If you’ve ever used a hammer tacker to fasten felt paper to a roof, you’re probably familiar with the sound of its spring-loaded follower skittering down the roof toward the ground. This is not my favorite sound, because it means a trip down the ladder in search of the follower while leaving the partially fastened felt paper to flap in the breeze.

And never mind the fussy process of aligning sticks of staples to fit in a hammer tacker’s magazine, particularly when it’s cold. Either you have to try to handle the fragile staples while wearing gloves, or you freeze your bare hands to the cold metal sides of the tool. It’s even worse when you’re trying to clear a jam in those conditions by removing a couple of tiny cotter pins that always seem to break or snap rings that require a tool to remove. I’ve used tackers from several manufacturers over the years and have found these problems to be endemic to the tool—until now.

I recently tried out a Milwaukee tacker, which accepts readily available T50 staples in lengths from 5/16 in. to 1/2 in. and sells for $40. The first thing I noticed is that the follower never leaves the tool, so you can’t drop it. Loading it requires no alignment of staples and guides; you hold the tacker upside down, withdraw the follower, and drop a stick of staples into the tool’s bottom-loading magazine. Push the follower back in place, and you’re ready to go. The housing above the driver end is reinforced with a steel plate that you can use to hammer staples flat, and there’s a staple puller on the front. I’ve run a few thousand staples through the thing, and it hasn’t jammed yet.