I was wanting to get a staple gun and based on some good feedback from another poster here, I decided to give Harbor Freight a try on this model
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-gaug...7524-3795.html
This is the blue contractor series and not the red and silver. The gun is normally $29 and it was on sale for $15.99 so I thought I'd give it a try. Out of the box, the gun feels good in the hand. The trigger is metal as are all other major parts. The gun is slightly heavy for it's size, but not too heavy. It actually feels like decent quality. The grip is a good size and is comfortable with just the right amount of cushion. The gun is designed to shoot 3/4-2 inch 1/4" narrow crown staples or brads, both 18 gauge. Easy to load and the loading mechanism felt substantial.
I added a 4-5 drops of oil and pressurized the gun to 60psi (range is 60-110). The first pull sent a staple in, but left it about 1/8" exposed. The next 2-3 pulls were blanks. I figured it was the oil just working in. I tried firing several more times, with the gun actually driving a staple about 1 out of ten times. The gun did not jam, but it did not feed the staples correctly. I repeated this with varying air pressure with the same result-about 1 successful staple for every 10 pulls of the trigger. Not acceptable. In addition, the gun is an air hog. My 6gal pancake compressor cycled after about the 15th shot. My craftsman 16g brad nailer will shoot about 20-25 times before the compressor cycles.
On HF's website, there are just over 40 reviews, and an average of 4 stars, so I thought I might get lucky. I'm taking the gun back tomorrow and trying a different manufacturer. I think this one goes down as a HF miss.
Hope that is helpful.
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-gaug...7524-3795.html
This is the blue contractor series and not the red and silver. The gun is normally $29 and it was on sale for $15.99 so I thought I'd give it a try. Out of the box, the gun feels good in the hand. The trigger is metal as are all other major parts. The gun is slightly heavy for it's size, but not too heavy. It actually feels like decent quality. The grip is a good size and is comfortable with just the right amount of cushion. The gun is designed to shoot 3/4-2 inch 1/4" narrow crown staples or brads, both 18 gauge. Easy to load and the loading mechanism felt substantial.
I added a 4-5 drops of oil and pressurized the gun to 60psi (range is 60-110). The first pull sent a staple in, but left it about 1/8" exposed. The next 2-3 pulls were blanks. I figured it was the oil just working in. I tried firing several more times, with the gun actually driving a staple about 1 out of ten times. The gun did not jam, but it did not feed the staples correctly. I repeated this with varying air pressure with the same result-about 1 successful staple for every 10 pulls of the trigger. Not acceptable. In addition, the gun is an air hog. My 6gal pancake compressor cycled after about the 15th shot. My craftsman 16g brad nailer will shoot about 20-25 times before the compressor cycles.
On HF's website, there are just over 40 reviews, and an average of 4 stars, so I thought I might get lucky. I'm taking the gun back tomorrow and trying a different manufacturer. I think this one goes down as a HF miss.
Hope that is helpful.