Makita AN924 Air First Fix Framing Nail Gun

What is a Framing Nailer?

Framing nailers are also referred to as 1st fix nailers.

These are much more of a construction tool, very popular, and definitely not suitable for anything where a fine finish is needed. These nailers can be heavy, and they need to be in order to be able to pack the punch required to fire such large nails into tougher timber.

The most common applications would be any type of timber framing assembly work, such as constructing timber stud walls, roofing, building decking bases or fencing. It's the rough and tough end of the nail gun world. Large, heavy-duty nails with significant holding power are what you can expect here, don't expect a discrete impression of where the nail has been fired either, you are going to know where this nailer has been.

Common nail sizes tend to range from around 50mm to as much as 100mm with some models.

It's also likely you'll have a choice of nail type to suit your application, EG, a standard "Bright Nail" for indoor applications where moisture and rust aren't a problem, all the way through to galvanised nails and even sometimes stainless steel nails for those applications where you really do need to be confident rust is never going to be an issue down the road.

Nails are normally "clipped head" and are often available with a "Ringed Shank" for extra holding power. Typically, nails will be around 2.8mm to 3.1mm in diameter.