If I were that strong, I'd spit the staples into the wood...

March 1, 2008 4:27 AM

I just bought a staple gun and I'm not strong enough to use it. Are staple guns really that hard to use, or is this one defective?

The staple gun was the Wickes brand Heavy Duty Staple Gun. It was the only variety of manual staple gun in the store. It has a 'variable power control'--a screw that turns one direction for stronger and one for lighter. When I turn it as far as it goes in the light direction, it takes all of my strength to depress the handle. I can't get the staple to actually penetrate the wood. When I gave up on actually using the gun, I tried to reset the safety, and it required more strength than I have. I had to settle for removing all the staples from the gun.

I plan to return the gun to the store, but is this normal? Are staple guns supposed to be this difficult to use? I've heard of them being used for home decorating projects, and I don't remember anyone ever saying they required unusual strength. Is there a special type of staple gun for wimps that I should look for instead? I wouldn't use it enough to justify buying an electric model, but if all of them are this hard to use, I'll stick with hammer and nails.

posted by happyturtle to home & garden (20 comments total)

I have a manual staple gun, and while it's not exactly easy to squeeze the trigger, I can do it without much problem at all. I've used it to recover furniture, to tack things up temporarily, and to affix chicken wire around my garden's raised beds. I'm not a physically strong person, and I don't have to lean into it or anything. If I have the wrong type of staples (long ones, for example), they sometimes don't go all the way into the wood.

That's my experience with manual staple guns. The brand I have is a Stanley Heavy Duty Sharpshooter. I love that name. Looking at it, there is a lock on it. Do you maybe have a lock on it that you hadn't noticed?
posted by Stewriffic at 4:42 AM on March 1, 2008

A lot depends on your hand strength. If you have small hands that are more accustomed to typing than manual labor, it's conceivable that you'd have trouble with such a stapler. That said, your hands shouldn't be doing all of the work here. Manual staplers have the lever/trigger up on top of the fixed handle, rather than underneath, so that you can use the strength of your arm and shoulder, and your body weight, to compress the big spring that's required to push a staple into wood. Your hand is there to hold the gun in position, not to squeeze. Make sure the workpiece is well supported, place the stapler on it and then really lean into it. Use your whole body to do the work.
posted by jon1270 at 4:49 AM on March 1, 2008

Some staple guns are very hard to squeeze... I remember that when I was young, I would try to use both hands and feet to pull one... of course I was eight years old, and it was some sort of rusted old WWII staple gun from my grandfather's basement. Now that I'm all growed up, they're still hard to squeeze... in that if I'm already tired from holding a sheet of something over my head for a minute or two, I have to really concentrate to pull the damn thing... but it's not impossible. (No feet needed, anymore, either.)

So it's not unusual to have problems, is what I'm saying. The fact you bought one called "heavy duty" suggests that it might be tougher than most, too.

I have seen "easy-squeeze" staple guns on display at the Lowe's and such, though I've never tried one. Again, this suggests that many people have had a problem like yours.
posted by rokusan at 4:57 AM on March 1, 2008

Try leaning into it with your body weight behind you. I've had trouble with staple guns too, mainly with the staples not going in all the way. You gotta push really hard on some things.
posted by bindasj at 5:22 AM on March 1, 2008

I have about 6 staple guns (stretching canvases) and they vary in hand strength necessary to use. There is one called "light duty" which you might want to track down, I think it is made by Arrow. It sounds like you got the kind used by professionals and yes, those require a lot of hand strength to use. There are electric staple guns but I've never used one of those and I wouldn't bother if you only need a gun once in a while.
posted by 45moore45 at 6:26 AM on March 1, 2008

There are better designs of staple guns available. Some, like this one, use some sort of internal gearing (I haven't taken one apart, so I don't know what the exact mechanism is) to reduce the force needed to squeeze the thing. Others, like this one, use a "forward action" design to put your weight above the staple, rather than above the rear of the stapler.

(Also, if you can't use any of the manual ones, you could always borrow, rent, or buy an air compressor, and use a pneumatic staple gun, which takes no more hand strength than pulling a trigger.)
posted by Forktine at 6:29 AM on March 1, 2008

During the squeeze, you are basically loading enough energy into the gun to propel the staple. In a gun with a short handle and short handle travel distance, the squeeze is necessarily harder than in a large one with longer handle and longer travel distance (recall the lever principle). So, yours is probably not defective, but it's not ergonomically designed, either. As noted above, the easy-squeeze variety should solve your problem.
posted by beagle at 6:30 AM on March 1, 2008

There are some very, very easy-to-use air-propelled staple guns out there. I know because my art department stocked them for canvas stretching, as the students were almost entirely 100-pound women with no upper body strength (and I include myself in that group). They are probably expensive as heck, but it is incredibly easy to get a staple in with them. I even expressed amazement at how light the touch was.

On preview: ditto Forktine and beagle.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 6:38 AM on March 1, 2008

Here's additional troubleshooting suggestions to if it's just you or the gun itself.

Get someone else who has used a staple gun and ask them to try using it for their opinion.

Go to a store and ask to try out some other staple guns to see if they are any easier.
posted by Green With You at 7:23 AM on March 1, 2008

Thanks everyone. I guess I just bought a staple gun that was meant for boys instead of girls. I'm headed back to the hardware store now to return the staple gun and buy some of those little U shaped nails to use instead, since they don't carry any light duty guns.
posted by happyturtle at 7:36 AM on March 1, 2008

Those little U things are a pain in the ass to use. Can you use flathead tacks instead for your project? They are a lot easier to work with.
posted by 45moore45 at 8:37 AM on March 1, 2008

What I'm trying to do is attach a metal screen to a wooden fence to keep the dog from chewing holes in the fence. The grid on the screen is 13 mm, so I think I need the U thingies. But I'm certainly open to suggestions.
posted by happyturtle at 8:50 AM on March 1, 2008

you can probably buy an electric staple gun for $25-35 that will make quick work of jobs that are a hassle and possibly painful when attempted with a hand powered gun or a tack hammer.
posted by Good Brain at 9:07 AM on March 1, 2008

A hammer tacker (basically a staple gun that you fire by hammering into things) might be easier for your project than fence staples (those U nails). However, if you screen is made of fairly thick wire, then the fence staples might be better anyways. A hammer tacker is much quicker than a staple gun and lets you use your whole arm to provide the required energy, not just your hand.
posted by ssg at 9:17 AM on March 1, 2008

You don't necessarily need a light-duty gun. Black and decker makes a line that you actuate by pushing onto rather than pulling. So for any circumstance where you can lean your body into it, it works pretty well.

As good brain says as well, there are low power electric ones that work reasonably well. I have one by Arrow I use to tack down the paper backings on our mirrors. I think I spent $35 for it at Home Depot/Lowes.
posted by phearlez at 9:53 AM on March 1, 2008

Seconding Phearlez's black and decker recommendation- I have one, it's easy to use, and it handles brads as well as staples, so it's pretty versatile and reliable.
posted by jenkinsEar at 11:54 AM on March 1, 2008

Go for the hammer-tacker style staplegun. Just whack it down like you would a hammer, and it's in. As much as I like my big, shiny Arrow T50, I know that it's hard for me to get it to nail in all the way some times, and it's basically impossible for my wife.
posted by caution live frogs at 1:03 PM on March 1, 2008

Seconding Caution Live Frogs with the hammer-tacker style. I actually think they're pretty fun to use and they are also therapeutic for me.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 3:13 PM on March 1, 2008

One thing I've always noted is that if the stapler isn't supported by the surface you're trying to staple it's a lot harder. Easy stapling has the stapler flush against the surface and your palm pushing down on the lever. Hard stapling is holding the stapler with your hand while trying to pull the stapler and the handle together. While you're trying to staple, think pushing with your palm and your whole arm and maybe some body. You shouldn't be trying to squeeze it like you're trying to out handshake your archenemy.
posted by advicepig at 4:12 PM on March 1, 2008

The problem with the hammer style is that you get a notably better result (full penetration, no bent staples) when you have the gun firmly against the surface you are stapling and that surface doesn't move. With my electric gun you can very easily see the difference between a staple put in where I have firmly pressed the gun against the surface and held it before pulling the trigger and times where I have simply plopped the gun down and fired one off. The same problem shows up if I put a staple in with the wood hanging off the edge of the table rather than flat on the surface.

I fear that the hammer type, for you, is going to result in staples that don't lay flat against the surface. Which with a screen is going to allow play and for them to eventually - and eventually might not be all that long a time, depending on the stresses - rip through. You're already at a stability disadvantage since that fence, however sturdy it seems, is going to have some play in it when you press against it, particularly at the higher points.
posted by phearlez at 7:48 AM on March 2, 2008