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We have done two rooms of crown molding and the battery shows no sign of slowing down. The unit is big compared to an air version but never was an issue in corners.
A little, but my wife had no problems nailing up our crown molding. Heavy.
This is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We had now issues driving 2.5in nails.
I recommend this nailer to everyone. No more lugging around a compressor and hose.
It has a power setting that allows you to find the sweet spot for the wood you are working with.
In that position, it's top heavy, so you sure don't want to put it on the top of your step ladder while you're fiddling some piece of crown molding into position. The only negative is the weight, but that never really bothered us when we were actually using it. Other reviewers has mentioned the DeWalt is heavy. Well, it sure isn't light, although I find it comfortable to hold and easy to use, even standing on a step ladder putting up crown molding over my head.
The bottom line. Faced with a major overhaul of a 120 year old house, I wasn't looking forward to doing all the trim with a hammer and nailset, so I purchased a finish nailer. And while the weight didn't bother us using it, it's a lot when it's hanging on your belt by the hook.I like it so much a bought a DeWalt brad nailer when they came out. We shot many, many boxes of nails and wore out two rubber noseguards without a single jam.The only issue is shooting thin nails into hard word. Same for knots or other defects in the wood. Sometimes you need to turn the nailer so the long edge of the chisel point is across the grain so it cut through it instead of following it.The angled magazine makes it surprisiningly easy to get into small locations.
With all the wainscoting, beadboard, crown, baseboard, chair rail and every other imaginable kind of trim in this old victorian, the nailer functioned flawlessly. I wanted the ease of use of a cordless, which pretty much narrowed it down to DeWalt or Paslode. On days when we used it heavily, we'd just swap batteries every few hours when we took a break. I have the KA, and when we were doing trim we never had a problem running out of battery - in fact, many days we didn't have to switch at all. Actually better than my straight magazine brad nailer, which is much smaller overall.Pay attention to which model you're looking at when comparing prices - the 618K has one battery while the 618KA comes with two, and batteries are expensive. This is all covered in the manual, although I don't recall it making a point of thinking about the positioning of the chisel point. If I had one complaint, it's that there's no good position to put it down, other than standing on the battery. Unfortunately, I'm not nearly as happy with the brad nailer, but that will be a different review.
Not having to deal with both batteries and gas tilted me in favor of the DeWalt. While most of the wood is pine, it's old first growth southern yellow pine that's almost as hard a oak. I love it. It uses the same nails as the Paslode (in fact, that's all I use since none of my local stores carry the DeWalt nails). I never counted how many nails you could do on a charge - we never ran it down. Sometimes it'll even make a u-turn, so you need to think about where you put your hands when using this tool. My 26 year old daughter has no problems using it in any position either (it's her house). If you don't pay attention to the direction of the chisel point of the nails relative to the grain, the nail will follow the grain.
Your left high and dry after the tools fail. Many problems still exist with Dewalts design as of July 2008. Look at the Dewalt website. I have to manually advance the nails.
Complete waste of $350. Call the local repair dealer and they tell you they can fix the tool for the price of a new one. It's impossible to contact the company. Motor failed after 2000 nails.
Plenty of jambs with the 15 and 16. Get a "cumbersome" pneumatic nailer - at least they work. Don't buy a dewalt cordless nailer. My 15 ga nailer has problems as well -- doesn't advance the nails.
It's nice not having to lug around a compressor and being able to nail without cords or hoses. The reason I needed a second nailer is because my son will not give back the nailer he "borrowed" for a very large house rebuild that he is doing. I just bought my second DeWalt DC618 nailer. This nailer has plenty of power, even with hard woods like oak. I think a third nailer is probably in our future.It has become an indispensable tool. I do a fair amount of remodeling with my two sons. This nailer has been great.
Don't worry about the weight; it's well balanced. If you keep one on the charger while using the other, you'd be hard-pressed to run out of battery life. I'm not sure how many boxes of nails I've gone through.and the gun has jammed FOUR TIMES. This gun helps me do better work, easier work, faster work. When it did jam, the nail (last one in the run) was easily removed. I've had my Dewalt cordless nailer for about eight months.
I have trimmed out four houses, done a score of other smaller jobs, and the gun ALWAYS works. OK, as you can tell, I love this nailer. I'm a "former" carpenter, and still do projects at home and for others. The batteries just last forever. That's enough for me. I have some pretty neat tools, but I must say, this nailer is my favorite.
That's it.
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