Hey Guys:

I grew up in Florida. Over the years, I started a home remodeling and repairs business that eventually led to home inspections and contracting.

Over the years I have accumulated a great deal of power tools and somewhere along the line, I acquired a nailer I'd never seen before.
It has the Bostitch logo on the side of it and the designation, "Model M111" on the handle. It fired case hardened, steel T-Nails which in Florida, I used to nail all manor of things to concrete block walls.

Fade to black.
Fade to scene, January 2007.

The great Busch era is winding down and the financial market is in shambles. My remodeling business has dried up completely and I have moved to North Carolina where I have taken up Commercial Construction Estimating and bought an old, 1915 home with hardwood floors (and no subfloor system).

Today, I have 256 sqft of new red oak to put down and I'm looking for a nailer and upon the suggestion of a worker at Lowes, I pull out the Model M111 and on the Lowes shelf, I find a box of Bostitch, flooring, cleat nail that fits it.

QUESTION:

This nailer is a vertical nailer. There is no curved handle bolted to it and no "boot" attached to the nose.
Is this a floor nailer?

Hey, am I seeing double or just losing my mind. Seems I just answered this very question in another thread.

Bostitch makes ,or made 2 M111's. I have both, the one you have is a case hardened t-nailer for shooting down plywood over concrete. Confusing, but it's a whole different design than the M111 hardwood flooring nailer.

Thanx for clearing that up Howard. Not too familiar with Bostitch equipment so was taking a stab in the dark, based on the OP's post. (in another message)

Dennis:
If this is a repeat, my appologies. I apparently didn't search the forum well enough.

Floorologist:
Thanks for the info (repeat or otherwise). I am seeing some similarities here though.
It appears that if I were to add the boot and the handle, a flooring nailer I would have.

The issue I'm facing now though, is that it apparently won't shoot the Bostitch floor nails.
It seems that the 1/8" thick, metal hammer guide is 1/16" too small in diameter for the floor nails to pass through.
While it will allow the T-Nails to pass through(they have a lower head clearance height than the T-nails), it will not allow the flooring nails to pass through it thereby seating under the hammer.

Since it's not actually any kind of safety issue and used only to channel the hammer, I'm attempting to have a friend grind out the keyhole 1/16" more thereby allowing the flooring nails to pass through as well.

Good thing your the handyman454 . I guess this all depends on your definition of similar. I hope you guys don't destroy a good t-nailer. Arent you going to have plunger problems, filing out the slot ? Not to be a wise guy, but I'm taking bets this surgically altered t-nailer may not get you through your install, and will probably cost more in the long run than buying the right nailer. But hey, if your having fun....

Floor:
In a way, you were headed in the right direction of prediction.

While the operation was a sucess, the patient didn't see any improvement.
I swapped one issue for another.
After the modification, I discovered that the blasted floor nails are a different thickness than the T-nails are.
Ergo. Where the gun still fires out one T-nail at a time, it now fires out two floor nails simultaneously but jambs at the end of the nose.

After many years of both successful and un-successful modification issues, I've learned a couple of things.
One is, If it ain't broke, don't fix it and the other is, if you attempted to fix it and it didn't, don't continue to fix it.

I still have a T-nailer (though I use it rarely) and I'm now looking for a floor nailer.

By the by, I held the gun at a 45 angle (+/-) to the tongue and it burried the T-nails I experimentd with (a small, 4ftsqr area of rental repairs) just fine. perhaps not as quickly but for the purpose, it worked out fine. No "slot" issues.

My flooring nailer broke and due to this I need a new one. At the moment I cannot afford buying and instead I thought about using a power rental Has anyone already rented such tools? I already found a provider and the prices are reasonable so I tend to choose this one. Any recommendations? Is there anything I have to bear in mind when choosing a flooring nailer? Would really appreciate your help. Thanks in advance.

I currently own two Bostitch MIIIFS staplers. I was planning to put one of them on EBay soon ,but if someone here needs one, maybe we can work something out. PM me.