Nail guns can make short work of even the biggest jobs, but you’ll have to make sure you use the right nails or you’ll risk ruining your project.
Whether you’re a professional carpenter or doing some DIY construction in your home, you’ll want to make sure you have a nail gun( or nailer) in your toolkit, though the type of nailer you’ll need depends on the project you’re working on — just as the type of nails does. If you end up buying a box of the wrong kind of nails, it may not be the end of the world, but you’ll certainly regret spending money on a nail gun you don’t need. That’s why it’s important to know exactly what kind of nails you need first, before shopping for the appropriate nailer.
Nails are generally categorized by their gauge, which is the size of their thickness. This thickness is defined by the diameter of the nail’s shaft, rather than the typically wider head. Commonly used nails include 15-gauge, 16-gauge, 18-gauge, 21-gauge, and 23-gauge. Perhaps counterintuitively, the higher a gauge number, the thinner a nail’s thickness, meaning a 16-gauge nail is thicker than a 23-gauge one. Nails of certain gauges also go by different names; one of the major differences between brad nails and finish nails is their typical gauges, for example.
It’s obvious why you need to know the best nail thickness to use for a particular task. You wouldn’t want to hammer larger 15-gauge nails into decorative molding, just as you wouldn’t want to use pin-like 23-gauge nails when erecting a wall in your home (building codes typically make doing this illegal, anyway). This is why it’s important to know which nail gauges are better for different jobs, especially if you’re shopping for a compatible nail gun.16-gauge nails are very versatile, but you may need smaller or larger sizes
The most versatile nail gauge is considered to be 16-gauge, which has a diameter of 0.0625 inches. As such, if you had to have one nail gun in your tool collection, you’d probably want to go with a 16-gauge nailer, like the Milwaukee M18 Fuel 16-Gauge Straight Finish Nailer. It can be used for a wide range of tasks, such as nailing oak to oak or installing dentil molding, which makes it a Milwaukee tool you’ll want for your next DIY project.
