Hitachi Cordless Framing Nail
Independent Review
by Peter Brett
I like using gas nailers – they have the power repeatedly to drive 90mm plus nails into rafters or studwork with the pull of a trigger and a loud bang. Free from the compressor hose or a mains cord, you have the freedom to move around the work as you please. Kept in good nick, they are reliable worksite
companions with only the price of gas or nails to complain about occasionally. But wouldn’t it be great to have a battery powered nailer – no gas – just a charger and a couple of batteries to see you though the working day. Wouldn’t that be convenient – or maybe even a game changer? In the last few years there have
been several attempts by various manufacturers to make a practical battery powered nailer. Some I have tried have suffered with the dreaded lag and flywheel wind up after pulling the trigger, others have been quicker but not powerful enough, and, in truth, none of them have really been good enough to challenge framing nailers, and to be fair, they weren’t marketed as such. In my opinion, the closest anyone has got to a practical 18v cordless nailer is Hitachi with the Hitachi NT1865DBSL straight finish nailer that I tested earlier this year. It was quick – you could fire nails as fast as you could pull the trigger, and it was effective because the straight nails could be up to 65mm long – easily enough capacity for a shop or kitchen fitter. Building on the experience of the finish nailer, It seems as though Hitachi have
launched another good ‘un– the first really effective 18v first fix nailer I have used - so, welcome to Hitachi’s NR 1890DC Cordless Strip Nailer. From first look, it is clear that this is a framing nailer because the shape, weight and basic design would be very familiar to a gas nailer user. There is the familiar
slanted nail magazine, the handle with its trigger, and the large head of the tool that houses the pneumatic piston providing the power to drive the nails. The main difference is that instead of a small battery to provide a spark for the gas, the nailer uses any of the current 18v Hitachi Li Ion battery packs - from 3Ah to 6Ah. Although the 3Ah battery helps save a little weight. All it takes to get going is to load the nails, slide on the battery pack, unlock the safety switch on the handle and switch on the machine via the button on the base near the battery pack. I didn’t miss the jiggling with the gas canister compartment lid or locating the battery pack – with some gas nailers I have used, particularly ones that have had a large amount of use, the gas canister can sometimes unexpectedly pop up and the battery packs can loosen in their slides. No such problems with an 18v cordless! I was very keen to try out this
tool having seen reports about it from US websites where framing nailers of all kinds are much more widely used, because American houses use lots more timber construction than we do. Going for broke I loaded the longest nails supplied (90mm) into the slanted magazine and prepared to fire into some 100mm square softwood posts – fully expecting that I would be disappointed with the result. I pushed the safety nose into the timber and pulled the trigger and with a big bang very similar to a gas nailer, the nail was driven nearly home into the post. I wasn’t
expecting that level of noise, and neither were the kids who were innocently riding their bikes in the carpark of the close where I live. Some sharp intakes of breath from them, and an apology from me, allowed me to carry on and adjust the nail depth via a knurled round nut on the nose and try again – a mere third of a turn extra depth was enough to drive the nail fully flush with the surface of the timber.
4 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
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