Expert Power Tool Reviews & Buying Guides for the UK
Picture a Saturday in May. Forty joists to fix, a stack of treated softwood on the lawn, and rain forecast for Sunday. Swinging a hammer for every 75mm nail means a few hundred blows before lunch and a forearm that feels like a wrung-out tea towel. A framing nailer for decking turns that slog into … Read more
Picture a frosty 7am start on a timber-frame job. The compressor is wheezing, the hose is snaking across the joists, and someone is about to trip over it. Now picture the same morning with a cordless framing nailer on your belt and nothing trailing behind you. That freedom used to cost you power. In 2026, … Read more
Brad nailer vs finish nailer comes down to nail thickness. A brad nailer fires thin 18 gauge nails (about 1.25mm) that leave tiny holes and suit light fixing. A finish nailer fires thicker 16 or 15 gauge nails (roughly 1.6–1.8mm) that grip harder in skirting boards, architraves and heavier mouldings. Choose by the job, not … Read more
Beading is the jewellery of joinery. It’s the slim quadrant on a skirting board, the scotia tucked under a worktop, the glazing bead around a door panel, the fiddly trim that makes a room look finished rather than merely built. It’s also brutally unforgiving. Tap a nail into 9 mm of pine with a hammer … Read more
Picture the moment before the glue grabs. You’re holding a mitred corner of a walnut frame together with one hand, the clamp is just out of reach, and the compressor is, naturally, the one thing in the shed that isn’t plugged in. That’s the itch a cordless brad nailer scratches. Slot in a battery, press, … Read more
Walk into any UK tool shop and the same argument plays out in the aisle: second fix nailer vs brad nailer, 16 gauge or 18 gauge, battery or hose. The labels overlap, the marketing blurs them further, and the wrong choice leaves you with split mitres, wobbly skirting or a wall of holes bigger than … Read more
Hammering a 50mm pin into fresh MDF skirting is a bit like defusing a bomb with a mallet. One bad swing and you’ve got a dented board, a bruised thumb and a thoroughly spoiled Saturday. That is exactly the job second fix nailers were built to end. Second fix nailers are the fine-finishing cousins of … Read more
A second fix nailer is a finishing nail gun built for the visible stage of carpentry: skirting boards, architraves, door linings and trim. It fires slim 16 gauge or 18 gauge nails that sink just below the surface. That leaves small holes that are quick to fill and paint, unlike the chunky nails of a … Read more
First fix nail gun vs second fix nail gun is really a question about job stage. A first fix nailer drives thick 50–90mm framing nails into structural timber (studs, joists, rafters). A second fix nailer places slim 16 or 18 gauge brads to hold skirting, architraves and trim, leaving holes small enough to fill and … Read more
There’s a particular sound every carpenter learns to love: that flat, satisfying thunk of a nail seating flush into timber in under a second. No swinging, no bent nails, no swearing at a joist that’s decided to split at the worst possible moment. That’s the whole pitch behind first fix nailers, and once you’ve framed … Read more