I have a Ridgid Brad Nailer Model R138BNA that is jammed. I tried the jam release mechanism, but that didn't work. Also, the magazine is stuck. I can't get it to open. Any suggestions?

Hi Johnny, First thing to do is make sure that the tool cannot fire any nails. so remove the airline or, if it's a gas powered (Fuel Cell) tool remove the battery and fuel cell.

If you can, try and remove any of the nail that you can. Then CAREFULLY try and push the driver back into the cylinder. This may take some time. Sometimes we end up having to strip the tool down to remove the magazine, this will allow better access to the stuck nail. So far, I've never been stuck doing this but.....

replace the orings around the trigger, or buy a oring kit and replace all orings

This happens. The follower jumps over the nails and the magazine binds.

Step 1. Remove nails, unplug hose.
Step 2. Remove the bolt at the bottom of the magazine with a 2.5mm hex key.
Step 3. Remove the magazine while holding the nail follower in place to the magazine cover.
Step 4. Carefully remove the nail follower and gently extend the yellow warning indicator and follower spring.
Step 6. Inspect the nail follower. There should be 3 indentations that are stamped into nail follower face. This is the culprit.
Step 7. With a small punch, make these three indentations deeper.
Step 8. Assemble and test. Repeat if necessary.

Hope this helps.

If the jam is bad enough you may just have to pull the 3 front magazine screws (metric allen screws) and the one in the rear that holds the magazine to the tool frame. That way you can pull the entire magazine off which will expose the nose area and you can remove the jammed nail.

Per your addendum I would have first told you to check that you are using the proper guage nails. Second you should make sure you are loading the nails in the lowest channel in the magazine so they are at the bottom of the magazine. If you load them into the top of the magazine they have more time to go off course before they get into the wood.

there should be two top allen screws that loosen up magazine. after you do this take a flat screwdriver and bang back driver. olny bang driver back if you need to.

Perhaps over-oiling? Oil accumulates sawdust, jamming the retracting hammer, leaving it in the down position. Try one drop, occasionally, just to keep the o-ring from drying out. Bathe it with a solvent to remove the oil and dust, (lacquer thinner works for me?) Just a guess, not much info to go on?

Shoots staples fine but brads jam or bend. Check that the part called "guide bar", #35 on the parts diagram isn't getting stuck in the channel of part #30.

The guide bar retracts into the channel when driving a staple and springs out of the channel to guide brads.

The guide bar can get stuck in the channel if it's bent or gummed up. (Bent is likely the result of driving a brad into an obstruction.)

Unplug it. If you can see the driver jammed against the staple, take a screwdriver end and try to push the driver back in and the staple should be released. If you can't get the driver to go in and release the staple, you'll have to disassemble it to clear the jam, If you need help with that, see the instructions for the current model here, page three, diagram 3, cleaning the magazine.

I hope this information allows you to resolve this issue. If you need further assistance, please post back with a comment to this thread.
If I've managed to answer your question or solve a problem, please take just a moment to rate this post....thanks!

It sound to me that the 1 5/8 brads are not 18 guage but probably 16 guage and they will not work. Double check them first before going any further. You can usually lay them next to the smaller ones that work and see the size difference, if not let me know and I will dig deeper.