wingless’ DeWALT DCN623 Atomic Compact 20V MAX 23 GA Pin Nailer

winglessMember since Nov 2017Mar 2, 2023 8:14 PM CT

Recently I took advantage of the President’s holiday sales to purchase my DeWALT Atomic Compact DCN623D1 23 GA pin nailer kit.

This is a very nice tool. It is provided as a complete kit, ready to use, even w/ a small batch of 1” nails.

The tool is specified for usage w/ nails from 5/8” to 1½” length.

The DCN623D1 kit includes these parts:

DeWALT DCN623 23 GA Pin Nailer tool
DeWALT DCB203 2AH 20V MAX Compact Lithium Ion Battery Pack
DeWALT DCB112 1.5A 12V MAX / 20V MAX Charger
DeWALT N261499 11”x9”x7” Small Soft Tool Bag
DeWALT N268241 Belt Hook w/ M3 0.5 10mm Screw, both loose
Bostitch PT-2325 1” 23 GA Pin Nails, special 400 quantity partial package (Funny, tag included w/ tool stating best performance when using Porter Cable or DeWALT nails)

Additional nails were purchased to permit appropriate flexibility on this tool. I purchased these nails:

My initial reaction is that I’m really loving this tool. It is lightweight, easy to use and appears well designed and well constructed.

It was surprising to me that this tool can fire a nail, like a gun fires a bullet, through the air and not have a prerequisite for firing to first have the no-mar tip nosepiece being compressed against the workpiece. On both my DeWALT DCN660 16 GA finish nailer and my DeWALT DCN650 15 GA finish nailer these have a spring loaded nosepiece that must first be compressed into the workpiece before those nailers will fire.

By contrast this DCN623 has two adjacent colinear triggers, a primary and a secondary trigger. Both must be squeezed for the nailer to fire. A VERY BIG PLUS, is that removal of the battery prevents the tool from doing anything, including firing. There is zero evidence of ANY residual charge once the battery is removed. Squeezing either / both triggers immediately after battery removal DOES NOT activate the headlight and does not fire a nail. This tool is VERY SAFE immediately after battery removal!

Squeezing the secondary trigger turns on the headlight, aimed at the tip. Then, also squeezing the primary trigger fires the nailer, countersinking the nail below the surface leaving a tiny hole.

This tool also has a dry fire lockout, w/ a red lockout light, disabling the nailer until additional nails are loaded. The lockout is specified to activate when about ten nails remain in the magazine.

It was not initially immediately obvious to me on how to load the nails. The instructions were not helpful in this regard. Clearly, slide open the magazine and put a strip of nails into the opening. What wasn’t initially obvious is that the strip must be slid into a channel, on the tip side of the magazine.

The nail strip has a repeating arrow printed on the strip to show loading orientation.

When nails are loaded there is a window in the magazine that permits visual observation of the nails.

There is also a depth adjustment wheel, but I have not needed to change the initial setting.

So far I have not needed to use the tool-free nosepiece jam clearing function.

My only concern is the future atomic waste disposal requirements. Hopefully the City has appropriate provisions.

[External image (live.staticflickr.com), not copied]

Eric – TIAMember since Jan 2010Mar 3, 2023 9:10 AM CT

LOL on the Atomic waste, hopefully, the city has a good plan. Great information. When it comes to cordless nailers, Dewalt is my favorite for Brad and Finish. Haven’t tried the Pin yet. Their framing isn’t bad but I like the Metabo or Milwaukee framer

AltanMember since Nov 2011Mar 3, 2023 2:45 PM CT

Eric – TIA wrote:

5 hours ago, Eric – TIA said:

LOL on the Atomic waste, hopefully, the city has a good plan. Great information. When it comes to cordless nailers, Dewalt is my favorite for Brad and Finish. Haven’t tried the Pin yet. Their framing isn’t bad but I like the Metabo or Milwaukee framer

Metabo, you mean Metabo HiKoKi (Hitachi)? Metabo (Germany) has not have a cordless nailer, they just published they made one!

AltanMember since Nov 2011Mar 3, 2023 2:53 PM CT

Eric – TIA wrote:

5 hours ago, Eric – TIA said:

LOL on the Atomic waste, hopefully, the city has a good plan. Great information. When it comes to cordless nailers, Dewalt is my favorite for Brad and Finish. Haven’t tried the Pin yet. Their framing isn’t bad but I like the Metabo or Milwaukee framer

AltanMember since Nov 2011Mar 3, 2023 3:01 PM CT

Where is the COO of DeWALT one?

midogrumpyMember since Jan 2010Mar 5, 2023 6:58 AM CT

23 gage nails / pins

I now have 3x dcn623

(1x brand new in pawn shop for $145 !!) , I bought two, one for my friend

yes, it was a dcnd1 kit !!!!

two of the units I carried via suitcase to Germany

I´m very satisfied

==> pins/nails 23gage are very hard to come by in UK or Germany

does anybody have an idea where to purchase ?

(don´t write from USa; I travel 2-3x to USA a year)

thx

Eric – TIAMember since Jan 2010Mar 6, 2023 9:27 AM CT

My bad, yes, the Metabo HPT (Hitachi).

JronmanMember since May 2016Mar 12, 2023 3:03 AM CT

I have wondered if I should pickup a 23 g nailer. The DeWALT sends like a well recorded option. I also have m12 batteries and might look into it too but not really a high priority tool purchase right now.

DooDarMember since Oct 2012Apr 24, 2023 8:23 AM CT

Hi

Its been a while since I posted on here.

I read posts every now and then but I have lost the spark I once had for DeWalt.

It has got to the stage I think DeWalt is loosing its way a little.

There focus has changed or become so wide it has fallen behind other companies in getting the more innovative and needed tools out to its customers. to name a few 1/2 cordless router, cordless belt sander, 23g nail gun.

I know that the last 2 are out (23g nail gun in the USA not UK) or on the brink of being out (cordless belt sander).

I was on this forum 3-4 years ago asking for these and I am still waiting!

I almost bought the 23g nail gun from amazon the other day (an import from the USA). It comes to something when a company like amazon gets a stock of something in to fill an obvious gap in the market and DeWalt just blindly carries on regardless.

Sorry to rant I only came on to ask if any one knows if and when the UK might see the 23g nailer??

AltanMember since Nov 2011Apr 24, 2023 9:35 AM CT

DooDar wrote:

1 hour ago, DooDar said:

Hi

Its been a while since I posted on here.

I read posts every now and then but I have lost the spark I once had for DeWalt.

It has got to the stage I think DeWalt is loosing its way a little.

There focus has changed or become so wide it has fallen behind other companies in getting the more innovative and needed tools out to its customers. to name a few 1/2 cordless router, cordless belt sander, 23g nail gun.

I know that the last 2 are out (23g nail gun in the USA not UK) or on the brink of being out (cordless belt sander).

I was on this forum 3-4 years ago asking for these and I am still waiting!

I almost bought the 23g nail gun from amazon the other day (an import from the USA). It comes to something when a company like amazon gets a stock of something in to fill an obvious gap in the market and DeWalt just blindly carries on regardless.

Sorry to rant I only came on to ask if any one knows if and when the UK might see the 23g nailer??

I was speaking to a representative from Fein UK and he was considering DeWALT as a marketing company and not a tool manufacturing company 😆

The battery alliances that Bosch and Metabo made are a better way to make the tool users happy in terms of quality and speed in introducing new tools. He was actually saying that with this attitude DeWALT is going to be the last company to join a battery alliance which I agreed with loooool