Picked up one of these Porter cordless nailers as I've been looking for one for a while and having done a lot of research and looking at the various brands, this one seemed to fit the bill for my diy/hobby woodworking needs at a great price - I looked at the Ridgid and Dewalt ones (I'm a big Dewalt fan/user for most of my other tools), but they are quite a bit more expensive and didn't seem like they were any 'better' really for the extra $. Also considered the Ryobi but was a bit put off by some of the reviews I read on it - so I settled on this Porter one and have to say, I'm loving it so far! I did briefly consider going the 'normal' nailer router, but just don't want the noise and hassle of a compressor, dragging hoses around etc for what is a relatively low-use tool it's just not worth it for me. For what I want, cordless was the way to go - nice and portable, you can just grab the tool and do your nailing job and be done with it. I'm not a super heavy user, just diy around the house and quite a lot of hobby woodworking. This tool has fit the bill perfectly. If you're a higher volume user then you're probably going to be better off with one of the Dewalt 20v nailers, but that was overkill for me - this is plenty powerful enough, I've sunk maybe 400-500 nails with it so far, varying lengths from 3/4" to full 2", into 1x and 2x pine and some 1/2" mdf while building various things and it's worked flawlessly - not one single missfeed, all the nails sunk to uniform depth no issues at all. I've been left wondering how on earth I coped without this tool! There's no 'bump' mode on this nailer, initially I thought it was a feature I'd like but honestly for my simple needs I just don't miss having it - being forced to go slower and a bit more carefully is actually a benefit for me. The safety in the handle is pretty fiddly - but again, I'm actually glad of it from a safety perspective, I have young kids and while they don't play with the nailer, I'm glad of the extra safeguard. I keep the battery away from the tool when it's not in use and unload it anyway. The nailer is super easy to use - I was testing it out literally right out of the box. Just plug the battery on, drop in a row of nails and close up the magazine, safety off and push the tip against the work surface. Squeezing the trigger spins up the motor for maybe a second and sinks the nail. It's surprisingly quiet to use as well - a little whirring when you pull the trigger, a 'thwack' as the nail sinks. In the box you get the nailer, one Porter 20v battery, charger and a small selection of brad nails to get you started. I've added a few unboxing pics. Takes a little getting used to versus air-powered nailers, due to the delay of about 1 second between you pulling the trigger and it firing. There's two fairly bright led lights which are handy for nailing in my dimly lit garage. Battery wise, I've charged fully once and have sunk 400-500 nails with this tool now so no issues there. The depth gauge is a bit fiddly and feels a bit plasticky/imprecise, but it works well. The nailer feels decent quality overall, not super heavy duty but feels like it'll last. It's fairly weighty, but the balance is nice and you need the weight to counteract the force of the nail being sunk. Feels solid and stable to use. Minor con - there's no bag or case supplied - I like to take care of my tools and having a bag like the Dewalt ones with this would have been nice to keep everything together tidily. Overall though I'd highly recommend this cordless nailer, I think Porter got it right with this tool (nailed it!?) - good build quality, works great and a good price relative to the competition. If you're looking for an 18ga cordless nailer I don't think you'll beat this without spending a lot more $, perfect for the homeowner and diy-er. Hope that helps.
