Ridgid Cordless 15 Ga Nailer

JLTrim

Just picked one up, not sure if anyone else has tried them so here's my 2 cents:
Out of the box, it wouldn't even sink a 1 1/2" nail into soft pine, but the depth adjustment dial (controls the speed that the flywheel revs up) was at the lowest setting. After adjustment it was sinking nails no problem, revs up in about a second or less and worked well bump- and sequential-firing. I have no idea why they bothered with such a low setting, but the gun works great at the other end of the dial.
I was pretty impressed with the size and weight of it, I have always used Paslodes before and this gun is much lighter and more compact, plus it doesn't take nearly as much force to depress the safety. It handles and shoots very much like a typical 15 ga pneumatic finish nailer, minus the hose of course. It comes with a 2-position belt hook which is pretty handy, and a lifetime warranty. The construction seems a little cheap, it's mostly plastic so I doubt it would survive a long fall, and I haven't had a chance yet to use and abuse it, but time will tell.
At any rate it should be a great gun for punch-outs and small jobs, I hated my Paslode and I was never really sold on the DeWalts. Plus I already had a Ridgid li-ion cordless combo kit and a bunch of batteries so this made sense. I'll post again once I get some real use out of it and see how it holds up.

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Dan_Watson

Where did you buy it?

JLTrim

The Depot, guy said they just came in last week. They were a little pricey at $299, might be worth waiting till the price drops. Btw, comes with a small battery, rapid charger, and tool bag, fwiw. Nice bags too, pretty much indestructible.

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JohnLINY

JL, how is the Ridgid 15g compared to the DeWalt 15g cordless nailer? If you have ever compared the 2.

woodworkbykirk

is this in the states, up here most tools are a few months behind before we see them. early last year paslode was advertising for their new cordless framer however they just came in at the paslode service center this spring. still have yet to see the the new powermaster

as for 15 durability, all of the new models no matter the make seem to be pretty flimsy. we have a senco and after about 6 or 7 weeks and light use the spring in the nail track is shot. it wont advance unless there is always a 2nd clip behind the first...... oil less though and we got a case of free hats

waiting to see the rigid cordless,

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johndel1971

john, ive used the dewalts and did not like them to much it shoots ok but very heavy in weight the pasloades are ok but just to much maintaince always seems like no matter what i try im always back to my hitachi pneumatics its not that much of a pita with the hose and compressor and much more reliable.

JohnLINY

Thanks John,
I have the DeWalt 15g and 18g cordless nailers. Like you said they are heavy but do a great job. They don't require the maintenance that the Paslodes do. The biggest plus over the Paslodes is there is no gas smell.
I feel the same way as you. I usually use a compressor and use the DeWalts when there is no power close by or for small jobs. With the compressor you can have a 15g, 18g, and 23g all ready to go.

The pictures of the Ridgid 15g that I have seen looks like it might be a lot lighter than the DeWalt. But I wonder how long the battery will last.

jcs1984

I've had the Dewalt for a while and have had no complaints but when I saw the Ridgid cordless nailer I had to try it. The one huge problem I had with the Ridgid was when you press the gun against something the motor doesn't start when the safety is engaged but when you pull the trigger and the safety is engaged. This means press it against something, pull the trigger, wait 1 sec then it shoots. On the Dewalts when you press the gun against something the safety engages and starts the motor so when you pull the trigger it shoots instantly. This to me made the Ridgid unusable compared to the Dewalt, so the Ridgid went back to the Homo Depot.

JLTrim

Sorry I haven't had a chance to try the Dewalt. I looked at them but decided against it because the last few DeWalt tools I bought weren't that great other than their small portable tablesaw. Plus it was a little more expensive and I don't have any extra batteries for it anymore.

I used the Ridgid some more today, and dusted off the old Paslode to compare the two. I was mistaken before, the Ridgid is actually a little bigger than the Paslode. With a small battery in the Ridgid they weigh about the same, as near as I can tell.

It worked okay today, but it fired a few blanks now and then. I had to put some oil on the slider to get it to stop. I'm using Grip-Rites instead of Sencos like usual, that might've made a difference. Other than that I have no complaints, I spent a few hours casing some doors using 1 1/2's and 2's and it set them all and didn't run out of juice.

I noticed another cool feature, it has a pair of LED headlights, with left/right thumb switches. Could come in handy.

I definitely like it a hell of a lot better than the Paslode, hopefully I'll get a chance to try out the DeWalt or Senco and see how it compares.

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JLTrim

Um, did you switch to bump-fire? In bump-fire mode the motor starts either when you press the trigger or the safety. You can press the safety in, which starts the motor, then pull the trigger to shoot once. Or you can hold the trigger to start the motor and bounce the safety for shooting continuously. Sounds exactly like what the DeWalt does, I usually shoot with this setting.

I used the gun hard all day today installing 7 1/4" crown with 2" nails and it worked like a champ. Used two batteries and 10 or 15 strips of nails and every nail set fully and had no more problems with firing blanks, as long as I put a little oil on the magazine.... I am really starting to like this tool and have no hesitations recommending it.

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nailerg

JLTrim,
I just saw one of these at Depo today. It definitely looks BADASS and am thinking of buying one. Whats your opinion now? Changed your mind?

Also, can you make sure of what you are saying about the motor starting when the safety is pressed ONLY IN BUMP and does not start when in sequential unless BOTH safety and trigger are pressed?

nailerg

Wanted to throw a pic up there so any newbies will know what we're talking about.

Unfortunately I'm new and the site won't let me until i have 15 posts ... so this will have to do until then:
img40(dot)yfrog.com/i/ridgidcordlessangler.png/

JLtrim,
your info appears that your in FLA. When did you start seeing this gun down there? I saw other forums where people were talking about this in March in Canada.

JLTrim

No, I still really like this gun... Honestly I've been using it more than my Hitachi 15 ga pneumatic nailers, it works just as well but I don't have to drag a hose everywhere, it was definitely a good investment. At first I had issues with nails not feeding properly, about halfway through a rack they wouldnt feed without a push by hand... I had to use silicone spray on it for awhile but it seems to be working normally now. I'm thinking the plastic magazine was made a little too tight for the nails or the feeder, and just needed to get worn down some.


That's correct...
Sequential: You must first depress safety, then when you pull the trigger the motor spins up, gun fires once, motor stops. You can only fire one nail at a time and you must pull the trigger within a few seconds of depressing the safety or the motor won't spin. Then you lift the gun to release the safety, and repeat.

Bump-fire mode actually works two ways:
1: The motor starts when you pull the trigger and continues spinning as long as you hold the trigger down. Then when you depress safety a shot is fired, but the motor keeps spinning so you can shoot several nails quickly, without releasing the trigger in between shots.

2: The motor will start spinning when you depress the safety, it continues spinning until you pull the trigger, one shot is fired, then the motor stops and you must release safety and then depress it again to start the motor (or hold the trigger down). It's similar to sequential mode except that you don't have the slight delay of the motor spinning up when you want to shoot, the motor starts before you pull the trigger. That's how I use the gun most of the time.


Your link didn't work, but this is it:



I think it's only been out for a month or so here, and I don't think many stores have them yet. I was just curious when they'd be out and asked a guy at the Depot if he knew anything... he said they'd just come in and dug one up for me. They weren't even in the tool section, I would've never seen them if I hadn't asked.

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jarhead0531

Just check the West Windsor NJ HD and they had it displayed. Looks pretty sweet and the balance felt right. Just wish I had the $300 to buy it right now.

Meetre

How's the battery life?

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nailerg

JLTrim,
the link works but of course you have to type the h-t-t-p-:-/-/ in front of it and replace the (dot) with a . in the url. The forum wouldn't allow me to place the link with those items in it !

But thanks for putting the img there anyway

Thanks for clarifying the triggering mode operation. However, i wonder if the sequential mode wouldn't be better if it were like this:
A. press safety ... motor starts up and STAYS on as long as the safety stays pressed
B. press trigger ... tool fires
you could of course fire multiple nails quickly if you kept the safety pressed and dragged the tool to its next shot.

Any apps where this could be an advantage?

As Meetre asked, hows battery life?
Also, how many shots before a recharge?
You mentioned you have other Ridgid Li-ion tools ... so i assume this also is Li-ion ... how many volts?

JLTrim

Suprisingly good, meetre. I only use the smaller batteries in the gun to keep the size/weight down, they're 18v 1.5Ah li-ions.

I keep them on rotation, one charging while one's in the gun, and so far I've yet to grab a battery before it's done charging. It dies sooner if you keep the motor spinning a lot, later if you keep it on sequential mode. But on average I would guess-timate that I can shoot about 4 or 5 racks of 2-inchers on a fresh charge. I could be way off, but my point is that it's not an inconvenience, I'm not constantly switching batteries. I often use the gun all day long with only 2 or 3 changes.

On a side note, today I got a chance to run some 2-1/2" nails through it, into dense pine and poplar. It handled that just fine, set every nail, but I haven't tried it on any really hard material yet, oak/mahogany, etc.

If anyone's considering picking one up, I would strongly recommend it. I'm getting a ton of use out of it, it's one of my favorite tools, but like I said I haven't compared it to anything but the Paslodes. Here's the link if you want the specs:
http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/R250AF18...-Finish-Nailer

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JLTrim

I don't think keeping the motor spinning in sequential is necessary, dragging the gun around on a surface with the safety down or manually holding it back wouldn't be needed for any uses I can think of. Besides, we're only talking about a 1 second or less delay to spin up and fire. If you don't like that delay, just use bump-fire like I do and it starts spinning when you push the gun down, it's usually ready to fire by the time you're ready to pull the trigger.
The one thing I would change is that in sequential if you don't pull the trigger within a few seconds of depressing the safety, it doesn't fire. I guess this is a safety feature, but it can be kind of a pain. If they had added a few more seconds it'd be a little more convenient.

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davitk

I stopped and looked at one at Home Depot today, it looked like an OK tool, a little on the heavy side (couldn't fool me with that faux battery ).

My only real question is why a 15 gauge nailer? I sold mine for 10.00 at a garage sale this summer because it never got used, and it never got used because of the god awful crater it leaves in a board face. I would much rather shoot 18 or if need be 16 gauge brads, and either more of them or throw some adhesive behind the board for good measure.

What am I missing?

JLTrim

Mostly just personal preference, I like the 15 gauge for fastening doors and thick moldings to framing, they just hold better. The holes are a little big but the painters usually hide them well and I use them sparingly.

I don't use 15 ga on everything of course, I usually still need to keep a hose handy for the pinner and brad nailer, or I'll just borrow my helper's air for a minute if he's nearby.

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