Porta-Nails 402P Porta-Nailer Manual Flooring Cleat Nailer [Tools & Hardware]

I bought the 402P Porta-Nailer and 10,000 nails. Just finished installing 740 sf. of 3/4" Red Birch hardwood. No adjustment was required on the nailer as mentioned in an earlier review - nor could I see how one would adjust this nailer.

I nailed until the cartridge was empty every single time - no problem. I actually liked the ratcheting mechanism, despite reading poor reviews about this. The ratcheting mechanism allows you to take smaller swings when in a closet or close to the wall - allowing you to get one and possibly two extra rows nailed before hand nailing was necessary. Be careful when nailing close to a wall. I was a bit careless at first and took some good chunks out of the drywall when nailing close to the wall.

The nailer worked flawlessly. I averaged 75 sf/1000 nails with 3 1/4" wide flooring on a 6" nailing schedule. The box of 10,000 nails did come with the corners a bit crunched, which meant broken rows of nails, but I was able to feed the broken rows into the nailer and use them all up with no problems. I did not get a single jamb in the entire 740 sf. All nails drove flush, absolutely none sticking out.

I found that most nails would set with two swings. You could do it in one swing if you wanted, but I found that a weaker swing followed by one last hard swing seemed to pull the floor together a bit tighter. It was still necessary to pry some of the warped boards over with a pinch bar. This nailer won't straighten out the severely warped boards.

I found it neccessary to hand nail the first and last 12" due to the geometry of this nailer. Note that I did not order the face nailer. I did all of my face nailing by hand.

My only beef was that the wooden handle on the hammer was extremely rough - would rip your hand apart in no time - very poorly done in my opinion. I found it necessary to buff the handle smooth with a flap sandpaper wheel before using it. I would recommend that you spend the 10-15 minutes to do this before using the hammer. The rubber tip on the nailer came off once during the job, but was easy to pop back on.

If I had to do it again, I would certainly buy this nailer and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. I shopped around and the nails and nailer were significantly cheaper (about 60%) of the price of purchasing them locally. This is my first hardwood floor install and I found it relatively easy to install. Note that I also used a table saw + miter saw to install the hardwood.

I just completed installing 2000 sq ft of prefinished 3/4" tongue and groove with this nailer. Its lightweight and well made, comes with a how-to video and its own carrying case.

Of the tens of thousands of nails I hammered, this tool only failed twice, and that was because I needed to clean and oil the ram mechanism. Customer service was knowledgeable and helpful.

I would advise buying the Porta-Nail Nail Punch and the Face Nailer Plate as well.

Now that I am finished with my floor, I will be lending this nailer out to my father who plans on doing his own floor.

I just completed using this tool to lay hardwood throughout my entire house, and was very happy with the tools performance. When I first got the tool, it took a little bit of time to get used to how the tool works, and to adjust the ratchet/depth of drive. I suggest you take a few small pieces of floor and test it out before you start on your main project.

After about 5,000 nails, I needed to fine tune it again, but in almost 20,000 nails more, it has not needed any more adjusting. I prefer the mechanical nailers for pre-finished woods, because there is no sealer that goes on after nailing the floor down to seal gaps. With pre-finished floors, any gap that you leave is there for the life of the floor. Unless the board was warped very badly, the porta nailer was able to draw the floorboards up tight.

The tool requires the use of the included mallet, which is very heavy, and can tire you out quickly. This isn't a tool problem, because you do need all the force the mallet delivers to drive the nail and draw the floor up tight. I'm very happy with the tool, and if I had to lay more flooring, I'd reach for it again without hesitation.
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