I replaced the roof on my house with this wonderful tool. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the reconditioned Bostitch roofing nailer and a new one is the price. This nail gun works wonderful and really saved my forearms. It helped in quickly aligning the shingles and the driving force was easily dialed in. Very few nails needed to be finished off with the hammer. It is easy to load and use. Factory-Reconditioned Bostitch U/RN46-1 3/4-Inch to 1-3/4-Inch Coil Roofing Nailer
I'm installing hardi-plank lap siding and needed a roofing gun. The Bostitch RN46 seems to be one of the most popular, and the reconditioned model costs about 5x of what the daily rental for is in my area. How could I go wrong?
The factory-reconditioned nailer arrived promptly and well packaged. (Gotta love Amazon Prime membership). When I took it out of the box, I would have sworn that it was a brand new unit. Not a scratch, mar, dent, or blemish - even the rubbery side slip-pieces (that keep it from sliding off a roof) were new. I attached a 1/4" brass air nipple (not supplied), added 3 or 4 drops of air tool oil to the air inlet, and let her rip.
Bang, Bang, Bang - this is a whole lot easier than attempting to nail siding by hand.
Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Hssssssssssssss. Oh crap....
After firing only 7 nails, the unit just died. Air would hiss out from around the trigger, but the firing pin wouldn't move.
I took out the nail belt, checked the nailing pin to see if it was stuck, checked the air pressure, jumped up and down, hit my head against the wall. Nothing would work.
So I logged back onto the Amazon web site and found that Amazon has a great replacement policy. Amazon shipped me another unit which arrived the next day free of charge. They supplied me with a free mailing label to return the defective unit.
If that was the end of the story, I'd be a happy camper. I appreciate a company that stands behind its sales. Unfortunately, the story has another chapter.
The replacement unit that I received looked like it had been used for several years, fallen off a roof or two, and was left out to weather just for affect! I'd would have thought twice about it if I found it at a yard sale for $10. While it did work fine (see below), I'm disappointed that range of "factory refurbished" products could quite so large. Perhaps I just experienced the two extremes, but I'm not sure I would call the 2nd unit "refurbished".
The web page says: "Reconditioned generally means that the tool has been returned to the manufacturer, who brings the tool back to like new condition."
I'm not sure what "generally means" means, but it certainly doesn't mean "always means".
The 2nd unit works fine, and I've used it to install 40-50 courses of siding. 1-nail-in-15 will double-fire and result in a second nail being partially sunk next to the first one. Its easy to either remove it, or just pound it in. With constant pressure, 1-nail-in-10 will require an additional tap with a hammer to set it completely flush with the surface.
One tidbit that I didn't quite understand was the fact that this unit is a "bump-fire" unit (as it has a black trigger). These are great for roofing where you just want to hold the trigger and tap the nailer against the shingle several times. The grey-trigger units are "trigger-fire" units - in which you press the head against a surface, then squeeze the trigger each time you want to fire. This 2nd type of firing is slower, but allows you to better position the gun. I think for siding, a "trigger-fire" unit would have worked better than a "bump-fire" unit. For me. I have several Milwaukee nailers that allow you to switch between these 2 firing modes by just conveniently flipping a switch on the side of the unit, as opposed to swapping out trigger assemblies.
Now I'm not sure what to do. While the 2nd unit works fine, I don't think it arrived in "like new condition" as described in the product description. And now I've gotten 2 or 3 days of work out of the nailer.
I applaud Amazon for their handling of the return, but don't know whether I should be disappointed in Bostitch or Amazon for shipping out such a heavily used unit as "factory reconditioned".
My factory reconditioned roofing gun came in a nice box from the company. It looks virtually new. It has a few scratches here and there but very little. It looks like it went through about four hours of actual roof abuse. I received it about two days after ordering. I am extremly happy with the quality and price.
I purchased this reconditioned tool on 12/15/10, I used it for 2 days beginning 1/24/11, and it failed on 1/27/11. It bypasses air, when trigger is pulled, no nail. I called CPO, they no longer honor the 30 day warranty. I called Bostitch Service and they said take it to CO (287 miles away) or send it at my own expense to Louisville, KY. They also said I could take it to a Authorized Dealer in ABQ, NM so they could ship it to KY. I called the number they gave me and it has been disconnected. I looked up the name on the internet, got a different number and have been calling for 2 days, but they do not answer the phone (no message option available). I will never buy from Stanley Bostitch again, and do not recommend this tool.
I just got this and already did a roof. I've used a lot of different guns. this one is easier to load since it only has one door loading for the nails. It seems lighter and well balanced which means a lot when your on a roof all day. The only thing that got me at first only because I didn't read the instructions and just loaded it and tried to go to town. Was the nail magazine that holds the nails adjusts to the size of nail your using. you have to do this manually. After I did that it shoots purfect. Oh and with this gun no more losing that last nail. Out of the three guns I've bought this is by far the best one. - Roofing Nailers - Nail Gun - Reconditioned - Reconditioned Tools'
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