Seems the harder I try, the worse it gets… Needed a new stapler for insulation and tyvek, looked at the 8-10 models available, decided to go with the PowerShot, the one with the backward handle. Seemed good in the store, liked the way the handle operated, etc. It has problems sinking 1/2″ staples in pine 2×4’s and I usually have to tap them in with a hammer. Really has a problem with osb siding. The worst part is the staple magazine…I bought a package of Swingline staples that listed the Powershot as suitable, and discovered that a full strip of staples won’t fit. Even if th magazine is completely empty, I have to break off three staples or else the strip is too long to fit.
Do it right, or do it twice.
Replies
We ought to start a junk tool hall of shame. Don't know about the Powershot but I'll put the Portercable Bammer up for nomination.
I'll put any / all porter cable in there. I'm probably not buying another....
so what do I buy, mis-engineered european tools or made-in-mexico Dewalt?
My most irritating porter cable is the 6-mo old 12" combination mitre saw. The damned aluminum fence is machined concave on both sides!!! How in the world do you make a straight cut with curved fences? So I guess I get to make plywood fences here soon. The stock blade was pretty good though.
The new p-c air compressor is flaky, sometimes won't come on even when on a good 20-amp circuit alone. But it's the saw that really burns me up.
remodeler
I do alright with their circular saw and have their jigsaw that'll do what it needs to without problems. But that's it. Some guys like the Tigersaw but to many moving parts that can break with that orbital action feature.
I got their 10 slider at christmass time, Good saw BUT, the fence is about 2 in tall and the machine does not have extension arms for it.View ImageGo Jayhawks
>> We ought to start a junk tool hall of shame.
Check this thread. http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages/?msg=25150.1
Hey, I'd forgot about that thread. That's some pretty good reading there.
I'll second your nomination,
The bammer bites big time arseView ImageGo Jayhawks
>>We ought to start a junk tool hall of shame. Rez that is clever. That would be valuable reading. I looked at the "bammer" add, which seemed to list a whole bunch of things that it doesn't take to work, and I wondered what did make it work. I got the answer from you--it doesn't work!
So it's not just me, then?
I've bought four staplers in the past year, all broken. Bostich, PowerSh*t, yep, all junk. And my crew really isn't that hard on tools.
I have an old stapler that belonged to my Dad from I suppose about the 1960's, of course it still works. But nobody uses it except me.
Just bought the hammer-tacker style, I don't know what it's really called, you swing the stapler instead of squeeze it. Not as accurate, a little rough, hopefully holds up better.
Y'know, I wish I could reach those marketing types at Bostich and tell them I'd rather pay $45 once for a good tool than $22 four times for a bad one.
Anybody know of a good stapler? I know a couple of guys who would buy it.
DRC
To Dave
Have found out that arrow hammer staplers are junk. Everyone that I have had has always jammed or broke. The brand I have had the best of luck with is Duofast hammer staplers. little bit pricey...but easy to clear jammed staples (if they ever do) takes two full racks of staples. I had once heard that they are not making them anymore, but cannot verify that. They also made a good hand stapler if you can find them.
Hate to say it but craftsman makes a real nice hammer tacker. Hasn't jammed yet and it has been 6 mons of heavy use. ( big houses all tyvek all stapled)
Benny,
I know what you mean about "hate to say it" but I have to give credit where it's due.
Back in the 1970's you could count on finding good tools at Sears.
At least for the past 15 years it looks like they've been trying to beat the big boxes on price.
But strangely enough, the past two or three times I've been to Sears I've found good tools. Even to the point of finding good quality tools I couldn't find anywhere else except maybe the Snap-On truck.
Lotta junk there still, but it looks like the place is taking a change for the better. Who knows?
DRC
Biggest junk tool I've been exposed to, repeatedly? No-name made in China vise grips.
Used to have a boss that kept buying those things. The worst are the welding style ones with the bent sheet metal ends. I've snapped those off. Usually find lots of air bubbles in the weld area, looks like pot metal not decent steel when you break it.
Of course, the pliers aren't so great either. He bought a set of assorted small pliers once. I broke 3 of the 5 first time I used them. Finally a higher up threw all the harbor frieght catalogs away and said order what you need to do the job. Don't think we've broken many hand tools since. Not counting taps and drill bits.
Of course a few unbroken Chinese tools may have acidentally gotten thrown away when the new ones came in. Great time saver, plus you don't mess up your knuckles if you toss the cheap tools before they get a chance to break and bite you.
Some years back now, I was briefly maintenance mechanic in a waterbed frame factory (made the wooden boxes that waterbed mattresses live in so they won't just explode all over the floor). Lots of stories from just two months there.
The relevant one for here: the owners hired a new operations manager after I'd been there about two weeks. I'd previously worked in gas stations and so had brought in my own tools at first, but for several reasons (coworkers did not respect tools, I was making just over minimum wage), I decided it was time to request that the company buy me a set. I brought this suggestion to the operations manager, who, a day later, called me into his office and proudly handed me a bag of screwdrivers from the 99 cent bin. I suggested these might not be adequate for machinery maintenance; he assured me they were good tools.
I was, at the time, rebuilding the lift cylinder on the big forklift, about ten feet high, piston five or six inches in diameter. I think it was the next day that I walked into the office with the big driver from the set, which I had been using to pry out a seal (the kind of work my Craftsman driver could have handled in a minute, and yes I know you're not spozed to pry with a screwdriver but we all do), and which was now U-shaped. I just handed it to him, told him what Id been doing, gently suggested they weren't up to the work.
Left a month and a half later, but my successor had a decent, if small, kit of tools, selected by me, paid for by the company.
I'll second Jack of All Trades recommendation for DuoFast staplers. Both their hand stapler and the classic hammer-stapler are great. I have had no problems with either one, and have run many 10's of thousands of staples through them.
Later. MattyLittle Sawhhorse Construction, LLC -- Building, Remodeling, and Repairs. Bayfield, WI
Matty & Jack Of All Trades,
Thanks. I'll find someone who carries the Dou-Fast and look into this.
For what I've spent on these other ones I could have bought a Duo-Fast even if it cost $85.
DRC
The Powershot is a major POS. If you can't get all the staples in the strip to fit, that's the least of your problems.
Just wait until it totally craps out on you... SOON!
I agree hammer staplers are about the only ones that hold up for the long haul.