Electric staple guns...

[ATC]

...are a joke!


I bought a Bostitch electric staple gun at Lowes today. My buddy is making a bunch of chicken/quail/pheasant coups, and I have one or two to build, so I figured I'd grab one to try out and hopefully make life so much easier rather than hand nailing staples in. My buddy doesn't have air at his house, hence the electric part, or I'd have gotten a pneumatic one.

I took it out of the package, which gave me a pretty good cut on my hand...and loaded some staples (1/2" long) and lined up my shot and squeezed the trigger. The staple was sticking 1/4" out of the wood, which was standard non-treated 2x2. WTF? I adjusted the knob on top to the maximum setting, and nothing changed. Staples were still sticking out halfway.

I shot 7-8 staples, cussed some, then boxed the ************* up and am going to take it back tomorrow. Looks like I'm gonna stick with a good old-fashioned hammer

 

[Jere]

Wow where you working with some kind of hardwood or something?

 

[ATC]

Wow where you working with some kind of hardwood or something?

Standard pine off-the-shelf Lowes 2x2...

 

[evintho]

I bought a cheap HF pneumatic stapler and luv it! I use it to put together shipping boxes. I use 1"x2" strapping for frames then cover them with cardboard. I ship out a lot of fenders and hoods this way. The HF stapler blows 1/2" staples right into the strapping material.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I bought a Stanley electric stapler last week for insulation work. It seems not to have a problems driving 1/2" staples into the bottom chord of the rafters. If you don't hold it up against the wood, it won't drive it all the way in.

 

[mayday0017]

Also own a harborfreight unit, had a bunch of problems with it driving staples to deep for what I bought it for and had to go back to mecanical. Pulled it out many times since then and works great so long as I don't mind the head going flush with the surface.

 

[ATC]

I thought about the HF unit for a bit, but like with most HF tools...I tend to stay away from anything with more than 2-3 moving parts.

I took back the electric one and looked over the pneumatic offerings that Lowes had while I was there. I wasn't too impressed, and I wasn't gonna get out of there without spending more than $100.

I left and went to HD across the street. They had a better selection. I immediately saw a Rigid unit that was on clearance for $69 (normally $99). I looked it over and it had the most features of anything there, and a full lifetime warranty. Comes with nice safety glasses, allen wrenches, and 1,000 staples in a nice canvas carrying bag.

This one:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-1-1-2-in-Finish-Stapler-R150FSE/203906297#.UnigLjYo6M8


I got it home, hooked up my air line and loaded a strip of 9/16 staples. I grabbed an old 2x4 to try it out on. The first staple went about 1/4" under the surface of the wood. I found the adjustment on the gun, and dialed it waaaaaay back until the staples were even with the surface.
I tell ya, I don't know how I would have stapled the hardware cloth down without it. There is no way I could stretch the roll, hold it from falling, hold it down from curling up, line it up, and staple it with a hammer!

I only have a 26 gallon compressor, and I ran 2 strips of staples without the compressor even kicking back on. It's a sweet shooter! Merry christmas to me!