Bostitch F21PL Round Head 1-1/2-Inch to 3-1/2-Inch Framing Nailer with Positive Placement Tip and Magnesium Housing

5 Reviews

1. When I purchased it new for about 350.00 , thie positive placement tip broke right away. They sent out a couple more but the metal is too soft and ran out of them. Customer service will no longer take my calls , so I use it as an extra framing nailer(without the tip piece). Now when you hook it up to the air hose it fires a shot every time. I must make sure there is nothing in the clip before connecting the air. My employees are aware of this , and mostly stay clear of the gun. I await the day that it actually goes “full auto” , then customer service might return my calls. William Lee , Willis Contractors , San Diego.

2. Purchased this from Amazon, got it within 4 days. Amazing framing nailer, can’t say enough about it. Went through 200 nails on a couple small framing projects (building pedestals for washer and dryer, dog house) and didn’t have any misfires or any other troubles. I can’t really compare this to any other framing nailers since this is my first one, but the nail depth was easy to adjust and being able to adjust the air coming out was a great benefit. Overall I enjoy working with the nailer and may need to think about a career change in the near future!

3. I’m a general contractor, I use a framing nailer for approx 8000 nails a month (2 cases of plastic coallated on average).

   I love this gun. I hate this gun. I love this gun, I hate it, ….

   I own two of these guns. Bought one before the metal connector tip was available. While the first one was in the repair shop for a worn-out anvil (from use, not defect), I bought the second one.

   They both have great power. They both are durable (miles of abuse on the job and in the toolbox).

   The push-button depth adjustment is a technology that every gun should have.

   The rafter hook is useful, but it’s plastic and WILL break off – so be ready to buy an aftermarket hook. I personally had a machinist make me a new hook out of heavy aluminum and it’s working great. However, I broke one of those too, so I’d suggest going with a softer steel design, like the Paslode’s hook.

   All the horror stories of plastic in the eyes? Well, I guess it happens. My eyes are fine though, after 18 years of plastic coallated nail use with (GASP!) no goggle use. I’d suggest getting some milk and cookies and crying that whine to your mommies. Let the rest of us build. I only use plastic coallated nails out of habit now – there was a day when the only other option was wire coallated (which WILL injure you) and paper strip clipped heads. Now, paper strip are commonly available in full round head, and make better production because each gun holds exactly twice as many nails as the plastic coallated nailers. Like I said, I’m only a creature of habit.

   Why three stars? Misfires. This gun is picky about the nails it’s fed. The thicker, the better. Unfortunately, as a contractor in a rural area, I’m kinda stuck with what I can get. In most cases it’s the “Coallated” brand carried by Lowes. They do alright, but don’t slam the magazine carrier against the nails too hard. It’ll crunch the nail strip and cause misfires. Never, and I repeat NEVER, run the Hitachi-brand nails through it (can you say nightmare?). I know this sounds stupid, but I’ve never tried the Bostitch-brand nails. Too much of a cheap bastard I guess.

   No matter what the nail you use, only run one strip at a time through it. Two strips at a time is a crap-shoot. The second string tends to ride below the first string and cause a misfire. There’s a temporary fix I’ve found you can do, but I won’t suggest it here as it involves modifying a magazine component.

   Because of the nail feeding issues I’ve had, I will say you will not get production out of this gun, compared to others. I keep using mine because the problem is relatively balanced against the good features of this gun (durability, weight, smart trigger, depth adjustment, etc….). That said, a few times a year (as I am now) I find myself shopping for a different brand of gun. I never buy another because they lack the features of this gun.

   Stick to runnin heavy galvanized nails one strip (not two!) at a time and you’ll love this gun as I do. Then you’ll hate it. Then you’ll love it. Then you’ll hate it….

4. This nailer has the power to drive ring shank fasteners through Hardy plank into engineered lumber all day long. No more having to pull out bent over nails or having to finish nailing by hand. My standard framing nailer needed max pressure to drive these nails without problems. This nailer doesn’t seem to notice a pressure drop. Metal hanger attachment works well also. All my nailers/staplers are Bostitch. Same high quality as all the others I own. Amazon service was excellent as always.

5. So far this nailer has worked great. I got a refurbished one several months ago, and I’ve used it both with the standard tip and the tip for nailing into joist hangers and brackets. Both seem to work great. After nailing thousands of nails, I had one misfire where it fired 2 nails instead of 1. It does seem a little touchy and sometimes will not fire unless you hold it at a different angle. This could possibly be the safety mechanism. I also noticed that it seems to depend on the user. It almost always fired for me, but my neighbor had more of a hard time with it.

   The only difficult part about this nailer is finding the nails. The longest galvanized nails you’ll probably find at a big box store for this nailer are 3 inch for the normal tip. I couldn’t find the metal connector nails for the other tip at any retail store so I had to order them online. I even checked at a specialty fastener store. So if you’re planning a project, make sure you order your nails far in advance. I found the cheapest option was to order online through my local hardware store and have them delivered to the store so I avoided the high shipping cost of the nails.

   If I was going to add a feature to this nailer it would be to add markings for the depth adjustment on the tip. The depth is adjusted by setting the tip in one of several unmarked notches. So if you have the depth adjustment exactly where you want it, and you remove the tip to change to the metal connector nails, it’s difficult to get it back where it was when you reattach the tip. This is more of a nit and doesn’t really affect the performance of the nailer.

   Overall, I’m satisfied with this nailer.