STANLEY Nail Gun, Electric Staple, 1/2-Inch, 9/16-Inch and 5/8-Inch Brads (TRE550Z)

Long story short, I've had to rebuild my house from the studs out over the last 18 months...grrr...I'm a short female nurse, NOT a general contractor! So when deciding upon which items to purchase during the last year and a half, I did a little research, read reviews, and also learned brand names in construction and how some are better than others. That's how I ended up purchasing this staple gun. GREAT VALUE FOR THE PRICE! Again, I'm not a pro so I can't really compare it to others, but this sucker helped me install fiberglass insulation, secured electrical wire to studs/rafters so it was out of the way in the attic, making cat scratch posts out of leftover carpet, and most recently, securing Christmas lights around my porch! There have been a handful of times I needed it to have the ability to use longer staples, but that's not it's fault: there are other products if I needed long staples more often. It's been great helping me rebuild my home and now that it's done, I look forward to using it for more "craft" type reasons like making more cat scratching posts and reupholstering my office chair soon!

I was uncertain if this version of the electric stapler could handle the duel functions of stapling and shooting brads. It can with a slight restriction. The stapler loads easily (either staples or brads) and fires each nicely. Note, the safety feature which prevents one from stapling your fingers or hands is a bit awkward in that you must be full down and flat for the stapler to fire. This takes a bit of getting used to but is a nice feature, none the less. Obviously a duel function stapler can not fire long brads into hard wood. The maximum rated brad length is 5/8" which limits its overall function but is very useful for temporary placing materials before using longer nails or brads or glue. There is a useful + or - setting for power, but I recommend firm pressure in either case.

As I look around my place, Stanley seems to be the main name in my home tools. I just got this electric stapler/nailer in. My old stapler walked off and I ordered both this electric stapler and a Stanley manual stapler. I have some home furniture coming in where I will be need a stapler or brad gun. And I wasn't real convinced that an electric brad/staple gun would be worth the money. (Plus my tools occasionally walk off on their own, it seems.) So, I got this thing in and began checking it out to see if I had wasted my money. And after I figured out how to load the brads, it seems to be working perfectly so far. It just takes small brads 1/2 - 5/8 inch in size. They actually get loaded off to one side of the loading channel. There are arrows on the spring portion showing where to load the brads. (I kept trying to load them in the center of the load channel. Duhaaa....) It also take the standard T-50 staples, which are everywhere. Loading them is a straight forward. Just drop them into the loading channel. There is a knob on the top to adjust the driving force on the brad or staple. Adjust it to whatever you need. There are no stops for a certain pressure. Driving a nail or brad is simply a light pull on the trigger, after you load it and turn the power on. The only drawback for me is the small brad size. But I will only be using it on rare occasions anyway. (I have no intention of putting furniture together on a regular basis.) Update: September 8, 2015 I just reduced my opinion down to 4 stars. After posting the above information, I found a problem with it. This stapler/nailer does work fine with brads and normal size staples. But it won't drive the longer staples in entirely, even when set for maximum force. You end up using a hammer to touch the longer staples in. The manual Stanley stapler version seems to do a better job with the longer T-50 staples.

This unit far surpasses my 1980s Swingline electric. It is easy to position the staples. There is no obstruction around the head to block my view allowing much more accurate placement. Easy to get close in corners! Like any household stapler it can be difficult to pierce hardwoods and dense particle board. Practice with various staple lengths for desired use. Lean into the stapler as you hold it in position, be sure the object you are stapling is not going to slide away as you work. I position the object so I can staple down as often as possible, using gravity and body weight to help sink the staples. Anything I can do to keep the stapler firm and level against the project to be stapled will keep the 'recoil' effect to a minimum and help sink the staples. I am really pleased with this for light upholstery work and wood crafts. It is simple to reload, lightweight and comfortable to hold for extended periods. Best choice for my around the house uses.

Great value for the price and pretty much the only option without a compressor and with a cord. I'm not strong enough to use a manual staple gun and have tiny hands so when faced with the challenge of upholstering a headboard for the bed, I took a chance on this. I'm SO happy I did. It made light work of it. No sore hands. No bruises. I had so much fun (more power!), I kept stapling extras. :) My project was micro-fibre suede over 1" loft dacron over 1/8" masonite with foam on the opposite side. I bought 1/2" staples and had no jams at all. I'm guessing plywood would have been fine, but not sure about mdf. It doesn't handle thick or dense tasks so I did need help from bf with a manual gun on the corners where the fabric overlapped. When my son-in-law was going to install carpet on his stairs, I told him to skip this and rent a compressor like the pros.

I did lots of research before buying this since I have other manual and electric brand staple guns. This one had lots of good reviews so I fell victim, knowing better than to trust these reviews. It would not drive 1/2 staples thru outdoor carpet into pine 2x4. They only went in 1/2 way and or bent. Tried other staples, same results. You have to hammer / bend over the staples then. I went to Stanley web site to look up this stapler. Much to my surprise almost all the reviews are 1 or NEGATIVE. Again this is on their own web site. It is awful how these reviews are so easily influenced. If you need a good gun, they only way to go is air / pneumatic where you have 80psi air pressure. All these electric guns use a simple solenoid hammer and no one has any "extra" strong or unique power design. Maybe ok for simple light home projects, putting up signs, but do not buy thinking it is going to give you power. Also seems quite cheap, light weight. Stanley web site also talk about it breaking shortly into its life. Last but not least it has gotten to be a pattern where Stanley is riding on a old good brand name with making crap, cheap stuff out of china.

This arrived a few hours ago and I used it to re-attach decorative wood slats on a fence. Drove about 200 brads. The wood is cypress or redwood, aged. The gun drove the 5/8 brads about half way in. I had to finish each one with a hammer. So the job took 2.5 times longer than a more powerful driver would need, and I was weary at the end. I did an exhaustive search on-line of wired and cordless nailers and brad drivers. Between this Stanley and a gun powerful enough to do the job is a few hundred bucks AND a few pounds of weight. Driving 200 brads a foot above your head with a 4-lb tool will teach you what old age does to a man. With a gun as light as the Stanley, no problem. From the number of air guns out there and the quality firms that make them, pneumatic seems to be the preference of the pros. If I had more use for a brad driver then this now-repaired fence, I'd have bought pneumatic in hopes my 1974 one cylinder Sears compressor is up to it. It's a mystery to me why the equipment rental shops around here don't rent nailers, and the pawn shops (we have 3) have none in stock. To do this one short job I had to buy one. Tempting as it is I will not be returning it to Amazon. Someday the kids or I might need it. To echo others who like this gun, it's easy to load, easy to use, and mine didn't jam. not once. The brads were bought here and are not Stanleys. The brand is Spotnails, made in Korea. Stainless steel like the rest of the hardware on the fence.

This works great for what it is - a low cost, easy to use electric staple gun and brad nailer. I'm no carpenter, I just do small jobs around the house when they come up, so I didn't need anything too powerful, and I definitely didn't want to pay for and deal with an air compressor. This small electric model was perfect for me. I needed to add shoe molding to the baseboards in my whole house after ripping out wall to wall carpeting, and I really did not want to nail 100+ feet of molding in by hand. It worked really well for that, and was a lot faster, easier, and quieter than the alternative. Of probably 150 brads put in (overkill, I know) there were maybe 2 or 3 double fires, and no missed brads at all. Might be nice if it could take slightly longer brads, but for the price, you can't beat this electric staple/brad nailer.

Great little tool - quite good umpire to it. Make sure you buy the correct staples as there are normal ones and heavy duty ones. Very little waste and made light work of a mini upholstery job

First of all I was very pleasantly surprised once I received it and check the voltage and found it 240 V. Coz all the way I thought from some reviews that this is 120 V. I though I will use my voltage converter. I'm not sure why Amazon doesn't require this info to be compulsory with the description. (I had a bad experience before with the purchase). The machine review now. Its very very good with punching staple fixing 2 mdf (8mm each), it goes 95% of the way. You need to hummer the remaining part. I went and bought 15 mm Brad nail. It punches 95% of it in the same 8mm (2 pieces) . Note, you need to apply pressure on the machine to help. Over all it does the job very decently. Highly recommended for hobbies, light woodworking considering its cost.

Fantastic! This is a really strong nailer that is perfect for upholstery. A quick pull of the trigger and the nail enters the wood with no need for additional hammering. We did not try the nailing function.

does a good job but it comes with UK plug so you need a converter. In my case broke down in 10 staples so i asked amazon for replacement

I tried first time an electric stapler, really I like it. For DIY it is a nice tool highly recommended. Not much powerfull I tried on MDF laminated wood with 12mm staples it's work and push at end, but I think with a hard wood like bamboo it won't be enough power. If it is durable tool and not corrupt in shor time it will be my favorite.