What's a good staple gun?

[Alex Franke]

Arrow T50? Stanley TR150? Others?

I tried my luck with an Arrow Powershot last time (one of those reverse lever staplers) and it was a disaster. Took it back and got another, and that one jammed ~20% of the time, too.

Anyone have any recommendations?

[LCHIEN]

just had a bad experience with my Craftsman manual stapler.
It was my second, the first broke (plastic parts snapped) and I took it back some years ago and they gave me another (lifetimereplacement) but this time it was frozen after some period of non-use and the plastic parts inside were oozing out.
THis time the guy told me no there's no lifetime warranty on those (I thought all craftsman hand tools had a lifetime warranty). So I'll be darned if I'm buying another.

[TheRic]

Have several Arrows that are decades old. Never really had a problem with them, until they were well abused. Use to use Bostitch staplers liked it better then Arrow. They stopped making them decades ago. Ended up throwing about 20 big boxes of staples away, couldn't find anything that could use them.

[JeffG78]

I agree on the Powershot. While I like the idea of the reversed design, it fires about 30% of the time. I waste more time and staples than I ever have with the decades old Arrow I used to have.

As far as a recommendation - Sorry, I'm still putting up with my crappy Powershot and haven't found a good one yet to replace it.

[poolhound]

I have a powershot and but I think it a B&D not arrow (may be the same thing).

I have had NO problems with it and can remember the last time it jammed. The forward action is a vast improovement.

[balzac.thegreat]

I have a B&D Powershot that was breaking my b***s earlier today. It was doing the thing where it would shoot 1 staple then take like 8 or 9 "re-cocks" and some shaking before it would shoot the next staple. I even opened it up to figure out WTF was going on. I think there's a pin in there that travels along the metal body of the case that doesn't reset itself right all the time. That said, it works great when it's not being finicky. Used it on 10 2' x 4' sound panels and 2 large 6' tall pet enclosures in the past few months. I probably put 5 - 600 staples through it in the past couple months. Who knows how many before that. My wife had the thing long before I was even around and it's pretty well beat up. I will be looking to replace it the next time I need it though. Would not be adverse to owning another Powershot.

Was also eyeing pneumatic staplers at HF the other day. They were onsale for 18.99.
I'm curious how that route would work out.

[jhart]

Have an Arrow t-50 and also a t-25, both work so-so to ok. Usually a problem sinking in hardwoods. Bought a HF air stapler about 1 year ago and not use it when ever I can. Seems to work very well and can adjust depth by regulating the pressure. Just used it Saturday and when I put the air hose on, a lot of air was coming out the top of the gun. Head plate screws had come loose. tightened them with the provided allen wrench and worked fine. Have made a mental note to check the screws when I use it.

[Alex Franke]

Was also eyeing pneumatic staplers at HF the other day. They were onsale for 18.99.

Serious? I think that option with a portable air tank could be a winner.

I wonder how many staples you can get out of a portable air tank, though... I need to staple up a bunch of wire mesh up in the attic to help keep the critters out...

[scmhogg]

Alex,

I have bothe the HF stapler and crown stapler. I've had no problems with either. I used about a 1000 each building cages for my son's critters. Certainly nothing like the hand busters you describe. I also have a B&D electric, that is not great.

I'm not sure about the capacity of a tank. Also, as the pressure goes down the staples will penetrate less.

You can get 50' lengths of air hose from HF for $9.99.

Steve

[rnelson0]

I bought an arrow stabler and brad nailer the other day for $18. I liked the fact that it does brad nailing since I was working on some attic panels where the trim was coming off, but it was made for using on drywall. Pushing through 1/2" of drywall was too much and I had to use a nailset. However, the stapler feature worked fine putting insulation on the panels.

It replaced the Arrow cable stapler I was using previously, even with the gulleys in the staples (it's insulation in the attic, who cares?) until I loaded the wrong size staples and the tore the spring apart trying to get them out. I got it working again but the spring is so stretched out that it won't work when you have 20 or less staples in it. The right size spring was probably less than $18, but the new one shoots brads. And it was shiney