A nail gun is one of the simplest air tools on the market, in essence, they are little more than an air drive piston machine that drives the nails into whatever you are working on. This being said, the pistons in your airgun are just like those in your average car engine.
They must be properly lubricated on a regular basis. If you don’t add a few drops of pneumatic tool oil in the right places, your nail gun won’t last for very long.
The good news is that unlike many other “power” tools that have long lists of items you need to maintain them, the only thing you need to lubricate your nail gun is a bottle of pneumatic tool oil. Be aware that this is a specific type of oil that is designed for use in pneumatic (air driven) tools.
You should never attempt to use lubricants such as WD-40 as they are not designed for this purpose and their use could lead to catastrophic damage to your nail gun.
Before getting started, keep in mind that your safety is of the utmost importance any time you are performing maintenance on your nail gun. Be sure to disconnect the nail gun from the air hose before proceeding with any type of maintenance from clearing a jammed nail to lubricating the gun.
At this point, your nail gun is properly lubricated and you can reload it and return to work. As you can see the oiling process is relatively simple and should be repeated on a regular basis.
If you like videos, here is a one that explains it well:
One of the most common causes of nail gun failure is failing to keep it properly lubricated. There is more to this story than just lubrication. No matter what type of air dryer you have on your compressor if you even have one, some level of moisture is going to pass through your nail gun.
Oiling your nail gun is the best way to keep the water out of it and protect the inside mechanism from corrosion that could lead to catastrophic failure.
Now that you know how to oil a nail gun, be sure to take care of yours on a regular basis. You should oil your nail gun every five to eight hours of heavy usage. While your nail gun will blow a small amount of oil out of the exhaust port when your first lubricate it, if this continues past the first few pulls of the trigger, you are adding too much oil.
Although this will not damage your nail gun, it could end up on your project. Hold a rag loosely over the port and cycle the gun several more times to clear out the excess oil (remember to do this without any nails loaded in the gun) and you should be ready to go.
Oiling your nail gun on a regular basis every time you use it is the best thing you can do to ensure it continues to work properly and provide you with many years of flawless performance.
Hey there, my name is Jason and I am the creator and editor of this site. I have been working in the construction industry for the past 14 years and my mission is to help you start your next renovation!