A decade ago I bought my first pin nailer, which proved to be a great tool for fastening glazing stops and other delicate moldings and for performing numerous glue-clamping chores. A 23-ga. pin nailer leaves such a small hole that it’s seldom even necessary to fill it. But many of the early models lacked a trigger safety and required that the nail carriage be adjusted each time you wanted to load it with a different length of nail.

Bostitch has introduced a pin nailer with a magazine that adjusts automatically for nail lengths, a nose with a narrow profile for easy pin placement in tight places, and rear air exhaust.  Nail jams can be cleared easily by loosening a couple of hex-socket screws. It also has a trigger safety mechanism to help prevent accidental firing, but the trigger is large and located in front of the tool trigger, so I found myself depressing it unintentionally when I grabbed the tool by its barrel grip.

Using the Bostitch, I drove lots of long nails into hard maple without a single misfire or a nail left proud of the surface-a nice feat indeed. This tool also offers a high/low power control for a precise pin-depth setting without the need to adjust incoming air pressure.

—Roland Johnson is a contributing editor.

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