Warning: My framing nailer jammed mid-roof and cost me a full day

I was on a roof job just outside Eugene last Tuesday when my nailer seized up hard. A nail bent sideways inside the magazine and I spent almost 4 hours trying to clear it without wrecking the tool. Turns out I'd been skipping the lube routine for a few weeks because I got lazy. Had to borrow a guy's spare from his truck to finish the last two trusses before rain hit. Anyone else had a jam ruin a full day's pay like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy_ross9d ago

Oh come ON, is it REALLY that serious though? I mean yeah it sucks when a nailer jams but a full DAY lost? I've cleared plenty of jams in way less time than 4 hours and i'm no pro. @johnson.jason i get it balancing on a truss is annoying but you guys act like this is some life or death crisis. If you know your tool you can pop it open and have it back running in 20 minutes even on a roof. The lube thing is basic maintenance not some deep secret. I've gone months without oiling a nailer and never had a stoppage that cost me more than an hour. And the dry fire debris thing faith684? Yeah i saw that post too but come on how much debris are we talking about here? You're making it sound like your firing channel is a vacuum cleaner. Sometimes a jam is just a jam and you're overthinking it.

faith6841mo ago

Did you catch that thing someone posted on the Tool Nerds forum about how dry fire can actually push debris deeper into the firing channel? I read that last month and it changed how I clear jams now. Your story hits close to home because I had a similar thing happen with a Paslode a few years back, ended up cracking the driver blade trying to pound a bent nail out with a punch. The whole skipping lube thing is a trap, I get lazy too but now I keep a little can of oil taped right to the hose so I see it every time I grab the gun. Four hours is rough though, especially with rain coming in.

johnson.jason1mo ago

Yeah you ever try to clear a jam while balancing on a truss? It's no joke. I had a Bostitch do the same thing last summer, bent nail wedged so tight I had to take the whole magazine apart on the roof. Probably took me half the day too. The lube thing is real, I started keeping a little bottle in my nail pouch just so I don't forget.