Micro Gloat

[Curt Harms]

Hi All

I acquired a new toy recently. I'd seen reviews on the Air Locker 23 ga. pinner that were positive. I kept checking that auction site and sure enough one came up. The bid was close enough to the "buy it now" price that I did. Received it in good order, the person seemed on the up & up.

I was pleasantly surprised by the function of the little gun. It has a safety which seem to be not common on the 23 ga. guns. I did purchase the 1 3/16" pins with the gun. In hindsight, I should have purchased all the sizes from the vendor; he gets $1.99/pack and P-C, when I found them were $3.95, I think. Also, the pins are not as commonly availabe as the 15,16, and 18 ga. fasteners.I was pleasantly surprised that the pins don't seem very prone to follow grain. I drove some pins into the edge of some oak scrap that had grain exiting the side of the piece. If the pin was going to follow the grain and blow out the side, this seemed like the optimum situation to do so. It didn't blow out but drove straight into the piece. I've not used it much but so far I'm pleased. The finish may not be as good as higher priced pinners, but the function seems fine. Below are mandatory pics(I hope )


1.JPG

2.JPG
hole on the left is a 15 ga. nail. Hole in the middle is 18 ga. Hole on the right is 23 ga.
3.JPG

Sorry for the pic size. There's probably a way to get a larger pic without exceeding the size limit, but I haven't found it yet

[Dick Parr]

Very nice score! A friend of mine has one I was really impressed with the holding power of the pins.

I have been looking at these but can not justify the cost right now with the little bit of flat work I am now doing. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get it-Ebay?

[Alan Turner]

Curt,
You will enjoy the 23 ga. pinner. I had a Senco, which was just OK, not great. Used an Omer, which was great, but way pricely ($250 or so). Have seen the off brands advertised at about $60, with favorable comments. Hope yours works well for you. My Senco did not have an adjustable depth setting device, and I can't recall if the Omer did or not.

One trick on these is that a spot of CA glue and a bit of 320 grit paper, sanding till the CA is dry, will make even this small hole disappear. That is a Jeff Jewitt trick, and works quite well.

Nice thing about a pinner like this is that you can shoot really tiny moldings without splitting them. Pretty amazing.

[Jim Becker]

A pinner is a great tool to have in the shop...so many uses, many "unconventional", such as for temporary jigging, etc. I'm pleased with my Accuset (Senco), although I do wish it had the safety that my other guns have.