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I know this is the only stapler like it on the market, but you would be better off with a hammer and a box of staples. It constantly jams. This stapler is not worth a penny. Every time I reload, it takes about 10 jams and half of the new clip of staples until it starts working. Save your $20 And yes, I am using genuine Arrow T50 staples for reloads.
Arrow has maintain it's tradition for quality, througout the company's lifetime. The only thing to say about this fastener, is as good as always.
I have tried different lengths and etc. I bought this staple gun because staples are not being made for my 40+ year old Bostitch any longer, and this stapler seems to be one of the few choice around. I am really disappointed. On the bright side, it is shiny where the old Bostitch was painted black. It does not seat the staples like my old Bostitch, so I end up driving most of them home with a hammer.
For example, I had a very cheap wooden folding screen (made in China of soft pine) that had gotten scratched up by the cat, and I was able to attach nice looking upholstery to it with the Arrow stapler. It takes more power then it should and it causes rubbing on your hand, resulting in sore hands and even blisters after extended use (I got blisters from the upholstery project, though it did take about 2000 staples). So at least its reliably sucky.BAD SIDE: The above example is honestly the only thing I've figured out that this stapler can do. Good luck. Lots of jams, especially at the beginning of every strip of staples. You might as well get one that will work nicely on a variety of jobs right off the bat so you don't have to either buy another one or struggle with a frustrating one for years until you give in an buy another one anyway. You can pry staples out of it (and you will be prying, believe me) and though time consuming and annoying, it won't break the gun. That was the one application that this thing worked for.
Manual tools like this are thick solid steel, with only very simple moving parts, so they're going to last. I had to split every strip in two to prevent constant jams at the beginning of the strips. It works on occasion, but you get about ten to one screwing around time vs stapling time. In that application, with the soft pine wooden frame flat on a table in front of me and the stapler pointing straight down through one or two layers of thin material, I got only occasional jams. It still jammed sometimes, but not too bad. Who wants a staple gun that only works in super light duty applications and that jams up extremely often. Diagonal/ceiling rafters/overhead work: F. The staple gun was hard for her to operate due to the high squeezing force needed, and it was too weak to get the staples into the plywood anyway.
That earns it one star.The other star is because this stapler soldiers on. It is terribly jam-prone when used at any angle other than straight down, and its extremely weak, regardless. No only is the staple gun quite weak, but any angle seems to multiply the chance that the pusher slips off the top of the staple. It's especially noticeable with work gloves. My girlfriend tried to use this thing to staple a carpet sample to a piece of plywood to make a scratching post for the aforementioned feline.
Attaching insulation to new white pine wall studs: C-. The 1/4" staples generally did penetrate the wood enough. How light. I give it two stars because there might be someone who honestly only needs a few dozen staples at a time in soft materials, and for that, this tool is fine.
I understand this product is cheap, but for me, it's just too shoddy to justify purchasing at any price. The Arrow does NOT. It bothers me to see "Made in America" on a shoddy product.What's OK: This stapler is OK for extremely light use. At least the Swingline does what you expect it to do.
Old red pine is a definite notch harder than plantation grown white pine from Home Depot, but its softer than hardwoods or plywood. 80% of the staples either jam right in the mechanism or barely go into the wood, so that you have to bang them with a hammer just to get them properly seated in the wood. What in the world does "Heavy Duty" mean to the marketers at Arrow. Overall, I don't care how cheap it is. But "Heavy Duty" is just wrong. So as you squeeze down, not only is it harder then necessary because you're squeezing the middle of the lever instead of the end, but it also sort of forces your hand forward on the slick chromed surface of the handle.
That's what this thing can do, no more. It's not super hard, but it could easily be better. No go. That isn't good enough for a "D".Ergonomics: C.
You don't buy one and then toss it a year later. A Swingline desk stapler. Compared to WHAT. I was also able to re-affix some torn couch upholstery in a very similar manner - more or less pointing straight down, into soft pine, through one or two layers of cloth. It's frustrating to use and it's just plain stupid that Arrow would tell anyone this thing is "Heavy Duty".
I've pried probably hundreds of staples out of this thing and it doesn't seem to be getting any worse than it was when it was new. Attaching insulation to older red pine studs: D-. You ought to keep it forever, more or less. The way the tool is shaped, you hold it so your fingers grip the flat inner portion and your palm sits about halfway up the handle, parallel to the grip, but obviously not parallel to the angled handle. Think of the easiest thing you could ask a staple gun to do.
Staples could be driven about 1/4" reliably, but if you need any more penetration than that, you'll need to do constant touch ups with a hammer. Even 1/4" penetration was a challenge for this thing.Plywood: F. In any case, it's too hard for this stapler.
And yeah, I was leanin' on it too. But if you are trying to put 1/2" staples through even a few layers of paper or fabric, bring your hammer, because you have to help the staples for the last 1/8 to 1/4". Works great for putting 1/4" staples through thin material. And of course, the staples will just bend then.Tried to use this to tack roofing paper down and most recently for reupholstering some dining room chairs. But it does never jam. Again, the 1/4" staples worked fine, but once the fabric was double in places, the 1/4" wasn't long enough, and the 1/2" didn't go in all the way.
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