Man, I’m starting to wear the lettering off my keyboard with all the questions hahaha!
Has anyone used or is using the Omer air gun with the Raptor composite nails for work holding? I’m seriously considering this as it looks to be very quick, no need to use tabs. The composite nails (when broken off / sanded) still can be stained etc.
Here is a link to the Raptor nails.
For my use I think these would be ideal, as I’ll be cutting various shapes out of sheets of Baltic birch.
@exwhyzee I tried using a friend’s and they did work well. We also played using an ordinary gun. Mistake! For me, the initial price of the gun and the ongoing price of the nails kept me from buying into them. Between a bad Canadian dollar and ridiculous shipping costs, the “system” was out of reach.
If you do decide to go with them, please report back on your experience.
It is definitely the way I go but will wait to see if I can find a decent deal on the nailer… man they are PRICEY. The nails I consider a consumable and will work into the project costs in any case but holy crap the nail gun in CDN$ is the same amount as our national debt.
@exwhyzee If you find a deal on a gun, please post it here. I’ve given up looking. Since I’m a hobbyist, I can’t even work the nails into the project cost, but that’s not an issue. I used blue tape and CA right now. The composite nails would simply replace them.
The other issue for me is the nail length limit on the smaller gun. It will shoot a max length of 1.25". Even for .75" material, that does not allow for very much penetration into my spoil board. For any material thicker than that, it’s simply a non-starter.
Good luck in your search.
I finally decided to invest in a composite nailer. While I Was looking at the Omer and Raptor setup I stumbled on the Spotnails offering, they are out of the UK. I spoke with one of their technical advisors, explained what I was doing and they guided me through what the best gun / nail combination would be. I’ve ended up with the CB-1538C nailer and F15-32 finish nails.
I’ve been using it now for about 2 months and I have to say, it has definitely decreased my production time! No more having to pull small steel brads, my 1/8" bit plows right through a nail (without any damage) if it is in the way. Removing the workpiece from the spoilboard is done with a small dead blow, it simply breaks the nails off flush with the spoilboard.
I am 100% sold on this setup!
@exwhyzee Tks for the update. What are you doing with it? I borrowed an Omer using Raptor nails and it could not penetrate hard maple at all. It struggled with cherry. It was OK for MDF.
I’m using it on 12mm and 18mm Baltic birch. I have some scrap maple and walnut, I’ll give it a try and see how it works…
Can confirm - 22mm thick hard maple had 20.8mm of penetration. It was darn close but just didn’t have the mustard to go through fully.
@exwhyzee Tks much for the experiment. You had better results than I did with the Omer/raptor combo. I didn’t get the nails to go through 19mm hard maple.