raptor nails

[magic]

I asked Raptor Nails to send me a sample of their non-ferris brads and staples and they are leading me to believe that I have to buy their air gun to use their products.

I already have a Porta Cable, a Jamerco a Central Pneumatic (HF) and an Airy, which is 25 years old and still working.

How many of you are using Raptor products in non-Raptor guns?

[garyr6]

There has been a number of discussions on the topic (do a search). General thought is that sometimes your old gun works fine, some old guns don't. Try yours and see.

[gene]

I use the nails in a raptor gun . I think that the difference in the gun is that the nose of the gun has been modified to handle a fatter nail and the driver seems to be flat so it dont shatter the nails. . I have some of the old bostich t nailers and have wanted to try the nails in one of them , if i can remember to do so. The raptor gun cost about 345.00 but it has been worth it . anco fasteners sells the nails and guns

[MechanoMan]

I was told by Raptor to use the 15-ga nails for CNC holddown. That was supposed to be the product Techshop uses.

However, the Instructables "Polymer nails for CNC workholding by irmiger" cites 18-ga nails.

I got a box of 15-ga nails, but the cost of their Omer gun is prohibitive. I played with a cheap Central Pneumatic 16-ga nailer out of Harbor Freight, as it is the cheaper learning experience. 15-ga is thicker but the tighter fit is a good idea.

Actually it CAN shoot them ok- through 2 layers of thin underlayment plywood into a pine 2x4. In fact it was overdriving them, I got better results lowering the pressure to like 40 PSI but then sometimes the piston failed to retract enough to chamber the next nail.

But once I tried MDF, problems at any pressure. This tends to either break the nail, or more often the piston ram shears past it. The nail is sticking 3/4" out of the MDF with it narrowing to a point near the back where the ram began to shear past it. The gun will typically have the sliver of plastic gouged from it jammed underneath the ram which cannot retract at all.

Any thoughts? What gauge/length is "right" for Shopbot work? WHICH Porter Cable gun works?

[gene]

I use their gun and can shoot 1" red oak to mdf all day long.

[Simops]

I use the F15 x 1" raptor nails.
I just use a cheap box store finish nail gun to shoot the nails.
Goes through 18mm MDF without issue......see pic below.

Cheers

[MechanoMan]

Hmm going back to the problem-

What I was shooting into was NOT MDF like I thought. It looked similar- but apparently much harder stuff.

I didn't know about the depth adjustment, which, duh, appears to be relevant to not overdriving the nails when sufficient air pressure is used to avoid the no-retraction problem.

Played with it a few minutes- seems to be nailing correctly.