Small PC pancake compressor enough for a framing nailer?

[thomas struth]

I know it's not a typical woodworking tool but I'm guessing some of you must have experience with framing as well. I want to pickup a framing nailer to help with some siding repair I have to do. I recently bought a Porter Cable C2002 6 gal. 150 psi pancake compressor. It has 2.6 scfm at 90 psi. I can't find anything that says how much cfm a framer requires (looking at the PC F350a).

Is this enough compressor to run that gun sufficiently? I don't care if I have to wait every few nails for it to fill the tank. I just need to know if it will sink them without issue.

thanks!

[Dustin Lane]

cfm relates more to how fast you can shoot nails. sinking them is the psi. though i have no direct experience with your compressor i would assume you will be able to sink them as long as you meet the psi requirements. it might be slow going but it sounds like you wouldn't mind that.

[Sam Layton]

Hi Thomas,

It sounds like the compressor you describe is designed to run nail guns. It should do very well. I have a Dewalt, 2hp with a 4 gal tank. I could not find where it said how many cfm's. I framed my house as well as my shop running two framing nailers (16 penny nails). A nail gun only wants about 100 to 120 psi as i recall. They do not consume a lot of air.

Sam

[Chris Kennedy]

My neighbor hired a guy to build his fence, and he used a framing nailer with that size compressor. It would cycle reasonably often, but it was up to the task.

Cheers,

Chris

[Craig T. Smith]

Thomas, I have a Task Force that size and I use it with my framing nailer , brad nailer and stapler. It handles the brad nailer and stapler about as fast as you can use it. the framing nailer uses more air so you have to wiat a little but for medium sized jobs its no big deal. The only thing is mine has a smaller air hose than my big compressor so I had to adjust my gun to sink nails as I like. That adjustment is easy and is in your nailers manual. Good luck, Craig

[Scott T Smith]

Thomas, it will work just fine. I have that same compressor (as well as the lower PSI model that they previously sold), and a PC FR350Mag (the magnesium version of the framing nail gun that you're looking at), and have had no problems in several years of use. The compressor will actually support multiple guns, if you're not shooting almost constantly.

If you need more capacity for short bursts (30 seconds or less) of fast nailing, add a second air storage tank in-line. Rol-air makes a nice one, or you can build your own out of one of the $30.00 tanks that Northern sells.

[Mark Grotenhuis]

I'm a framer by trade, and in my opinion your compressor probably will keep up with you just fine. However I go fast ... real fast. I have used your compressor before for framing and it has done a good job on keeping up with small repairs with intermittent nailing, but if you are looking at nailing sheet goods down where you are using 5 or so nails a second its not gonna keep up. Its going to be shoot 5 nails ... wait 20 seconds, repeat.

[Bill White]

FIVE NAILS A SECOND????
Got a video? That scared me. If I tried that speed, I'd probably have myself nailed to the decking.
My PC comp is 8 yrs old. It has been one of the most trouble-free poiwer tool I've EVER owned. Blow the tank and the end of the day, don't use skinny extension cords.
Bill

[Jason White]

For siding repair, you don't want a framing nailer (unless you're making some structural repairs as well). You'll want a siding nailer that shoots 2" stainless ring-shank nails. It's very similar to a roofing nailer.

In either case -- a pancake compressor will do the job, but you'll have to stop frequently and wait for it to fill back up. If you're only shooting 5 or 6 nails at a time, you be should ok.

Jason

I know it's not a typical woodworking tool but I'm guessing some of you must have experience with framing as well. I want to pickup a framing nailer to help with some siding repair I have to do. I recently bought a Porter Cable C2002 6 gal. 150 psi pancake compressor. It has 2.6 scfm at 90 psi. I can't find anything that says how much cfm a framer requires (looking at the PC F350a).

Is this enough compressor to run that gun sufficiently? I don't care if I have to wait every few nails for it to fill the tank. I just need to know if it will sink them without issue.

thanks!

[Frank Hagan]

I have one of those compressors and it works fine with my roofing nailer. I'm no where near 5 nails a second (maybe 1 a minute if you could all the "stand back and wonder what you're doing" time).

I bought it for a finish nailer (it was actually one of the PC combo kits when I bought it) and love it. I bought the roofing nailer from HF and it seems primative but works fine.

[Jim Kountz]

That compressor should work just fine especially since you are talking about some light use. As far as 5 nails a second goes there are two ways to handle that.
First, you can convert the gun to sequential trip instead of bump firing so that you have to place the nose against the work, pull the trigger, release, repeat in order to shoot a nail.
The second fix and the one I choose is to fire the guy doing that and get someone more responsible on the job!!

[Tim Wagner]

I have 1 and it works just fine. I can even get more than a few nails in before waiting on a refill.