BOSTITCH Palm Nailer, Mini Impact (PN50)

I bought this for a shed project, and I've been driving a variety of nails. I'm going to share the good and less-than-perfect. First, read the directions. I'm as guilty as anyone of skipping the directions. Read them. The two parts that are notable: -Like any air tool, use a little oil each day. -It frequently goes into a free-flow air mode where it blows air but doesn't do anything. This is common and no big deal. Tap it and it stops. It's no big deal. This is a function of how the inner valve works. The directions talk about it at greater length. This inexpensive nailer comes with a high quality swivel quick disconnect. It's great. I can hold it with the hose leading away in a variety of directions. I actually bought a swivel, not realizing I wouldn't need one, but I'll use it on some other tool. Use of the tool is trivial. Insert the head of a nail in the end, position, and press. The tool does the rest. There is a magnet built into the tool that holds the nail for you, so it won't drop out. The only trick: it's possible to accidentally fire the tool while inserting the nail. I did this just often enough to learn to be careful. It didn't seem particularly dangerous. It didn't shoot nails at me or anything. But it did bang my fingers a few times. It didn't hurt half as bad as getting hit with a hammer. Driving speed appears to be similar to that of normal nailing. The advantage, however, is that you can get into much tighter locations, although there are some restrictions. I've never enjoyed pounding nails sideways between 16-inch-center wall studs or floor joists. That's just a little tight to swing a hammer, and it makes it a pain in the ass. With this tool, it's great. Also, tapping my fingers, especially with shorter nails, happens far less often. On the flip side, you need a little more clearance from the face of what you're working on. I built the decking of my shed first and the walls on top of that. When nailing the walls together, this little hammer tends to bottom out against the floor while doing the lower of the nails. No biggie, but I wanted to mention it. The process is probably noisier than hammering. I wore ear protection. But you get noise from your compressor (and mine is really loud, although I kept it in the garage and ran a long hose). The tool makes a bzzzt sound, as it's doing a lot of little taps rather than a few big ones. Earing protection was nice. Note that movement of the work piece is lower than hammering. See the previous paragraph, but basically it's like a really fast baby hammering the nail rather than a grown adult. If I didn't weight my walls while hammering, they would still slowly walk across the deck, but at nowhere near the rate as when using a standard claw hammer. I thought this was nice. Note that some people said you can't counter-sink nails. That's not true. They tend to end just slightly raised, but it took me about 3 minutes to learn a technique to sink them a little lower. Or just keep a hammer handy to finish that last bang. I definitely recommend this tool. It's very inexpensive and can drive any framing nails. It won't work on large-head nails like roofing nails, but that's what a roofing nailer is for. I didn't feel like I saved time, but I might have saved my arms for the number of nails I was driving, and I didn't have the frustration of swinging a hammer between 16-inch centers. And who can have too many air tools?

Great mini palm nailer - small size, powerful, easy to use. The “mini” size limits nail size. This will NOT drive standard roofing nails due to the large head size on the the nails. But it will drive standard 4d - 12d common nails and trim nails. I had cold air returns closed off with sheet metal that the lazy @ss HVAC contractor simply pushed into place. Why? Because swinging a hammer between the 16 on center 2x12’s was not feasible. I used a small tack hammer to start some 1 inch nails and then hammered them down with the this mini palm nailer. Worked perfectly. The HVAC guy is going to to get a call next week and reamed for being such a lazy clown. I wonder what else he cut corners on?

I'm going to echo the other positive reviews on this palm nailer. It works great, has a magnetic tip for holding the nail, drives 3" 10d nails well (unless you hit a hard knot - then you're grabbing the framing hammer to finish the job), and is fairly sensitive if you tap the end of a loaded nail on your finger (don't do that). I couldn't get my 16d 3.5" nails to load - the nail head was too big for this nailer's 5/16" throat, but just barely. I might try boring the throat out slightly to accept 16d nails. This is one of those "why didn't I buy this sooner" tools. I'm driving it with a cheapie HF 10 gallon air compressor and giving the tool a couple of drops of oil before each day of use. I'm not using it in a commercial environment, so I can't comment on how long it will last in daily, hard use. But for the "happy homeowner occasional use" situation, it is doing very well. And for a hair over $35 to my door, free two-day Prime delivery, I definitely am satisfied with my purchase and highly recommend it.

I have this and a "full-sized" palm nailer, the Factory-Reconditioned Ridgid 3-1/2" Palm Nailer ZRR350PNA (purchased new from HD). I think that I expected this to work as well as the Ridgid. In retrospect, that was an unrealistic expectation; the Ridgid is more than twice the price and 3 times the weight of the Bostitch. The Ridgid is silky smooth and drives a 10d nail in maybe a second or so with minimal vibration. This Bostitch mini-nailer will do the same in maybe two or more seconds and, due to it's light weight, seems to vibrate and bounce quite a bit. Those negatives aside, I really like this nailer. It is compact, light weight, and gets the job done. It is small enough to get into even tighter places than the larger palm nailers, like the Ridgid, and light enough to keep in your belt. That allows you to switch to this from a framing nailer as necessary without having to go back to your tool box. My advise would be that if you are a homeowner looking for something to replace a framing hammer, get the Ridgid; you won't be disappointed. If you have already a full-sized palm nailer, or you normally use a framing nailer, or even if you prefer a hammer, you can't go wrong with this Bostitch mini-nailer. Keep it on your belt and it is always there when you need it. Keep in mind though that this mini-nailer is not as fast as a regular framing hammer, it just allows you to get into tighter places. One more thing. I've found that this nailer seems to work better at higher pressures. When I use this at 80 psi it is slow and vibrates a lot. When I up the pressure to the max, 100psi, there is noticeably less vibration and, of course, it is faster too. Overall, for the price of a decent framing hammer, you've got a good backup in your toolbox that can go places you never thought that you could go.

all good

This gives your hand some good vibrations but it gets the job done. Yes it's noisy but great for right spaces and does the work for you without hammering your fingers.

I have not used it on a large scale so I can't comment on the durability of it, but it works really well so far. Well built, sturdy, fits well in hand, I don't foresee any issues in the near future. Perfect for small places where a hammer or nail gun won't fit like for deck joist hangers when they're at a narrow angle or simply when they're only 12 inches apart. Plus, you shouldn't use a regular nail gun with galvanized hangers, only those special ones that let the nail stick out. So instead of buying that specialized nail gun for around $350, I went for this more flexible option which is perfect for DIY projects. Some other models offer extensions for longer nails, I say that's not necessary.

Very disatisfied with this company /seller. This mini nailer is small and does not drive a 3 1/2 " nail. they have authorized me to return it, as I purchased the larger model, but refuse to provide proper return instructions. Without doubt the worst customer service experience and I do NOT recommend this product or company.

When opened nd hooked up to air line, the nailer just blew air out where your hand holds it. Luckily I've experience with bostitch air nailers with many more parts than this little guy. Cleaned out the interior nd used as Super lube synthetic grease on all o rings. (Just enuff) assembled nd this solved the air leaking out the back. Funny thing is I expected this mini to shoot one time and drive a nail in one try. Only fits regular size nails for those looking for help on a roof thus is NOT what your looking for.