Hands on: New roofing nailer from Milwaukee Tools

I got the chance to get my hands on most of the new Milwaukee nailers (and one stapler) this week. Dave, our Milwaukee Rep, brought in his demo units and it looks like Milwaukee's decision to spend some time looking at the current market for nailers may have paid some dividends to the people who will be using them. The tools will be out in the early part of April, and Milwaukee is promising they have learned better ways of doing a product launch than last year's V28 tools (meaning there shouldn't be widespread shortages).

These entries will have quite a few photos, since I had my spiffy new Kodak Z740 camera with me and got some nice shots of some of the cool features of the tools. It looks like I'll probably do a tool a day, or every other day, so this should last about a week. As always, feel free to ask any questions.

I'll start off with the roofing nailer, the 7120-21.

The picture on the left shows the anti-skid design of the bumper guard for the nailer. The raised, three tooth design should help prevent the gun from sliding off the roof when you set it down. Obviously, no matter how you design it, the tool can still take that tumble, but every little bit helps. It should also help a little to keep the tool from getting beat up too much by keeping the body off the shingles.

The picture on the right shows a couple of nice features, the first being the contact / sequential switch, the black switch directly above the trigger. This allows the user, without replacing the entire trigger like in some models, to make the decision on the fly whether they want bump fire (contact mode) or single shot (sequential mode). For those of you who do not know, bump fire is a mode where multiple nails can be fired. By holding down the trigger, the user can fire the tool simply by pushing the nose against the work piece. Sequential mode requires the user to remove the nose from the work surface and release the trigger between shots. The trade-off there is speed for safety.

The other nice feature is the grey knob in front of and above the trigger is the depth setting for the tool. Again, a tool free way of determining how far into the material your nails are fired. This allows the roofer to adjust his tool to match the shingle and backing wood into which they are shooting, after all a nail doesn't hold too well if it goes all the way through the shingle.

The picture on the left shows the adjustable exhaust and the bumper protection that Milwaukee added to their roofer. The exhaust deflector can be turned 360 degrees, which means you don't have to have it blowing in your face. It is also muffled, so it should be a little quieter when firing.

The bumper protection is a heavy, hard rubber guard. This should give the tool a little protection from drops (if it lands on the where it needs to) and should also protect the body of the tool from excessive scratches and the like caused by the shingles. The rubber bumper should also help prevent sliding.

On the right, you see a detail of the nose of the tool. What you may not notice at first is the lever directly under the tip of the nose. That lever actually opens the barrel of the nail gun, and for the first time that I am aware, a manufacturer has added easy jam clearing for a roofing tool.

Speaking of the nose tip, it is replaceable and has carbide inserts in it. This should make it last longer and be less expensive to replace when that time comes. Also visible to those of you who were looking for it, the tool is indeed a side load model. Some people like the ease of a bottom loader, but most people hate it when they accidentally come open. So I think that was probably the right move by Milwaukee. That brings me to the final picture that I took of this tool.

The adjustable, removable shingle guide is pictured to the left. It's the little contraption on front of the magazine (that's where the nails are held for those who might not know). This guide allows the roofer to follow the bottom edge of the shingles with this guide to keep their nails above the tar line on the shingles. In other words, it is a little cheat to know that they are nailing the shingles at the right height. If you shoot below the tar line, water could make its way down into the house. So, it is vitally important to keep your staples going in at the right place. I believe the guide can also be used to align to certain types of siding. Regardless, if you don't need it, just take it off. There are no tools required to do so and the track it leaves behind shouldn't cause you any issues either.

There were a couple of things I couldn't get any photos of, mainly because of the difficulty of doing so, that I wanted to mention. First of all, all the Milwaukee pneumatics they have shown us thus far have a self-cleaning air intake filter on the tool. Basically, it is a fine mesh that captures grit and dirt and keeps it out of the internal workings of the tool. The Max line of nailers also has this nice extra, and in my estimation that should help keep the o-rings and seals working longer. When you remove the air line, the pressure of air in the tool will actually clean the filter by shooting out the debris with the pressurized air. That's probably also part of the reason they are offering their 5 year warranty on the air tools.

For all the people who have wanted a case for your roofing nailer, Milwaukee is listening. It will come with a red, high-impact plastic case just like they make for their power tools. In fact all of their air tools, except the framing nailers, will come with a case. Besides the case, it looks like the roofing nailer will have safety glasses, some oil and a 4mm hex wrench.

And just for completeness sake here are the basic specs. The tool is designed to be used with between 70 and 120 PSI. It uses the standard 15 degree coil roofing nails. Air usage is .08 ft^3/cycle at 100 PSI. The air inlet is 3/8" NPT. The magazine holds a coil of 120 nails. The bare tool weights in at just over 5 pounds.

Milwaukee expects this tool to excel for people laying asphalt or fiberglass shingles, tar paper and roofing felt, gypsum board, house wrap, cement board, insulation board, metal drip edges, siding, vapor barrier or even upholstry trim panels. That seems like a fairly thorough list to me. Next time, I'll cover the framing guns and then it will be the finish nailers and brad nailers turn to shine.