Rant: Lost $300 on a budget roofing nailer from Amazon

Picked up a cheap nailer off Amazon for $120 back in March thinking I was saving cash. It jammed constantly and blew a seal on the third job, so I had to rent a proper one from Sunbelt for $180 to finish a reroof in Oak Park. Total money pit, shoulda just bought a Hitachi from the start. Anyone else get burned by cheap power tools on big projects?

2 comments

2 Comments

river18214d ago

My 2009 Chevy Silverado has 180k miles on it and I still use the same $60 Harbor Freight roofing nailer I bought back then to patch my own shed roof last spring. The trick is knowing what you're buying. I oil that thing before every use, keep the compressor pressure at exactly 90 PSI, and never use it on wet lumber or treated wood that gels up the nails. Truth is half the guys I see blowing seals on cheap nailers are running them dry or over pressuring them because they don't read the manual. Sometimes the tool isn't the problem.

felix_jones14d ago

Feel you man, that's a tough one. I've been there myself with a cheap framing nailer that lasted exactly one job before the magazine cracked. It's like they're designed to work just long enough for you to think you got a deal.