Tacwise 1176 181ELS Pro Electric Nailer 35 mm
Specifications
Tool Speck
- Fires 180 nails 15-35 mm
- Tool weight 1.6 kg
- Two-tier safety mechanism
- 100 nail magazine capacity
With better features and lightweight, the 181ELS is a highly practical electric nail gun that’s suitable for repetitive nailing tasks.
35 mm Electric Nail Gun
What it Does
The 181ELS 35 mm Master Nailer is a powerful electric nail gun, which incorporates a magazine capacity of 100 Tacwise180 15-35 mm nails. It has been built to last for applications such as cane/rattan furniture, door frames and skirting, soft and hardwood flooring, sub flooring/boarding out, furniture/cabinet/woodwork assembly and panelling.
What it Has
Its features include an all metal magazine, which ensures durability, a rubber nose for protection on soft surface application, a quick release nose plate and a professional quick release reload catch to make reloading simple and quick. Supplied in a strong carry case for easy storage and transportation.
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nails | 15-35 mm | 15-35 mm | 20-50 mm |
| Staples | 15-30 mm | ||
| Magazine Capacity | 100 Nails | 100 Nails, 100 Staples | 100 Nails |
| Tool Weight | 1.6 kg | 1.8 kg | 2.3 kg |
| Supplied in a Carry Case | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Might Suit you if you: | Plan to complete soft/medium wood applications | Need a versatile tool to cover a large range of stapling or nailing tasks | Need a powerful dedicated nailing tool for heavy duty applications |
| Weight: | 2.42 kg |
| Dimensions: | 36 x 8 x 27 cm; 2.42 Kilograms |
| Model: | 1176 |
| Part: | 1176 |
| Colour: | Orange / Black |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Tacwise |
| Colour: | Orange / Black |
| Quantity: | 1 |
worked as expected just remember to lean on it quite heavy when firing to ensure nails are hammered fully home
Quick and easy transaction, Fast delivery. Great product. Perfect! Thanks!
This works reasonably well for skirting’s & facings even on hardwoods. Still finding I have to hammer some of the nails in last few mm. Worst thing about it is the cord is way too short. Considering what its meant for a longer cord would be helpful.
Excellent piece of kit. A must if king jobs around the home
I should have bought this make in the 1st place. This was to replace the different brand that broke as soon as the year warranty was up. It has been a very used piece of equipment that hasn’t faltered. I can totally rely on it to do it’s job.
Straight out of its case this nail gun performed as promised. Even 32mm nails were driven in flush every time. It does require two handed operation but handled properly it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. Very pleased with the price I paid and the quality of the tool. Highly recommended.
it work’s but the nail’s don’t go all the way i
Made the job so easy, should have bought one a long time ago…
Does a great job. Feels very substantial and I’m sure it will give years of service. Makes putting tongue and groove panelling so easy.
Highly recommended.
Lightweight nail gun ideal for use around the house or garden. It has a head small enough to get into fiddly places but still packs a punch and is surprisingly powerful. Not sure it’s heavyweight enough for everyday use or big jobs but for fixing trellis to the fence, or tacking the corners of a pinboard back together, this is ideal. A handy gadget.
Exactly as described, works well for putting beading down around flooring.
Brilliant tool, cannot fault it and used for floor beading on laminate floor edgings. Easy to use and takes the hassle out of knocking in nails. Recommended!
Used to prep floor before laminating, I would of given this gun 5 stars but the first one I had just stopped working after two days, the good news is that it was replaced next day with no problem, did the job perfectly.
I would say it’s perfect for DIY but not as good as a compressed air gun if needed for more professional heavier jobs, but for the money will save you a lot of time and effort, recommended.
Found this a realy useful tool to own. Have use it for all sorts of little jobs. On the down side the nails never go right I so you always have to hammer in the last 3mm. Not the end of the world but a little annoying. Also I would recommend using with ear guards as it is pretty loud.
For the price this is good, though I’m not happy that it doesn’t manage to get the heads of the nails anywhere near flush. I bought it to help with putting scotia around after fitting laminate flooring as my old one didn’t have the clearance. This is better, but not fantastic on that score – getting into the right position especially in corners was somewhat tricky. I’m happy with the amount of sizes it takes though and despite having to knock every damn nail in flush, it’s a real benefit compared to doing it all by hand.
Good bits first: it works as advertised. It will sink tacks up to 35mm into softwood, and run at the nailing rate in the manual without overheating.
Easy to load.
Easy to clear jammed nails.
Excellent customer service.
Bad bits: cable is way too short. If you don’t ours down firmly enough, it can leave the tack head proud, so be prepared to go round with a tacking hammer afterwards.
The hinged nose piece is a casting, apparently of quite low quality, and can break at the hinge.
This one did not manage a whole box of nails before the nose piece sheared.
Tacwise, however, redeemed themselves with excellent service – I phoned them, and they agreed that it shouldn’t have broken so soon, and sorted me out a replacement the same day.
Bought this as my last one gave up after 15 years. Impressed with this new model. It works well and although not used daily it’s always a handy tool to have. Highly recommended
Great gun done the picture rails around the room ok. However down side was the length of the cord and some of the nails not going in but a quick spray of wd40 oil and t was good.
Next purchase will be a bigger gun but this one has its jobs and as I’m a guy who likes his tools the bigger one is next for a timber framed extension on my house
Very good item saving a great deal of time on DIY projects.
Only downside was that I wrongly assumed this would work with staples too.
My fault as if I had read it more closely I would have seen that I need the duo if I want to be able to use nails and staples.
Another error I made was ordering 50mm nails to use with it having not realised that it could only take nails up to 35mm.
Love this gun, I’ve been using it for lots of different jobs, it even inspired me to put up some pantry midfield shelves I’ve been wanting to do for the last 4 years. Seem to be holding well, this gun is perfect for my needs. You do need to press hard when fireing but just lean in to it and shoot, easy!
This is a real alternative alternative to air driven nail guns.
Excellent, slightly easier to use than my others. but the cable could do with being longer, had 2of your nail guns before and the cords was much longer on both
I have made shelves and a small book case with the nailer, and the “nailing” (if that word exists?) is practically invisible. Adding a smear of woodfiller, and then paint (for the shelf) and stain (for the bookcase) did make them invisible.
Fantastic product, no mnegatives at ll.
Works well on most stuff, but 1/2 inch thick skirting is not fully peirced, resulting in having to tap tacks fully in.
Spot on for what I need. Could do with a longer power cord. But that’s easily solved with an extension. I’ve used to fix in 18mm OSB boards and it did the job. The nails needed a little tap down afterwards, but other than that, brilliant.
Brilliant did the job that I needed it for which was to secure skirting to the wall. Extrememly easy to use. Going to use this to board the interior of my two sheds ~ perfect tool for the job I feel.
Bought as a replacement for my original that was prone to jam. This mechanism much better.
Good 4 making fences in no time at all saved a lot of money.
he service was good. I received it on time. The nail gun is powerful and good for a lot of job
First nails jammed, adjusted head then fine from then on. need spare cushion pads but price for 3 ridiculous for what they are
This was the first nail gun I had bought after reading the reviews. It seemed strong enough, however, a part of it broke away after the first couple of uses. Amazon swapped it out without any issues, sending the replacement before I had to send back the faulty one. Worked fine since without any issues.
So if you fixing pieces together it works and all I would use on some occasions is some wood glue. I also believe it will be ideal for pinning wood structures together prior to fixing with screws. Gets my vote and thank you to the lady who provided me with Her experience.
This has got to be the best little gadget around for nailing stuff. It’s easy to operate and the nail refills are cheap. I look forward to completing all my diy with this. The hard storage case is useful to store it in too.
I’ve used this to secure new felt on my shed/playhouse roof and it was surprising easy to use, although it does have a bit of a kick if you are balancing on a ladder. Pressing down hard on the gun with both hands seems to be the way to go and as a safety feature you can’t just spray nails into the air, the gun has to be firmly pushed against something. It didn’t completely take away the need for ye oldey hammer as I couldn’t get the nails in fully flush. But probably my novice errors and lack of push power. Or too short nails. But the roof has stayed on and the nails went in straight. I found it easier to hammer and finish off the job. I feel confident enough with it now to try to nailing together my falling apart kitchen drawers. Too use it on something visible needs a bit more expertise than I’ve got but it’s far easier than drilling pilot holes and hammering from scratch.
This is a brad gun, not a nailgun, for fixing trim in place rather than building structures, but it’s nicely weighted, not too loud and takes cheap generic brads, no jams so far but they look like they’d be easy to clear. Remember to wear eye protection, even if it’s just one tack!
Very good and stands up to a lot of use
A robust, easy to handle and positive nail gun with a good, crisp punch that is easy to position and direct. The tool at first feels a little lightweight but is nonetheless well made and comes with a carry case which is very useful. It also has a safety feature so only nails can be fired when pressure is applied. Very handy for big nailing jobs and difficult to fault.
Haven’t really used this product much yet, but it seems to do the job and is easy to use, easier than hammering nails in manually for example. Plus it comes complete with 1,000 25mm nails to put in it which should keep me going for a while as I will only use this sporadically. The Tacwise contact details are inside the accompanying carry box as well should I ever need any help, or extra nails.
I look forward to using this more.
This nail gun is packaged in a rigid plastic carry case, which from the outset, makes it look and feel like a professional piece of equipment. Of course, it isn’t all about the looks and so I’ll very quickly move onto the nail gun itself.
The nail gun is suitable for for use with any Tacwise “180 series” nails of 15-35mm length. Of course, it is possible to use other brands of consumables, however I always stick with Tacwise because they aren’t that expensive and I know exactly what I’m looking for and that they won’t jam the nail gun.
The nail gun itself is slightly on the heavy side but I guess that this is to be expected and in any event, it isn’t so heavy as to cause any discomfort through prolonged use (at least, not that I’ve noticed).
The nail magazine is very easy to load and opens and closes in an extremely smooth fashion, so I can’t report any problems with this aspect either.
Obviously a key criteria in choosing any nail gun will be safety and I suppose that any model could be a danger if used incorrectly. However, this Tacwise nail gun comes with several distinct safety features. First of all, there is an on/off switch and in addition to this there is a safety trigger which be pressed to release each nail. However, pressing this safety trigger won’t actually do anything if the rubber protector (where the nails are fired from) isn’t pressed firmly against the material being fastened together. So, three independent safety features, which seems pretty good in my view.
The manual states that this nail gun is suitable for most soft to medium woods, including MDF, windows, sheds etc. The task I was using it for was to fasten plywood shelving together with 15mm nails. Now I would imagine that plywood is a fairly hard wood, given the amount of glue that is used to hold the thin boards together, however the nail gun barely struggled with this.
The nail gun did leave about 1mm of the nail extruding from the surface of the plywood but a few taps with a hammer sorted this out easily enough. I would think that with a softer wood, this wouldn’t be an issue at all.
To summarise, I would happily buy another of these Tacwise nail guns for any similar application as it is definitely a much easier method of nailing than doing it manually with a hammer!
This is a good strong nail gun.
It has worked very efficiently. It’s solid but not too heavy.
No complaints – does what is supposed to do!
The Tacwise 181ELS Electric Nail Gun is a mid-priced non-professional nail gun that’s a handy tool to have around the house for general DIY projects and the like.
The nail gun comes in a sturdy hard-plastic carrycase which has been purposefully moulded to carry the nail gun along with a box of nails.
Loading the nail gun is an absolute doddle. The short instruction manual details how to load the nail strips into the nail gun through a few simple steps (see video). Once loaded and plugged into the mains, the nail gun is basically good to go.
If you’ve not used a nail gun before it’s a good idea to test it out on some scrap wood first so you can familiarise yourself with how to use it. However, in a nutshell it’s a simple case of holding the nail gun up against the wood you plan to nail down, apply a light amount of pressure to the topside of the gun to ensure its firmly against the wood, and then just pull the trigger.
The nail gun can take nail between 15 – 35mm in length, allowing a good flexibility in jobs. It comes with a pack of the shortest length nails that the nail gun can take i.e. 180/15mm nails (2,000 of them). Even though these are reasonably short, they nevertheless offer enough penetration and strength to perform a fair amount of general household DIY tasks with.
After testing the nail gun out on a number of different surfaces it should be noted that it has enough power behind it to penetrate (quite old) brick work, hard plaster (I reattached some skirting board that had come loose) and all wood types. With this in mind, the nail gun would be handy for laying skirting board, putting up panelling, or building solid wood structures.
I’ve had the nail gun for a little over a month now and have found it a great tool to be able to turn to if I need to quickly nail something into place etc. We’re currently spending a lot of our free time doing up the house we recently moved to, so having the nail gun to hand has saved me a heck of a lot of time.
And thus far it hasn’t jammed once!
I’ll put my hand up straightaway and admit that I do not have a good relationship with hammers; I am more likely to hit my hand or the pliers holding the nail than I am the nail itself — no matter how hard I try. I tended towards using screws wherever possible instead, even where nails are the preferred choice — until this nail gun came along and made the task so much easier.
The nail gun is stored in a fairly basic black plastic case, which is acceptable but nothing special. The gun itself is solidly built and comfortable to hold, albeit a fair bit heavier than I had anticipated would be the case with a corded tool at (about 1.6Kg). A pack of 1,000 nails (supplied as ten strips of 100 nails) is included in the case.
The instruction leaflet was easy to understand, which was just as well since I didn’t find use at all intuitive as a novice. I would have liked a longer mains lead to allow greater use without the need for an extension lead, particularly as you are warned against such use unless absolutely necessary.
As this was my first use of a nail gun, I did some practice on scraps of wood in the garden first; I won’t say that I am now as proficient as a carpenter but this gave me the opportunity to get a feel for the tool before letting myself loose on a more delicate task: interior doors.
I used the gun to repair some panels in solid wooden doors that had warped and moved out of place. A few nails in these panels sorted out the problem and the fix was invisible after I had applied some filler over the nail heads; it isn’t something I could have done using screws. I suspect I will continue to gravitate towards using screws as that has been my default for so long but the nail gun has now provided the means for me to at least have a viable alternative option.
We’ve already done the majority of the structural work, but this arrived in time for doing the internal chip-boarding, plus the flooring.
So, without sounding like a 5 year old, this is my first nail gun. It came with 180/15mm nails (2000 of them), which were fine for the thin panels we put up. The gun punched through the board and into the MDF with some ease. The same went well for the flooring (tongue and groove).
Occassionally it wasn’t always 100% successful — a few nails that stood proud required a gentle whack with my hammer. I’m unsure if it was the angle I held the gun, or maybe it was a stubborn bit of wood/board.
Holding the gun is relatively easy. I didn’t find it uncomfortable for short periods, but it does have a slight weight to it. I can’t imagine anyone needing to hold it for prolonged periods of time. Pressing the trigger is smooth and easy, plus it didn’t have any kickback when firing (maybe because of the board type / nail size, I’m unsure).
For those that didn’t know this, the nails comes supplied as strips which the gun fires off, like chips or fragments, not individual nails. They slot into the base compartment, which itself is dead easy to open and lock.
I’ve not been able to test any longer nails, although the gun should work with (up to) 35mm nails. These would have been ace to try when doing the framework of the shed/summer-house.
However, given that my bedroom needs the skirting done, and the kitchen need some flooring done. There’s going to be plenty of other DIY chores as I renovate the house. This will definitely get more use, and I’ll try to remember to update this review.
The carry case is a bog-standard moulded plastic affair and works fine for carrying it around and housing it safely.
The cable isn’t exactly generous (although it’s advertised as ‘long’), so I’d suggest getting the extension cables out!
Although I can’t possibly compare this to other makes and models, it’s proven effective for the (little) use I’ve had of it, so I’m happy. Roll on the next task.
We’ve already done the majority of the structural work, but this arrived in time for doing the internal chip-boarding, plus the flooring.
So, without sounding like a 5 year old, this is my first nail gun. It came with 180/15mm nails (2000 of them), which were fine for the thin panels we put up. The gun punched through the board and into the MDF with some ease. The same went well for the flooring (tongue and groove).
Occassionally it wasn’t always 100% successful — a few nails that stood proud required a gentle whack with my hammer. I’m unsure if it was the angle I held the gun, or maybe it was a stubborn bit of wood/board.
Holding the gun is relatively easy. I didn’t find it uncomfortable for short periods, but it does have a slight weight to it. I can’t imagine anyone needing to hold it for prolonged periods of time. Pressing the trigger is smooth and easy, plus it didn’t have any kickback when firing (maybe because of the board type / nail size, I’m unsure).
For those that didn’t know this, the nails comes supplied as strips which the gun fires off, like chips or fragments, not individual nails. They slot into the base compartment, which itself is dead easy to open and lock.
I’ve not been able to test any longer nails, although the gun should work with (up to) 35mm nails. These would have been ace to try when doing the framework of the shed/summer-house.
However, given that my bedroom needs the skirting done, and the kitchen need some flooring done. There’s going to be plenty of other DIY chores as I renovate the house. This will definitely get more use, and I’ll try to remember to update this review.
The carry case is a bog-standard moulded plastic affair and works fine for carrying it around and housing it safely.
The cable isn’t exactly generous (although it’s advertised as ‘long’), so I’d suggest getting the extension cables out!
Although I can’t possibly compare this to other makes and models, it’s proven effective for the (little) use I’ve had of it, so I’m happy. Roll on the next task.
This is the first time I have used an electric nail gun (my husband has more experience), but from my point of view it is easy to use in that the instructions are clearly written, the nails are easy to insert and once you have had a bit of practice (on some spare wooden trim and board in the shed), you soon start to get the feel for the gun and its power (and its little “kick”) and how to achieve the desired results.
You have the option to remove the rubber guard on the tip, which is in place to prevent you from “bruising” the wood you are nailing into for a better look, but this leaves the nail proud of the wood, which you then need to tap in – which means doubling up on the job in my opinion. I think it is easier to work without the rubber guard, but I’m not currently working with trim with a delicate finish.
This worked well in nailing soft wood trim in particular and I begun work on making my first birdhouse with this handy tool to great effect. It has proven much easier than trying to hold wood together and hold a hammer and a nail (which is why I have given up trying in the past before) and provided you have the right length nails for the thickness of the wood, this works wonderfully well and has brought together the shell of the house much better than I had expected.
This is the first time I have used an electric nail gun (my husband has more experience), but from my point of view it is easy to use in that the instructions are clearly written, the nails are easy to insert and once you have had a bit of practice (on some spare wooden trim and board in the shed), you soon start to get the feel for the gun and its power (and its little “kick”) and how to achieve the desired results.
You have the option to remove the rubber guard on the tip, which is in place to prevent you from “bruising” the wood you are nailing into for a better look, but this leaves the nail proud of the wood, which you then need to tap in – which means doubling up on the job in my opinion. I think it is easier to work without the rubber guard, but I’m not currently working with trim with a delicate finish.
This worked well in nailing soft wood trim in particular and I begun work on making my first birdhouse with this handy tool to great effect. It has proven much easier than trying to hold wood together and hold a hammer and a nail (which is why I have given up trying in the past before) and provided you have the right length nails for the thickness of the wood, this works wonderfully well and has brought together the shell of the house much better than I had expected.
I tested these with both the included 25mm nails and Tacwise 180/15MM 18G Nails which I will be reviewing separately.
The gun feels well made and balanced though relatively light weight (more on that later). Load the brad nails is very straight forward – instructions are clear enough if you look closely at the diagram – and from then on I tested it tacking some softwood trim (about 8mm thick) and some softwood baton (15mm thick) onto some boarding using the 15mm and 25mm nails respectively.
Being light, the delivery of the nails into the wood was highly dependent on the amount of pressure applied to the back of the nailer. If left to its own weight, the nails were proud by about 3-5mm and would need to be driven home with a hammer. But with the careful application of pressure whilst nailing you can vary the depth of the drive up to the point where the heads end up slightly below the surface level. So there’s a bit of a technique involved in making this do what you want but if you practice on some test pieces you’ll soon have it mastered.
I found that the resulting grip was pretty good – enough for decorative holding or used in conjunction with glue – but not enough for load bearing applications. The nails are fairly pliable and with a bit of force they’ll either bend or, due to having small heads, rip out through the materials.
Overall I can see this a being a useful addition to a DIYers toolkit; well made, easy to use and requiring little strength to get a good result.
I tested these with both the included 25mm nails and Tacwise 180/15MM 18G Nails which I will be reviewing separately.
The gun feels well made and balanced though relatively light weight (more on that later). Load the brad nails is very straight forward – instructions are clear enough if you look closely at the diagram – and from then on I tested it tacking some softwood trim (about 8mm thick) and some softwood baton (15mm thick) onto some boarding using the 15mm and 25mm nails respectively.
Being light, the delivery of the nails into the wood was highly dependent on the amount of pressure applied to the back of the nailer. If left to its own weight, the nails were proud by about 3-5mm and would need to be driven home with a hammer. But with the careful application of pressure whilst nailing you can vary the depth of the drive up to the point where the heads end up slightly below the surface level. So there’s a bit of a technique involved in making this do what you want but if you practice on some test pieces you’ll soon have it mastered.
I found that the resulting grip was pretty good – enough for decorative holding or used in conjunction with glue – but not enough for load bearing applications. The nails are fairly pliable and with a bit of force they’ll either bend or, due to having small heads, rip out through the materials.
Overall I can see this a being a useful addition to a DIYers toolkit; well made, easy to use and requiring little strength to get a good result.
I have to admit that I have never used an electric nail gun before, but the product description stated it was useful for furniture assembly, panelling, door frames and skirting. I have a garden door, where the skirting board had begun to come away slightly, so I thought I would give this a try. Thankfully, the product description also said it came with excellent safety features and, I can attest to the fact that — despite my lack of knowledge about such tools — I was able to load it easily and found it simple to use. I really wanted to test this out myself, so I practised on some loose wood panels in the garage first (so the results could not be seen). I will admit that the nail gun had a kick to it and it took me a little time to get used to the feel and use of the tool — placing your other hand on the nail gun stops the recoil. However, once I had played around with it for a little while, I managed to nail down the skirting board really easily. In fact, the sheer power of the tool means that anyone can complete these DIY jobs around the house. It is also impossible to fire the nails out by mistake and hurt someone, as the nail gun only works when it is pressed against something. Later, my husband also used the tool to put up some shelves and he stated that the job was much quicker and easier with the electric nail gun, than manually.
The tool looks utilitarian, but I don’t suppose it is designed to be other than functional, although it does come in a very nice case. You have to plug it in, which I found easier than a battery pack, but it obviously depends on where you are working and what you prefer. In some cases, there was a little of the nail still protruding and that had to be hammered in completely, but for light jobs around the house it is excellent. If you remove the rubber nose, the nail tends to go in completely, but I preferred to use it with the nose attached as it protects the surface area you are working on and I didn’t feel confident enough to use it without. A good addition to the toolbox and I felt quite confident using it; although if you are not used to tools like this I urge you to carefully read the instructions and try it out gradually, before embarking on any major tasks – although easy enough to operate, it could be dangerous if you are not really careful.
I have to admit that I have never used an electric nail gun before, but the product description stated it was useful for furniture assembly, panelling, door frames and skirting. I have a garden door, where the skirting board had begun to come away slightly, so I thought I would give this a try. Thankfully, the product description also said it came with excellent safety features and, I can attest to the fact that — despite my lack of knowledge about such tools — I was able to load it easily and found it simple to use. I really wanted to test this out myself, so I practised on some loose wood panels in the garage first (so the results could not be seen). I will admit that the nail gun had a kick to it and it took me a little time to get used to the feel and use of the tool — placing your other hand on the nail gun stops the recoil. However, once I had played around with it for a little while, I managed to nail down the skirting board really easily. In fact, the sheer power of the tool means that anyone can complete these DIY jobs around the house. It is also impossible to fire the nails out by mistake and hurt someone, as the nail gun only works when it is pressed against something. Later, my husband also used the tool to put up some shelves and he stated that the job was much quicker and easier with the electric nail gun, than manually.
The tool looks utilitarian, but I don’t suppose it is designed to be other than functional, although it does come in a very nice case. You have to plug it in, which I found easier than a battery pack, but it obviously depends on where you are working and what you prefer. In some cases, there was a little of the nail still protruding and that had to be hammered in completely, but for light jobs around the house it is excellent. If you remove the rubber nose, the nail tends to go in completely, but I preferred to use it with the nose attached as it protects the surface area you are working on and I didn’t feel confident enough to use it without. A good addition to the toolbox and I felt quite confident using it; although if you are not used to tools like this I urge you to carefully read the instructions and try it out gradually, before embarking on any major tasks – although easy enough to operate, it could be dangerous if you are not really careful.
The Tacwise 181ELS is classed as a professional nail gun with the ability to fire nails from 15 to 35mm in length. The unit is reasonably heavy at 1.7Kg and comes in an orange finish which makes it easy to spot when laid on your bench surrounded by the normal rubbish that accumulates!
The nails are loaded by releasing the pusher catch and sliding the pusher backwards. The nails, which are supplied in strips held together with a light adhesive, are laid in the magazine and the pusher is then moved forward until the catch clicks back into place. The nose of the nail gun is supplied with a rubber tip which can be left in place to protect the surface you are working on or can be removed for normal use. I would suggest that the majority of jobs would be carried out with the tip removed. The gun trigger cannot be operated until the gun is switched on using the switch at the rear of the gun. As a further safety measure the nose of the gun has to be pressed into the workpiece before the gun can be fired. Pressing the trigger fires the nail in at the same time as producing a very hefty ‘whack’, most satisfying if you’re into that sort of thing!
The gun comes with a plastic moulded carry case and a box of 25mm nails, all you need to get you going.
If you’ve any quantity of nailing to do I would highly recommend this item.
Sometimes things fall in your lap at just the right moment, as was the case with this Tacwise Nail Gun. Why? Well my gate was falling to bits, I’d just measured and cut the replacement wood but wasn’t looking forward to taking the gate off its hinges to apply the new wood, et voila this little item arrived.
OK, so its at the cheaper end of the Nail Gun side of things however for me it has so far functioned perfectly. I didn’t use the rubber cap as I’d read from others that at times it can leave the nail standing out (and as a lazy person who didn’t want to have to hammer the extra in) decided that I’d try it out without.
It was relatively quick, easy to add the nails, worked like a dream and all round I was more than proud of my efforts. There isn’t really much else to say, except that now I’ve applied the new wood, the older stuff looks odd and horrible, so back to the DIY shop I go to get more and will then replace again.
All round very happy with this and if the product details haven’t persuaded you, perhaps this will. I see a long life for this, provided wen my Dad see’s my handiwork, it isn’t “lifted”, although if it is, I’ll buy a duplicate. A great product for a great price.
Quite a solid and useful medium sized nail gun. The staples it fires are small and ideal for framing as they are easily buried below the surface. Having fired off five strips of 25mm nails there was not one misfire and the gun was easily used in a variety of positions.
Now, the slightly irritating bit is that using a 25mm nail, it is left about 3 to 4mm proud of the surface requiring the use of a hammer to knock them home. This was in MDF which can be harder than softwood but even so, not ideal if you are putting a frame together.
Having said that, what it does of course mean is that if you are doing something that the surface has to be kept good, then perhaps knocking home the nail the final few mm is a good thing.
Weight is not bad. Enough heft to feel substantial but not so much that it’s simply a brick to be used for weight training. My wife can use this and she is 5’2″ and lightly built.
Overall a pretty good tool for quick pinning in place of frames.
To use, I turned on the mains switch and then, once I’d decided what I wanted to nail, I switched on the nail gun power switch and placed the item on the target surface. On harder surfaces like wood, you need to place your hand on top of the unit to prevent recoil, which results in the nail not fully penetrating the material. Of course you could tap it in with a hammer, but that defeats the purpose of this nail gun, so do what the instructions advice and place your spare hand on top of the unit, applying light to moderate pressure. The gun makes a powerful clicking noise in use. Always remove the nails when you are finished. This is easy to use – just press the magazine release and the nails drop out. Also notice that the magazine has different specification slots for different size nails: always make sure your chosen nails are slid in at the bottom of the magazine nearest the business end of this device.
What can I say but this is a serious, high-quality nail gun. Despite the humorous elements in the introduction of this review, this nail gun is NOT, I repeat NOT a toy and must only be used by mature adults with proper training, safety equipment (especially goggles), and sound knowledge of what they are doing. Severe, life-changing injury and death could very easily result from improper handling.
This is a very good electric nail gun equipped with a safety feature which should help to prevent accidents. Always read the manual. This provides all the information you need to use this safely. Jams can easily be cleared using the release clip above the nailer element, but I had no problems when using my nail gun. Turn it off and empty the magazine before clearing any jam and also every time you’re finished using it.
Having tested the pneumatic Tacwise nail gun and found the need for compressed air a bit of a pain, I was keen to try the Tacwise electric nail gun.
It’s easy to load with nails, even easier than an office stapler though much the same in principle. It has a double safety feature of bottom switch and pressure sensitive “nose” that inhibits a nail from being fired unless the nose is compressed.
In use it works well with pine, driving the nail home cleanly and reliably without damaging the surface of the wood. In denser wood it struggled a little, leaving some nail head exposed, but not unacceptably.
The use of electricity makes this perhaps a less powerful than the pneumatic gun, but unless you have air on tap (and I appreciate some do) then this is a far more convenient nail gun. It has a bit of a “Wow” factor to it. I appreciate that’s not exactly a reason to buy one, but it is oddly satisfying to use.
This is a nail gun, not a rail gun, so don’t expect awe-inspiring power from it. If you have a lot of nails to nail and are not working with dense wood, one of these might well meet your needs. For my occasional use, I think I’ll stick to my trusty hammer.
This Nailer is a new and improved upgrade to the best selling model. This tough and reliable nailer fires Tacwise 180 nails (15-35mm) in either galvanised or stainless steel finish with a total load capacity of 100 nails. It is fast, lightweight and compact for convenience, also has an ultra quick release nose plate to release jams and rubber nose protector for use on soft timber surfaces.
Ideal for: flooring, general woodwork, 2nd fix tasks, panelling and insulation.
supplied with a handy blow mold case.
great product I have been doing a few upholstery projects recently and found this ideal for those jobs
A nice addition to the toolbox of any DIY enthusiast but be aware this is not an industrial standard nail-gun. It’s great for the smaller jobs – furniture fabric, small repairs, backing panels on flatpack furniture etc. – but not for anything that requires a nail longer then just over one and a quarter inches.
The machine itself is well made, easy to handle and a real time saver for those little jobs and I’d recommend it for home use.
Brilliant , bought this to lay wood boards ready to put down lino. Me a mere women did this alone with the gun, easy to work , hold and load . would recommend .
he tacwise 181els is a great value product.
ideal for all types of wood….from fencing to skirting boards.
as with all products you need to take care when using it as it does fire the nails at high speed…please read all the instructions carefully!!!
it is easy to use….it is a professional model for use by people who know what they are doing….if you have not used one before….please be careful xxxx
For many years I had an old B&D electric staple gun that fired nails and staples. When that old beast died I went for a pneumatic gun that I ran from my small capacity compressor. That works well but it was (an is) a real pain to have to drag the whole lot out just to simply bang a few nails in to something.
Anyway when this came up on Amazon Vine I thought I’d give it a go.
The gun is very nicely made and feels sturdy and strong. However TACWISE have a far different idea of what constitutes a “Long Power Cord” than I do. It is positively short, not even 2M in length. This means that you will almost certainly be always be using it via an extension power lead of some sort. Consequently if you are using it above shoulder height then you’ll be hanging the extension lead power socket directly from the plug on the nailer’s power cable. I don’t regard that as a particularly good design nor safety feature.
It was also only after I ordered it that i realised that unlike my old B&D it doesn’t handle staples. Ah well so be it.
The gun is very easy to load taking a range of nails from 15mm to 35mm in length and claiming a fire rate of 4 nails a second. I have no idea if that’s the case and, being honest, I can’t see why you’d need such a rate as at that speed any accuracy is right out of the window.
In use it’s very comfortable in the hand and very light to operate. It has a removable rubber nose to ensure that the nose piece doesn’t mark delicate woods although I did find that this mean the nail did not have full penetration but protruded by about 0.2mm.
I have used it for testing on both hard woods and soft woods and it performed faultlessly. Should you get a nail jame (which so far I haven’t managed to do) the front of the nose plate has a removable catch system to enable you to get inside and pull out any jammed nails remembering of course to DISCONNECT THE GUN FROM THE MAINS!
I would have given this 5 stars if the power cord had been even 1M longer as it is I felt that they’d spoiled the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar.
excellent tool for the job in hand fitted plyboard quickly & effortlessly . with no jams .
the power supply cable was a little short another 12 inches would have helped
I am into nailguns but this bit of kit is realy magic worth the money.
Hi, I bought the electric nail gun for the purpose of enabling me to assemble larger pieces with glued joints single handedly. It allows me to tack (brad even) the joint so I can let go of it and use both hands to sort out clamps.
So far only tested on softwood and oak scraps with the 30mm Brad, and it works. Single handed operation does leave the brad head about 1mm proud, but given that there will only be one or two put in in this method not a big deal to hit them with a punch. dual handed operation sinks the head below the surface, and with virtually no visible tell on the surface (if a front piece then a little bit of glue and a few grains of sawdust will take care of it)
For the price, if you don’t have other needs for a compressor it does the job, if you have air on hand for other uses anyway then obviously go with an air nailer.
Bought this as i had to build 10ft length of fence that had blown down, the nail gun saved me loads of time and probably a few bloodied fingers worked fine got jammed once but was easy to clear and on the whole drove the nails fully into the wood
This nail gun lacks the power of its larger, more professional cousins, but it will be useful for the occasional DIY user. It loads easily, albeit with a limited range of nails, and is reasonably priced. Definitely recommended for the casual user, while experts will probably seek something more specialised and expensive.
As hard as nails can be, the Tacwise 181ELS Electric Nail Gun is a great tool. Very easy to use, efficient and handles well. Loading the nails into the “magazine” was a bit tricky at first but became easier after a few goes. The gun fires the nails with tremendous force so this needs to be used responsibly (be careful not to shoot your foot) and kept away from young children and teenagers (no it won’t save you from the Zombie Apocalypse). Only complaint was the power cord is a little short, so most jobs will require an extension cord.
This is simplicity itself. It loads easily, and the nails once fixed are are strong. In hard wood I was amazed how easily it worled.
I expected it to be noisy, nut its no worse than my garden stapler. I’ve successfully used this to attach picture rails, and skirting and it saved so much time.
Very happy indeed with this.
I’ve only done a few tests with it so far. The nails don’t seem to go all the way in, which is a bit annoying, but it could be my technique. The nails are also very slim, with barely a hint of a head, which makes them a bit tricky to remove with a claw hammer.
The cord is an ok length, could be longer but it’s not too bad. I like the simple design and colour. It feels like a decent bit of kit in the hand.
Having never used a nail-gun before I found the idea all a little bit scary, but it’s been a very simple and easy tool to use that saves loads of time and dodgy hammering. Haven’t had any issues with it and works just as advertised.
I prefer this smaller size nail gun as it is much easier to use in tight spaces and it just feels nicer. Having such an easy tool to use also encourages you to do a better job and I found myself completely renovating an old garden shed at the weekend – I only started by nailing down the roof felt! It took less than a minute to fix the felt and then I was able to re-fix slipped wooden panels and generally reinforce the whole structure. It would have taken 30-40 mins with a hammer and nails.
Next weekend I’ll be up on the utility room roof with this little beauty.
Simple to use and generally an excellent model; although I did find it a little heavy to use overarm for too long (this probably wouldn’t be a problem for a big strapping bloke!). It’s good value and does the basics, although as others have mentioned if you want the power of a heavy duty gas powered gun it will cost heck of a lot more than the reasonable asking price of this.
I would only recommend that you use Tacwise nails in it though; when a family member used it with different brand nails it jammed! We were able to clear it easily though.
My husband was very excited to get his hands on this nail gun, so we spent a Sunday afternoon in the garden building and fixing stuff.
Unfortunately we didn’t have one of those assortment selections of nails that one of the other reviewers mentioned, so during the first couple of attempts the nail didn’t go right, but that was then rectified by holding the gun with both hands.
My husband fixed a smaller side panel of our fence using the nails provided – we will buy the assortment before tackling the larger panels, but this machine will definitely be used for that job. It’s probably not heavy duty enough for large scale commercial jobs but for your average husband/handyman, it’s very versatile, just buy the right size nails.
The largest brads I have are 38mm (too large for this gun) and I didn’t have any 35mm ones available so wasn’t able to test the gun to it’s limits but I have no reason to think that the performance with 35mm brads would be any the worse. Of course it’s not as powerful as a nailer driven by a compressor, but is far easier/quicker to set-up, so a handy tool to keep in your toolbox. At this price you can’t beat it really.
While this nail gun probably isn’t up to the sustained use a professional might put it through, it’s certtainly a useful addition to the DIYer’s tool kit.
It feels sturdy and well put together and, importantly, it feels well balanced in use. The rounded back of the gun allows extra pressure to be applied to the head where needed without feeling uncomfortable.
It is not the most powerful nail gun you’ll find, though. When nailing through 20mm soft white wood into pine I found that the nails would remain protruding by between 2 and 4mm. A few taps of a tack-hammer sorted that and the gun certainly saved me a lot of time. It seems that removing the rubber shoe (which is there to prevent marking of softwoods) can result in better penetration, but I opted to use the show to keep the wood in better condition.
For the price this is definitely better than a budget piece of kit and will no doubt be very useful for future projects.
This nail gun is ideal for use in my job, it is light and accurate and I would recommend it.
When it comes to nail guns this is aimed at the lower price range of the market, which also makes it smaller and lighter than the big, powerful air/gas guns – but make no mistake, for it’s niche, what it does it does very well.
Though lightweight it has a solid feel, which from experience I’ve come to expect from Tacwise products. If you’re after a relatively cheap, sturdy, quality, comparatively lightweight nail gun for small to medium jobs then you’ll be hard pressed to find a better one for the price than this. Recommended.
I have never owned a nail gun before but this seems like an excellent choice. It takes a bit of getting used to but it has been doing a good job around the house and garden building a chicken coup, compost bin and allotment gate amongst other things.
Thanks to some nerve damage, I now have a bit of difficulty keeping a proper grip on a hammer. Hence trying out the nail gun.
It comes in a nice fitted case and has some short 15mm nails to start with. The Tacwise nails are available from amazon and I bought the mix length set at the same time.
In use, the recoil is more than I expected due in part to its light-weight. It’s by no means flimsy or cheap feeling, just lighter than I expected, hence I didn’t press hard enough the first time I fired it and the 15mm nail was left proud of the surface.
It’s pretty noisy too, especially when used in a confined space, such as when I was repairing a cupboard.
You can use nails from 15mm to 30mm in length. So it’s no use if you need to drive 6″ nails into place. You’re just going to have to do it the old fashioned way.
Overall. this is a great little tool. The nails are cheap too. Not as good a range as you get with normal nails (they’re basically panel pins,) but sometimes you have to compromise. If you could get stainless steel nails, I’d give this 5 stars.
I should start off by saying not much of a DIY-er and have never used a nail gun before but with new skirting boards to fix thought I’d give this a go
It’s lighter than I expected and has a cord length about 1 metre, comes in a nice storage case with a user guide and is suitable for Tacwise 180 15-35mm nails
Did a few practice nails first on an old piece of wood which I’d recommend if you’re as green as me as it took a few attempts to get the hang of things and I had a couple of jams (down to my heavy handedness and inexpertise not the gun) but the user guide was clear enough for me to sort that out and after a short play I was confident enough to put the gun to use and found it easy to use. Ideally would have liked a longer lead as found an extension lead essential. I’ve since bought a pack of Assorted nails for this gun so that I’m covered for different jobs in the future
Can’t compare to other makes as have no experience of them but as a first time novice found this easy to use and if like me you want a nail gun for domestic type jobs round the house then I really recommend this one.
The Tacwise comes in a useful moulded vinyl case that seems pretty sturdy.
Inside you get the gun, with moulded plug on a slightly shorter length of cable than you’d hope for but I guess an extension reel is a must anyway.
Pretty well laid out instructions and a tester pack of nails.
This model takes a variety of nails from 15-35mm.
The gun’s casing is a tough plastic. The grip seems to have an area at the back that was originally designed for rubber for extra grip but money has been saved by using plastic instead. A pity as the extra grip would be useful.
The on/off switch is below the handle & the firing trigger is large & chunky but could have done with some finger moulding for easier use.
The nail cartridge is a reassuringly heavy metal unit that detaches completely via allen bolts if needed. The quick release mechanism for loading in-situ is a doodle to use. Nail loading is straightforward enough but a few misfires due to a misaligned load is to be expected until you’ve fully got the hang of things.
In use this doesn’t take long to get used to & fires rapidly and firmly enough for most domestic use.
For commercial use it would seem unlikely that anything but an air nail gun would be used both for speed & for the greater variety of nails that can be driven by the extra pressure.
Ear plugs, goggles and gloves are a must to avoid the obvious accidents that this tool can present.
A solid bit of kit with just a couple of small design flaws that certainly shouldn’t be deal breakers.
It is early days for me but this is a solid and reliable bit of kit that makes a useful addition around the home and presents solid value for money.
Having owned several other Tacwise tools and never been let down, I can say the same again for this nail gun. It’s a tool that can easily handle the more heavy duty aspect of DIY jobs, and can be used for such applications as insulation, skirting, flooring, door frames and any wood work assembly.
The nail gun has a metal magazine with a capacity to hold 100 15-35mm nails, and a rubber tipped nose to avoid damage on surfaces. The nose plate also has a release catch for jammed nails, but I have found this quite hard to undo. The rubber nose can also be removed for use in tight spaces.
The nail gun makes a manual DIY job much quicker and neater. It also comes packaged in a hard storage case with a handy alcove for storing spare nails.
As a first time user of a nail gun, the manual was comprehensive enough to get me started and I was pleased to find that it has a safety feature, where if the power switch is off, the gun locks the trigger to avoid a nail from being fired. Great value that does the job well and efficiently.
This is a great little nailer for small or lightweight jobs around the home. It feels professional and light in the hand, and works reliably. I did find this worked better in soft wood, because when using harder wood I found that if I didn’t apply pressure to the top with my spare hand when nailing, the nail sat about 1-2 mm proud and I had to use a hammer to finish them.
The biggest issue for me is the ridiculously short flex! This means that an extension lead is almost always required. Not a big issue at first but when working above a few feet high from any socket you then have the extension plug socket dangling about in the air and causing extra weight – especially if you are using a reel cable! Then you have the whole reel dangling in the air.
Why the manufacturer didn’t fit a decent lenght of flex like on most sanders, jigsaws etc is beyond me and spoils an otherwise very good budget nailer.
All in all, I am pleased with it’s performance but the flex thing is a real disappointment.
This is a good value, powerful nail gun. It’s very strong, and packs quite a punch when using! Fits nicely into the carry case that it comes with, and seems pretty robust.
My nephew used this on a shopfitting project, and said that it’s a really good tool, which did the job very well. His only reservations were that 1) the power cable isn’t very long and 2) he couldn’t find the spare nails very easily available (obviously can order from Amazon, but either have to have a ‘stock’ – or wait for delivery – not just a quick trip to the DIY shop!). Apart from that, he was delighted with the performance and quality of it.
I have also reviewed the tacwise due 35 which is nails & staples but otherwise the same. This suffers the same flaw in having a lead that just reaches from ‘plug socket about the skirting board’ level to ‘gun held at head height’ level. If you are tall or which to do something that involves a step/ladder you will ned an extension lead (and somewhere to balance the connection). How much more cost is involved in having a 2.2m lead?
I’m having a small problem with this, in that after I have nailed – the nail stick out about 2-3mm & I need to get a hammer to tap it in flush. I may well be ding something wrong as I have more enthusiasm than skill with DIY (My usual trick is to start the job, get stuck & ask MR MSU to help – at which point he takes over and finishes the job…but please note I only do this after at least a year of asking him to do the job in the first place…) but it seems basic enough…on off switch, put on item, bang.
On the whole I think I prefer the 35 as it does both staples and nails and so aviods the need for an extra too.
Have used Paslode for many years and needed something to fire smaller nails and this fitted the bill after reading reviews about it. It works every time without missing a beat (unlike some cheaper models on the market). Would recommend this produc
Works quite well, but brads still have to be seated with a punch. For the price an excellent piece of kit. Does what is expected.
I’m using it with the 180 selection pack of brad nails which gives a nice range of sizes and there’s no need to be ordering a lot of nails in odd sizes which will never get used. Really good too, easy to understand, load and use. There is a small kick when you fire the tool and best to counteract that by using your second hand as explained by others
Good handy tool I used it for fixing new cladding, only downside is the length of flex (to short).
Otherwise I highly recommend this product.
It does a good job with 25mm nails but doesn’t drive home the longer nails although
the wood was quite soft, I had to tap them in.
easy to use and saved a lot of time.
Well you aren’t going to drive nails very far are you?
Don’t expect this to either !
I made a shelf unit in pine and the pins are standing proud.
The rubber non-marking section says it can be removed but I can only get it to fold back not off so far (may be doing something wrong but I’m not sure)
Otherwise… it’s quick and does as much as I needed it to do.
Decent product at very good price.
It is a piece of kit clearly designed for light work – skirtings, facings, etc – and it is reasonably good for that. It deals well with soft wood but – in the work I have done to date with it – cannot drive brads flush in hard wood. That said it is a useful tool for the types of jod described.
Given the right pressure on the nails exit point (without the rubber nose), this nail gun is so powerful that the nails’ heads can even sink below the surface of the nailed material and thus making them nearly invisible. In comparison, many if not most of other electrical nail guns don’t have that special crisp punch and usually require some supplementary hammering, hence my apprehension before ordering as I had great difficulties using a hammer for a certain work I was doing at home.
As to it’s other qualities, I honestly see no exaggeration at all in the official description, so there’s no need to repeat what has already been clearly explained.
Along with the nail gun, I ordered ‘TACWISE 180 NAIL ASSORTMENT PACK (4000)’ and with that I have no less than one 100% satisfaction.
.. Thanks to the positive commentators.