Pneumatic/Electric upholstery stapler- Any recommendations

[mhaaland]

I'm doing my upholstery this winter and looking to buy a stapler. Should i go Air or electric and is there any brands i should look for or stay away from?

[h2ohangtime]

Electric will work fine on the starboard pieces, but probably won't work on the fiberglass--you'll need a pneumatic for those. The hardest part will be finding the correct staples, most of the big-box stores don't carry a very wide selection of stainless.

[Mikeski]

I did some upholstery work with a Ryobi 18V battery powered stapler. Worked great, get some monel (stainless steel) staples.

[Paublo]

To me the advantage of pneumatic is by changing the air pressure you can quickly and easily change the force or depth / drive of the staple. I bought a new Senco (good brand) off of ebay for about $100. It is light and easy to use. I don't have the model number with me, but do a quick search for their upholstery stapler model #. It is easy to get the SS staples online or from a commercial upholstery supply shop.

[Chexi]

I bought a surebonder narrow crown, but had trouble going through the fiberglass. I'm not sure if it was the stapler or the size of the staples (I think both). The narrow crown staplers either bend and won't go through or with added PSI go right through the vinyl too. Your best bet (and how the factory and pros do it) is to use a wider, thicker staple for the fiberglass parts and a narrow crown, smaller staple like 3/8" for the starboard pieces. (necessitating 2 guns I think).

[teamseal]

I utilize a Supco S-5018 Pneumatic stapler. For Fiberglass Substrate I use The same staples as the factory Duo-fast 5012-DSS 3/8 staples.
When trying to staple into fiberglass getting the air pressure correct is key, also keep your stapler lubed and oiled!

[srock]

My electric home depot stapler did not have the guts to do a tough job.

[areford]

I purchased a Surebonder as well, the model 9600, off Amazon for $ 35 buckets. The monel or SS t50 staples are available at HD or Lowes. It is a narrow crown, but given the cost trade off, it work just fine on my complete interior job on my 93 sport. It would be nice to have had the wider staples, but I found the cost to be the limiting factor. As mentioned, the psi can vary depending on what material you are shooting into; ie wood, plastic, fiberglass, etc...

[RainDog]

I bought a Surebonder wide crown pneumatic stapler from Northern Tool and Equipment for around $30. I haven't tried it into fiberglass, but it worked great into epoxy saturated plywood for my new kick panel and stern storage/engine compartment dividers. Any of the electric staplers I've ever used really sucked for **** near anything. S/S staples of varying lengths can be had at most hardware/home stores.

[wake_fun]

Good info

[swc5150]

I bought a cheap Tool Shop version from Menard's, and it did the job great. Finding the staples is the challenge, as stated earlier.