The finishing nails don't drive home all the way,around 10mm proud of the timber sticking out!

ADJUST THE DEPTH GAUGE ON THE NAILER! lol.

Is the bottom of the shoe on the sub floor?

Hi Gene,

OK, so there's a factory recall on this one as you understand it. Have you been in contact with Hitachi, or one of their service centres to check this is correct?


If this is NOT the case, it could possibly be that the timber you're using could be too hard??? just for you're own piece of mind, have you tried to fire the same nail into some soft pinewood to see if the result is the same? You've got everything else under control - pressure, leaks etc. so, the timber density may be the issue?

Hi, If the tool doesn't have a depth of drive control (Found either by the trigger or, on the safety element) you can get around this by adjusting the air pressure from the compressor. Just make sure that you have plenty of scrap timber to experiment as, when the adjustment has been made, the line pressure is still as it was. Firing a nail to cycle the tool once will allow the new pressure to be the norm. (If this makes sense?)

If the driver part of the gun works well, check the feed parts. First check the feed pawl where the nails lay. The teeth should be proud enough to catch and hold the nails firmly and it should work freely in its channel. Next you have to check the parts that drive the feed pawl in the cylinder on the side of the gun. There are seals and a spring and piston that should be checked. Replace any worn or broken parts.

What model auto-feed screwdriver do you have? All of the auto-feed drivers I have worked on have an adjustable nose peice that has to be set to the length of the screw so they will start properly and drive correctly. They also have a fine tune adjustment wheel somehwere on the tool so you can set the screw to be anywhere from just below the surface (dimpled) or flush or slightly above the surface (proud). This is all in relation to the surface the nose peice is touching. The driver is designed to release the bit when the screw has reached the depth set by the adjustment wheel so it doesn't strip out the head of the screw. I don't know of any that would let you set it so the screw would go through the plasterboard (drywall) and end up flush in the wood.

Hi foxden503,

Welcome to fixya!

As a general rule, framing nailers use anywhere from 45 to 120 psi to drive nails. But this also depends on the hardness of the wood.
The nail head should be flush with the surface. If it sticks above the wood, increase the pressure a little bit at a time until you achieve this goal.

Hope this helps. If it does, I'd appreciate your vote. Thanks,

Handie Andie

You did not provide brand, but this broad spectrum will give you some indication. Framers operate, depending on the brand, on 45psi (2.5bar) to 120psi (8.3bar).

Setting depend on several variables, that is thickness of the timber, hardness of the timber, lenght of the nail, to certain extend hardness and diameter of the nail..

You know that pressure is correct to material when nail head is flushed with surface of the timber or very slightly below.

If nail stick above the surface, you need increase pressure (in stages! do not jump from one extremity to another!), till you achieve flash suurface.

if nail takes "dive" and is more than thickness of the head below the surface, you need to decrease the pressure till you achieve this "golden" level of flush or just below the surface.

Sometime there is necessity to drive nails into totally unsuitable surface of timber (for example bamboo, yes, I know it sound ridiculous, but not everyone live in north america...), it is then good idea to spray nails with teflon or silicone oils, This treatment allow penetration even in bamboo, mahagony and other timbers harder than 12 in Jenkins scale without riping them apart.

Albeit if I see you firing nailer in my workshop into mahagony I will fire you... :-)

Hope this short intro into the noble art of framing and pneumatic nailer world will help you. Do not forget wearing protective glassess or face shield while using nailer! You have only two eyes and there is no spares...

The smoking is normal for a few times after cleaning ,but you might have put to much oil drops in chamber and piston chamber is getting a "vapor lock". Try recleaning with degreaser. Also have you forgotten to set the depth gauge at front of nose.

Please Rate jj505 Thanks

A good-quality starter set, including both a compressor and a small nail gun, can be bought for around 200 US dollars (USD). More sophisticated models can reach 1000 USD or more. Optional features such as a hard-shell case, safety trigger, and depth adjustment can drive the price even higher. For one-time jobs, a nail gun can also be rented at hardware stores and home repair centers.