I am simply amazed by this pinner. I have used many others with less features and the Grex p635 is a hands down winner. Few manufacturers offer a 23ga pinner as versatile as the P635 with the capability to shoot 3/8 to 1 3/8 pins and self adjusting to boot. No splitting of crown or delicate hardwood mouldings even within 1/8" of an end mitre. I have pretty much retired my 18ga brad nailer for high end trim in leu of the Grex P635. I am impressed with the holding power of the 23 ga pins in hardwood crown on cabinet installs. As a professional wood worker I highly recommend this pinner.
Grex P635 23 Gauge 1-3/8-Inch Length Headless PinnerI was introduced to this nail gun at my last job. Now that I am in business for myself, I had to get one. I have used the Senco and the Grex 23g micro pinners. The Sencos that we had at the shop hardly ever worked properly. They weren't self-adjusting, so changing nail lengths was a pain. And, the nail heads almost always stayed above the surface of the material. The Grex, however is self adjusting, and goes all the way from 1/4" to 1 3/8" nail lengths. Even in the hardest wood it always sinks the heads. The only time it hasn't was when I was shooting into maple at a harsh angle, or when the compressor didn't come back on and there wasn't enough pressure. Also, I have had the gun for 2 months and used it almost every work day since then, and I have only had one minor jam. Plus, just the fact that you don't have to fill every nail hole with putty makes this tool a life saver.
I purchased Senco, Porta-Cable, Bostitch, Omer, and Grex. Grex by far is the best! It doesn't jam, or break down. Very reliable and saves me money over the long run from not repairing it every week. Before the P635 my porta-cable and omer both gave me the biggest problems. The Grex gets into the corners and doesn't leave a mark into the finished product. I have owned them for 2 years and now getting one for my father. Also, I have been burned by the big auction web site(won't name names)trying to buy this tool.
(see revision below) I wasn't led astray by others who raved about this 23 gauge pinner. It saved the day as far as doing an intricate exterior Ipe handrail with polyurethane glue. No other brad or nailer would work except my old Senco 1/2 thru 3/4 inch pinner and it leaked and didn't have the power of this new one. With no time to use small screws and countersinks nor tenoning, I found that using toe nailed 23 guage pins with polyurethane glue really held together this hard-as-nails exterior hardwood.
The only small problem was when adding a new shank of pins to a nearly empty gun.. that when the previous shank was used up the new shank due to the smallest misalignment wouldn't pin.. .not a biggy..It just meant one had to very carefully load the pinner and make sure the same size of pins was in-line with the prior shank of pins. Very hard to tell if the gun is firing or not. But minor concerns with such a Great Tool! It's very powerful judging at the strength of penetration into a wood (Ipe) that is very close to being the hardest of woods. 18 guage would shatter and split the wood and only my battery actuated Dewalt 16 guage gun would consistantly penetrate but only at a right angle and with occasional splitting. Only 23 guage pins would toe nail w/o bouncing off.
Someone described this as the "Lexus of pinners". Seems very true. Also the extra finger safety 'flipper' was annoying and my helper just taped it to the handle as we found that it was more likely to accidently fire with the intricacy of manipulating the safety on than having it taped off (down). Works now very well. No hitches. Comes with the usual leaky bottle of oil..but not even one pin in the box. Make sure you order some if you don't have 'em when ordering this gun.
after a month or so...revised review. Now the Grex no longer shoots pin to the surface...pins are proud a good 1/16. Opened it up and the first part of the pin driver is shattered. Thus needing a new piston pin, Amazon does carry it. But was the wood too hard (Ipe) on the pinner or is it just a bad design? Remember my old Senco still shoots pins but only is a half through three quarter pinner. I'd have to demote Grex to two stars. The pin driver seems only meant for softer woods. Need to find paperwork as no local dealer sells Grex or contact manufacturer.
I like the Grex pin nailer but I would like to suggest to all of the tool manufacturers that the form fitting plastic storage case would be much more useful if they left enough room for storage of the supplies (pins).
After asking around on woodnet i found that this one is the only one that does not leave a small dent from the driving pin( at least in this price range)
the one drawback to all of these micro pinners is that you cant control the depth of the pin
it will never go more than about a 32nd into the wood
not quite enough for filler
You may not 'need' one of these pinners to do trim work. But, if you are looking for a tool to help you do quality work in an efficient fashion, you really should have one of these tools. When working with stained trim, you can pin outside miters together and then fasten the trim to the wall quickly without a split or having to fill holes. Painted trim does require touch up, however smaller holes means less work to conceal and the 23 gauge pinner still has the advantage of being able to pin the actual corners without having to pre-drill holes.
This is an excellent product, comes ready to use, and works perfectly. Quiet, light, and well made. Feels better than the Porter Cable I tried out, and extremely accurate. I used it at 90 psi with the 1 3/8" pins, and had no issues with putting pins through shoe molding, corner molding, pinning crown miters, etc.
A very minor gripe: it is difficult to load a new clip of pins when there are a few still left on the old clip. The spring mechanism pushes the two clips together pretty hard when you close the magazine, and the ends of the clips can get doubled up, jamming the magazine. I was unable to fix this, so I just made sure I only refilled when it was completely empty. Kind of a hassle on the ladder, but there are so many pins in a clip it didn't matter to me that much. I don't know if this was a problem on the other pinner I tried out because I never thought to check.
If you've never used a pinner, you should know that it is NOT going to replace your finish nailer. In other words, don't plan on a pinner to hold up oak trim on a coffered ceiling. You can put the smaller stuff (cove, bead) up with the pinner, and you get perfect results.
Another great use for the pinner is holding the returns on small pieces of trim while the glue sets up. Things that you cannot clamp together can be pinned and you'll probably never see the tiny hole. Plus, no problems with splitting the end grains either! Saves me hours of hole-filling and irritation.
This pinner has the dual trigger, and it works well. One safety note, don't get complacent about holding the safety trigger down and waving the gun around at the same time (away from the workpiece). There is no safety tip to depress, so it will fire away. It's all too easy to slide one hand a little too close to the tip while you're positioning and give yourself a new body piercing. Didn't do it personally, but it can be done...
One thing this gun doesn't do as well as a finish nailer is shoot at shallow angle. There's no deep countersink to push the angled nails in, and the pins are so fine that the grain of hard wood will sometimes curve your angled shots and turn them out the side. If you're shooting near the joint between two pieces of wood, it will very easily just follow the joint instead of angling through them. Just take some care in lining it up before you pull the trigger and that issue goes away.
A minor gripe: it is difficult to load a new clip of pins when there are a few still left on the old clip. The spring mechanism pushes the two clips together pretty hard when you close the magazine, and the clips can get doubled up, jamming the magazine. I was unable to prevent this, so I just made sure I only refilled when it was completely empty.'
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