Air Nailer Repair

4/20/20, 7:07 PM #1

Ken K
Guest

Air Nailer Repair

Ken K

I’ve got a Porter Cable 18 ga finish nailer that needs a new piston ring. As long as I’m ordering parts, is there anything else I should replace while I have the gun apart? Complete rebuild kits are kinda pricey at $55.

Re: Air Nailer Repair

4/20/20, 7:30 PM #2

Jack Guzman from Maine
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Offline
3,329 posts

Registered: 5/9/04

trigger kit

Jack Guzman from Maine

I find that the trigger piston is usually the first thing to go. They come in a kit.

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I am a carpenter by trade.Also a handyman/Jack -of-all-trades.I work around my neighborhood mostly helping people keep up their old houses.I have a fairly large woodworking shop in my house where I work with both hand and power tools. At the moment I'm focusing on Windsor chairs building.I will build most anything if needed. I'm always learning,adapting,changing trying to broaden my woodworking skills.I work mostly with hand tools in my shop but will use power if it is a better way to get the desired result. My wife,Donna,and I live in the woods of Maine with our dogs,cats,and birds. We have 5 grown kids and six grandchildren. Woodcentral has been central to my growth as a woodworker. I pass through this place every day.

Re: Air Nailer Repair

4/21/20, 9:11 AM #3

David Yoho
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2,135 posts

Registered: 1/5/04

+1 on trigger piston

David Yoho

I had to replace the trigger piston on my PC 16-gauge finish nailer last year. I would add one to your order and either replace it or hold on to it for later.

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I live in Mechanicsville, VA (not far from Richmond) and I've been building furniture and cabinetry for well over 20 years now. It all started with my frustration of not being able to cut a straight line with a hand saw. About this same time, a guy named Norm appeared on my local PBS station. The more I watched, the more I learned. I also started thinking, "Hey, I can do that"! And so, I began with small projects and soon found myself moving up to increasingly advanced work. Word of mouth started the ball rolling and before I knew it, I was building all kinds of things for people. While this is not what I do to pay the bills, it has provided me with a means of equipping my shop over the years. The main downside to all of this is when my wife looks at a finished project and says, "I want one of those" and I know I don't have the time to make that happen right then. I take advantage of any slack time between commissions to work on things we want and this seems to keep her "on my side". She even surprised me one day with a new Tormek sharpening system. Sometimes it pays to leave that tool catalog lying around open! For me, woodworking is a type of therapy. I can go out to the shop and totally forget about the world outside. There have been days when I get out there early and before I know it, it's dark outside and I have no idea where the time went! I also enjoy challenging my skills and learning new things. Most of the time, since the majority of my work tends to be custom pieces, I'm working on projects I�ve never built before. While this takes me longer than if I were doing production work, I find it more appealing because there's always something new to learn. I haven't had any formal training in woodworking. My teachers have been experience, the many books and magazines I've read, WoodCentral, and of course, a guy named Norm.

Re: Air Nailer Repair

4/21/20, 9:49 PM #4

KenK
Guest

Re: +1 on trigger piston

KenK

Jack & David, thanks for your replies. I can't seem to find anything labeled "trigger piston" on the exploded parts diagram. They do sell a "trigger valve assembly" which I believe contains the parts numbered 201 through 207. Is that what you were referring to?

Re: Air Nailer Repair

4/22/20, 10:54 AM #5

David Yoho
Member
Offline
2,135 posts

Registered: 1/5/04

Re: +1 on trigger piston

David Yoho

Ken, I guess I assumed the brad nailer trigger valve was like the finish nailer trigger valve. Looking at the parts diagram it's different. It does the same thing by passing air through to fire the mechanism but the 18-gauge gun has a group of parts where the 16-gauge has a trigger valve assembly.

As long as your gun fires when pulling the trigger, I'd say you don't need the parts. However, it might not hurt to have them on hand since some of the PC parts for their nailers are becoming not available.

Your call.

- - -

I live in Mechanicsville, VA (not far from Richmond) and I've been building furniture and cabinetry for well over 20 years now. It all started with my frustration of not being able to cut a straight line with a hand saw. About this same time, a guy named Norm appeared on my local PBS station. The more I watched, the more I learned. I also started thinking, "Hey, I can do that"! And so, I began with small projects and soon found myself moving up to increasingly advanced work. Word of mouth started the ball rolling and before I knew it, I was building all kinds of things for people. While this is not what I do to pay the bills, it has provided me with a means of equipping my shop over the years. The main downside to all of this is when my wife looks at a finished project and says, "I want one of those" and I know I don't have the time to make that happen right then. I take advantage of any slack time between commissions to work on things we want and this seems to keep her "on my side". She even surprised me one day with a new Tormek sharpening system. Sometimes it pays to leave that tool catalog lying around open! For me, woodworking is a type of therapy. I can go out to the shop and totally forget about the world outside. There have been days when I get out there early and before I know it, it's dark outside and I have no idea where the time went! I also enjoy challenging my skills and learning new things. Most of the time, since the majority of my work tends to be custom pieces, I'm working on projects I�ve never built before. While this takes me longer than if I were doing production work, I find it more appealing because there's always something new to learn. I haven't had any formal training in woodworking. My teachers have been experience, the many books and magazines I've read, WoodCentral, and of course, a guy named Norm.

Re: Air Nailer Repair

4/22/20, 11:28 AM #6

KenK
Guest

Re: +1 on trigger piston

KenK

Thanks David. My experience with "extra parts just in case" is that it's like buying a guarantee that those part will never wear out ! Of course if they do it will be during the middle of a project and the needed part will be on back order.

Re: Air Nailer Repair

4/22/20, 7:36 PM #7

Kneale Brownson
Member
Offline
1,031 posts

Registered: 8/1/07

Or NLA. Most PC parts a few years old are NLA

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I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Air Nailer Repair

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