Gunner Asch wrote in
:

On Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:33:52 GMT, Doug White
wrote:

Snip

The only wide-crown vaguely conventional staple guns I've found are a
Black & Decker and a Duo-Fast. The latter got one glowing review on
Amazon, and the guy compared it to a couple of other narrow crown
guns, including the T50:

http://www.amazon.com/Duo-Fast-CS500.../dp/B000YSF80K

He claims it has much better penetration than the T50, so I think I'll
give it a try.

Give us a review after you have used it a while.

I got the Duo-Fast, and I like it! It is easier to operate than my T50,
and has a couple of additional nice features. It has a knob on top that
allows you to dial in the power needed for a given job, and it has a
mechanism so you can pop it open to clear a jam easily. With the power
cranked all the way up, it gives significantly better penetration than
the T50, with less firing effort.

The Duo-Fast staples are "chisel point", which means the tips are just
ground to a wedge, parallel to the stack. I'm used to the T50 "divergent
point" staples, where each staple has a sharp point cut 90 degrees from
the orientation of the points on the chisel point staples. Each side is
cut with the point in the opposite direction, so they tend to splay as
they go in. This is supposed to give better holding power. I originally
thought the divergent point ones would also have better penetration
through the aluminum flashing I was working with. Arrow sells wide crown
divergent point staples for Duo-Fast guns, although the box doesn't list
the CS5000. I bought some to try, and they seem to work OK, although the
very first one jammed (it may also have been the last of the chisel
points from before). In any event, the quick jam clearing feature worked
very nicely, and I didn't have a problem after that. Penetration of the
two styles of staples was pretty much indistinguishable. I didn't try
prying them out, so I don't know if the divergent points hold appreciably
better. I doubt I could tell the difference with just a screw driver.

When stapling flashing to soft pine, the variable power feature was very
nice. I could easily adjust it so that the bottom of the staple was just
flat & in contact against the flashing, or crank it up so they were
driven flush across the top (which stresses the aluminum, and is probably
weaker, although esthetically nicer). If I hit a harder or softer piece
of pine, I could tweak the power to suit.

All in all, I consider it a significant improvement over my old T50, and
it has become my staple gun of choice for future projects.

Doug White