Product Description

Hitachi NT50AE At this value and quality you can't be beat. This brad nailer has a 360 degree air deflector and a side load magazine for easy jam release. A rubber comfort grip to give you that quality feel. This brad Nailer comes in first place. Hitachi Power Tools A backed by a 30day satisfaction guarantee and a limited one-year warranty on parts and labor. Includes: safety glasses, 1/4" plug fitting, case.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37609 in Home Improvement
• Brand: Hitachi
• Model: NT50AE

Features

• Rubber comfort grip
• Lightweight, only 3.2 pounds
• 360-degree air deflector
• Side-load magazine and jam release
• 30-day satisfaction guarantee and one year warranty on parts and labor

Amazon.com Review
Sure, in the consumer world, Hitachi means stereos and televisions. But in the world of construction, the company sits at the table with the heavy hitters. Hitachi's 18-gauge finish nailer has--for starters--an excellent grip. One thing we love in a nailer is a good grip. Basically, it's a safety issue: our hands sweat on the job, and we don't want to lose the handle on a gun and ping a buddy across the room. Some companies don't seem to get this, but Hitachi delivers, with a 360-degree rubber-strip grip that sticks to the hand without being bulky or interfering with the smooth firing mechanism. Because of its clever all-metal alloy construction, this nailer is remarkably lightweight, too: only 3.2 pounds. The exhaust port pivots 360 degrees, letting you keep dust to a minimum and oil off your work. We also like the side-loading magazine and jam release, which save your fingers the trouble of going where they'd rather not.

One feature we'd like to have seen is the two bumper plates on the front and back that are showcased on other Hitachi models. These plates really go a long way toward protecting a power tool from unnecessary wear and tear, and, in the end, they really do extend a tool's life by quite a bit. But such criticism is relatively minor. This finish nailer is a solid piece of work. --Michael Shilling

From the Manufacturer
At this value and quality you can't be beat. This brad nailer has a 360 degree air deflector and a side load magazine for easy jam release. A rubber comfort grip to give you that quality feel. This brad Nailer comes in first place. Hitachi Power Tools A backed by a 30day satisfaction guarantee and a limited one-year warranty on parts and labor. Includes: safety glasses, 1/4" plug fitting, case.

Customer Reviews

I LoveThis Bran Gun
This brad gun is by far the best gun i have ever used. The mag is steel so it will last forever. It eazy to sit the how deep you would like the neal set. THe power is great also.

Can Go Head to Head with the More Expensive Brands
I bought a set of Craftsman Nailers(stapler, brad, and finish), and I also bought the Hitachi NT50AES(I don't know what the S model is). After firing 200 nails on the Craftsman Finish Nailer, the guide that holds the strip of nail broke(plastic crap). I pulled out the Hitachi nailer and it finished what the Craftsman couldn't. For the same price or lower, the Hitachi nailer is solidly built, metal was used where it should be, grips well, the gun is balanced, can do what more expensive brands like DeWalt, Makita, and Porter Cable does for a lot less. Since Hitachi is not well known, many hardware stores don't carry Hitachi brand nails, but I used Porter Cable branded nails and it worked without a misfire or jam. I am now inclined to sell my Craftsman nailers in eBay and start building up a collection of Hitachi tools. I think this tools will last a lot longer and I can pass it on to my grandchildren, if I ever get married and have kids and my kids have kids. ;-p.

Good ergonomics, poor function
First off, I really like the solid feel of this brad nailer, and I've been pleased with its power. Its weight helps minimize recoil, and its grip is more durable than the foam on one of my coworker's Senco brad nailer. In terms of feel, I perfer this brad nailer over the comprable Paslode, Porter Cable, and Senco models (all of which are available on our job sites).

I gave it only 2 stars because it's very sensitive and has a flawed firing mechanism. The nailer often double fires and misfires. It's like the driver bump-fires way to rapidly or doesn't align well with the brads, and as a result, two brads are often hit followed by a total misfire in which no brad gets hit (but the driver still comes down and puts a dent in the wood). Double firing is really annoying, especially on stain-grade wood, because it means that we have to spend extra time finishing the additional brad mark. The second brad that gets fired sometimes isn't countersunk, and in bad situations, pretzels--maybe because it comes out of the gun while the user is pulling it away from the work piece. Compared to my Paslode T200-F18 (which I currently rely upon exclusively), the Hitachi's driver just doesn't hit the brads accurately enough. I know this because in a side by side comparison, the Hitachi tended to pretzel much more often than the Paslode.

For the money, this would be a good brad nailer if I could tweak it so that it never double fires. I installed a sequential trip mechanism that Hitachi sold me for around $10 (I don't remember the exact price), and that reduced the tendency to double fire. Hitachi should offer this item for free. I also tried removing the safety spring and taping back the safety on the nose like one of the other reviewers suggested. That solved the double firing and misfiring problems, but resulted in a dangerous tool. If I were doing benchtop work, the missing safety would probably be OK, but when I'm up on a ladder installing trim, constantly changing hands with the nailer, and putting it in and out of my tool belt, I like having a safety.

If you want a flawless brad nailer that you can trust to never double fire from the first time you handle it, it's probably worth spending more for a different brand. The price difference of a more expensive nailer isn't much compared to the value of the work carpenters & woodworkers create. In my opinion, the only thing worse than double firing is not countersinking the brads, and the Hitachi has plenty of power to avoid this latter problem, provided it only fires one brad at a time.

This tool deserves 2 stars instead of the 3 I originally gave it, but I couldn't alter my original rating.

Aug. 23, 2006 Update: Several months ago I bought an Hitachi NT50AES which is basically an updated version of the NT50AE. The NT50AES comes with a sequential trip trigger and an adjustable depth of drive. Best of all, Hitachi has fixed the misfiring problem. Although I no longer use my NT50AE, I primarily use the NT50AES and have relegated my Paslode T200-F18 to the role of secondary brad nailer (I like to have multiple brad lengths concurrently running on the same jobsite). Unlike the NT50AE, the newer NT50AES is worthy of 5 stars.