Nail Guns

When you pull the trigger on your cordless nail gun, compressed air is released which powers a piston to strike the firing pin, driving the nail into the timber. The next nail is swiftly loaded using a spring, enabling you to fire multiple nails in quick succession.

A brad nailer is used to drive 18-gauge nails, which are smaller and thinner than 15 or 16-gauge ones. These 18-gauge nails are often referred to as brad nails, or brads for short. Brad nailers are typically less expensive and are more suited to finer, more delicate work where the nails are not required to offer as much holding power.

A first-fix nail gun is also known as a framing nailer. These are used for rougher, heavier-duty tasks such as flooring, timber framing, roofing and fencing, where the finish won't be visible. That's in contrast to a second-fix nail gun, or a finish nailer, where the end result needs to be neat and tidy – for example on door frames, panelling or covings.

Usually, nail guns only use one gauge. For example, a 16-gauge nail gun will only drive 16-gauge nails. But the length of the nail can change, depending on the project you're working on. First-fix work will typically require a longer nail, while more detailed finishing will call for a shorter length.

That depends on the battery you're using. All our cordless nail guns use the RYOBI ONE+™ system and runtime will also vary based on the tool and application but, to give you an indication using 50mm nails as the example:

• 2.0 AH battery: 650 nails
• 2.5 AH battery: 760 nails
• 4.0 AH battery: 1550 nails
• 5.0 AH battery: 1900 nails

Most of our cordless nail guns are bare tool, which means a battery is not included. But we do have an 18-gauge nailer starter kit, which does feature a 5.0 AH power unit and 1.5A charger plus a handy carry case for easy storage and transportation.