Bostitch N80CB-1 Round Head 1-1/2 to 3-1/4-Inch Coil Framing Nailer
Review
A popular model among builders who work on high-repetition projects like trusses and prefabricated frames, Bostitch’s utility coil nailer offers huge capacity and solid reliability. When fully loaded, this nailer certainly isn’t the lightest tool you could choose, but when you can drive 300 nails without having to reload, you quickly appreciate the timesaving capacity. With its aluminum housing and composite canister, this gun is a tough piece of equipment, designed to hold up to bumps and falls–the inevitable beating nailers take on a job site. The nailer’s aggressive teeth easily grip lumber for toe-nailing. An adjustable deflector conveniently directs exhaust away from the user, and a quick-release canister makes loading new coils a snap. We were impressed with how solid the whole unit feels–it has the burliness of an industrial-strength machine. This model shoots 1-1/2- to 3-1/4-inch, 15-degree, wire-weld-collated, full-head nails, and weighs just over 8 p … >>> Special Offers and Product Promotions
I have two N80’s I haven’t had any problems with them at all.When loaded with a full coil of nails working over head you have a hand full,but you have a lot more nails in the gun then you would in a strip nailer. For roof and floor sheeting it can’t be beat.
I have been in construction for 15 years. I have 3 of these guns and I’ll tell you from a durability point of view you can’t beat it. I see my guys beat the heck out of these guns and they don’t fail. When i say, “Beat the heck out of them” I don’t just mean the day in and day out firing, I mean turning it over and using the back or the tip to smack studs over to layout lines or to flush up just about anything. The coil bay is easily adjustable to fit any size nail. Reliability? I have seen reviews on here that there are mis-fires and jams. You are going to have a jam on this gun for one of 3 reasons.
1. Your little weenie air compressor doesn’t have the PSI to push it.
2. You have droped the coil of nails and the tips are bent together. If this happens uncoil the nails, step on one end of the coil and stretch them out and re-coil them.
3. Sometimes during the first few shots you will see a problem such as above due to the extreme capacity of the coil of nails. Use the tool for an hour and you know what’s wrong. A nail head is being wedged into one of the interior coils, flip the gun counter-clockwise in your hand and it’s a simple process of pushing straightening the coil with your finger or another nail, takes like 2 seconds.
Anyone who has carried 15 pounds (exageration) of stick nails in their pouch knows how heavy they are and how fast they actually go, so you are constantly walking to the nail box and then, which is really fun when you are sheathing a roof. “Hey, throw me a coil of nails.” Yea, you can throw these things up to guys on the roof, or on the 2nd floor because they are big enough and heavy enough to easily throw, try throwing like 300 stick nails up to someone.
As for the reviews about finding nails… I have never had a problem finding nails, they have them at Menards for one, but any nail supply house will have them. I think those reviews were written by more “home owner” types that think Home Depot is the only place you can get lumber and tools. You don’t need 50 different nail lengths, basically you need 2) 8’s and 16’s. They have galvies and regular so my question is what are they trying to use the thing for?
I am a framer by trade and have 5 N-80’s, they are a very dependable tool.The large nail capacity and full round headed nails are its biggest assets. Some of the drawbacks with the coil gun compared to the stick is that sometimes the coil of nails gets bound up in the magazine and needs to be straightend out.When toenailing it doesn’t sink the heads as well as the stick.