Balanced Brad Nailer
The Grex cordless 21-ga. nailer is compact and light, requiring only two AAA batteries to ignite the fuel.
I’ve been a trim carpenter for over 40 years and now use cordless nailers for most of my work. I’ve tried a bunch of different brands, but my 18-ga. Grex nailer is the one I use most for trim. I like it so much that I recently treated myself to the new Grex cordless 2-in. 21-ga. brad nailer (model GCH850). Before buying this 21-ga. model, my 18-ga. nailer was the smallest I owned. If I needed something smaller, I’d use my 23-ga. pinner. I thought that this tool would come in handy only in very specific cases, but I have been using it more than twice as much as I thought I would. It made me wonder why I didn’t get one sooner.
At the time I bought this nailer, it was the only cordless 21-ga. brad nailer on the market. Grex makes the best-balanced, most compact, and lightest cordless nailers that I’ve come across. They have a similar size, balance, and weight as pneumatic brad nailers. The reason for this is that, like Paslode products, they use a fuel source to generate the force instead of relying on a large, heavy battery. And, unlike other fuel-powered products, Grex cordless guns do not have a fan, so they only need two AAA batteries to create the ignition spark, which also requires less space. Even the rechargeable AAA batteries I use seem to last forever. Grex fuel cells don’t have a shelf life and use a propane that is nearly odorless.
I’m very picky when it comes to trim-nailer tips, which is another reason I love Grex nailers. Grex tips are made of a softer material than most other nailers I’ve used, which means less sliding around on the trim when pushing the tip in. Also, I find the Grex four-sided tips work much better when firing nails on the sharp edges of trim contours than the one- to three-sided tips that other brands feature. Each fuel cell should deliver around 1300 shots. But don’t short yourself when buying extras because you usually have to order them online. The Grex brad nailer costs about $300—find out more at grexusa.com.
— Mark Schmidt; master trim carpenter in Farmington, Minn.
From Fine Homebuilding #323
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