How To Unjam & Load A Porter Cable Nail Gun?

Are you having trouble with your porter cable nail gun? Many times, you may see that your nail gun is jammed. When you shoot the nail gun, it makes a sound, but no nail comes out. What to do in this situation?

Well, that’s what I will be discussing here today. I will go through why this happens and tell you how to unjam a porter cable nail gun. So, without wasting any more time, let’s jump right into the whole thing.

Why your porter cable nail gun is jammed? 

Now, before you can start fixing your nail gun, let’s go through why does this happens in the first place. There are several reasons for this to occur in your nail gun, and it’s sometimes unavoidable. Here are the things that can jam your nail gun –

• Lack of oil

  This is a pretty common reason for your nail gun to get jammed. Since all the components of a nail gun involve mechanical moving parts, you have to keep them greased up. When they are not getting that smooth movement, they can quickly get stuck. In other words, when there is a lack of oil in the gun, you will face jamming issues on your nail gun.

• Wrong fastener

  If you are using the wrong shank sizes for your nails, you may end up with this issue. You have to make sure you choose the right nail size based on the type of nail gun you use. Try using the manufacturer’s recommended size and types of nails with your nail gun.

• Improper loading

  You will get the gun jammed for sure when you load your nails in the gun the wrong way. I don’t think it needs any other explanation to understand. Also, if the nails you load aren’t set correctly or are not at the right angle, you will face this jamming issue for sure.

• Too much pressure on the follower

  After loading the nails, you have to close the follower. But when you do that with too much force, you may end up ruining the nail collation. This results in jamming up your nail gun before usage.

These are some typical causes for having your nail gun jammed. Now, you can avoid these from happening by not doing the things I discussed. But once your nail gun is jammed, you have to fix it. So, let’s check out how you can fix the jamming issue in your nail gun.

How to unjam a porter cable nail gun?

Here, I will go through fixing two different types of nail guns. One is a coil siding nail gun or roofer’s nail, and the other is a cordless nail gun. Both these types of nail guns can pretty quickly get jammed. And they are pretty easy to unjam as well. So, let’s go through them one by one.

Unjamming a porter cable coil nail gun

Since coil nail guns come with an air supply as the power source, unjamming them is different than an electric nail gun. Let’s get through the steps one by one.

1. The first thing you have to do is disconnect the power; in this case, remove the air supply source.
2. Then, take off the fasteners of your nail gun to get access.
3. There you will find the driver blade. You have to push that down to unjam the nail gun. You can use another driver blade or use a hammer and nail to push down the driver blade.
4. Next up, check if the driver blade is pushed down all the way or not. If it is, then it will simply remove the stuck fastener from your nail gun.
5. That’s it. Now, you can load up some nails and reconnect your air supply.

It’s not that difficult to fix the issue yourself. Just follow these steps, and you are good to go. If you have an electric nail gun, things will be a bit different from this one. Let’s check them out now.

Unjamming a porter cable electric nail gun

Electric nail guns are getting popular amongst DIYers and hobbyists because of their convenience. So, knowing how to unjam them is pretty important.

Since you aren’t a professional, you won’t have any idea of the mechanisms either. Let’s check out how you can unjam your electric nail gun from a porter cable.

1. First of all, you will need to remove the power just like you did earlier. But in this case, the power source is a battery or a fuel cell. It’s comparatively easy to remove them.
2. Then, you have to take the fasteners off of the nail gun. It’s essential to do. Otherwise, the stuck nail in your nail gun may come flying off when you unjam it.
3. Look into the depth adjustment panel and use an Allen wrench to loosen the screws a little.
4. Then, you have to take a screwdriver and remove the whole magazine assembly. This gives you access to the driver blade, where you will see that it’s stuck with a nail that has been jamming it.
5. After you see that, you have to push down the driver blade. You can either use a screwdriver or use a hammer and nail if the jam is pretty tight. Pushing the driver blade down clears up the jam on the nail gun.
6. Finally, you can screw the panel back again and put back the fasteners. Then, connect the battery to finish up the process.

As you can see, it’s not much work, and it’s pretty easy to do as well. Just be careful when you are using the hammer and nail. Don’t put too much force that can damage the nail gun.

How Do I Load Nails On A Porter Cable Finish Nailer?

For finishing purposes, porter cable finish nailers have been getting used since their inception. It’s widely popular in all corners of the world due to its versatility. It has two authentic variations. One is a straight nailer and the other one is angled. You can easily use either of them for different prospects. 

However, many users get confused while putting nails into the nailer. It decreases the operational efficiency as well as creates utter boredom. In this article, I will guide you on how you can do this. I will elaborate on the most straightforward method so that you don’t face difficulty understanding any of my points. 

Let’s get started…

In this portion, I will discuss some points and will continue step-by-step. If you can go toward the steps, you will get everything precisely. Otherwise, things might get a bit complex for you. Let’s see what we have got- 

Deactivate the Trigger 

Before jumping right into inserting nails, you must make sure that you haven’t activated the trigger by any means. If you do, you might get hurt unwantedly. So, check if the trigger is deactivated or not. 

Maintain The Least Possible Distance 

No matter what, don’t make yourself get hurt by any of the parts of your nailer. For this, it’s highly recommended to keep your body parts away from the contact of the nailer. Make sure you are maintaining at least a minimum distance.

Insert The Nails 

Now, it’s time to insert the nails into the magazine. Make sure that the magazine is empty. The magazine of a porter cable finish nail gun can take precisely one hundred nails in it. So, if you want to utilize the nails, you must make sure to insert them in an empty magazine. 

However, pull the T-shaped bar and insert the nails. Inserting one by one would be much better. 

Load The Gun

To load the gun, you have to simply pull the magazine lever to the rear magazine. There’s that. After this, release the lever. The gun is loaded now. 

Inspection

For inspection, you can point the gun at a wooden surface and trigger it. This way, you will get to know if the gun is loaded or not. 

Nonetheless, this is the simplest method you’ll ever find anywhere else. If you can apply this adequately, you won’t need to take further hassle regarding this issue. 

There’s that. That’s as simple as I can make it. I hope you get everything I illustrated. If you didn’t, I would request you to go through the article again. Just maintain the precautions and do everything carefully. Eventually, you’ll lift off!

FAQ

How do I load a 16 gauge porter cable nail gun?

Ans: You can follow the method I illustrated upward. For all gauge sizes, the nail insertion method is pretty much similar and kind of close. So, following one instruction won’t be detrimental.

Can I use the porter cable as a framing nailer?

Ans: Apparently, you can use the porter cable nail gun for any of your desired purposes. But if that purpose is specifically finishing, then the outcome will be good. And I won’t recommend you to use it for framing. Get a specialized framing nailer instead.

Conclusion 

To sum up, knowing how to unjam a porter cable nail gun is pretty essential if you own one. A jammed nail gun is an issue that can happen no matter what you do. There is no escaping the fact that your nail gun will jam at some point. But you don’t need to worry anymore since you can fix it right away.