Hitachi Nails jamming

Bought some Hitachi nails at a Lowes. We were out of our orher brand and had to pay $65 a box. I pay $45 a box by the pallet, but got caught in between delivery times. These electrogalvanized Hitachi nails didnt look right. They looked like hot dipped but arent. My photo is the normal hitachi electro galvanized nail, on the left. vs the new one on the right.

The problem is the new boxes are jamming in our hitachi guns. I put it in a makita and my old bosch. The wire seems to cause jams. Its so bad i had to go purchase different nais.

I contacted Metabo, Hitachi, but they said they havent changed anything. Clearly its a canned response because you can clearly tell its not the same. Have you experienced this problem?

I did this on my phone so hope the photos work


22 oz rip claw hammer and a box of 1 1/4" nails will get it done. No jamming, blown fuses, adjusting pressure, or tripping on hoses.

1 Like

Dark,
I am old school, 37 years in, but you are old school to the old school. I am confused by the hammer choice though. Why not the AJC with the stinger blade we work into the perfect hook right before it breaks? Never carried a knife while hand nailing, just the hammer. A lot of us figured out how to loosen the top screw on our tacker to accommodate one of those AJC blades for felt. Nothing like working a slippery steep roof with a razor blade protruding from your tools!

Usually had a couple guys roofing, i.e. running rakes, flashings, valleys, the rest were shinglers and didn’t need a knife. The hammer choice was learned from watching guys break the handles on hatchets trying to pull toe or shingle boards. When we loaded a 12/12 they didn’t go on the ridge, they were set so you didn’t have to chase them. A rip hammer is more versatile than a claw, and the weight and longer handle is easier due to the built in kinetic energy. never had to drive a 1 1/4" tack just set it and slap it. Kinetic energy is defined by half of the mass X the square of the velocity of the hammer. When you consider 64 shingles per SQ X 6 nails X 2 hits (set and sink) and 24 SQ per day, you’re swinging that hammer a MINIMUM of 18,432 times a day every little bit helps!

Yeah, those two coils are different. Roofing nails can be a tricky thing. Miami Dade tore up the product approvals for ALL generic roofing nails when they failed testing for rust. I had them starting to rust on a dry-in before finishing the shingles. We were scrambling for brand name nails which, of course, only HD had for mucho $$$ and they ran out quickly. Couldn’t even get nails for a while.
I always trusted Hitachi. Not sure what the difference is but - Metabo? All I know is everything they sell is cheaper than Hitachi so, for that reason, I don’t trust them so much.