice not to have to worry about
the steel pins damaging your carefully sharpened tool.
While I’m annoyed at both Home Depot and Ryobi about the charger and
batteries not being included in the package as advertised, the product itself
is a serious timesaver when building a small plywood boat.
Points? The tool itself, probably an 8 out of 10, but the time saved is priceless.
http://www.smallcraftacademy.com/
