After laying down 5/8" bamboo in a Kitchen/Diningroom/long hall, my wife is so impressed with the looks that she wantrs to do at least two more rooms.
I had been renting the Bostich MIII FS floor stapler from Home Depot for a week, and rather than continue to rent the stapler, I went to Harbor Freight and looked at their stapler, SKU 90399.
It looks virtually identical.
So I violated my own past rule of "never buying any more crap from Harbor Freight", and bought it. ($134)

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=90399

It is really very well made and works even better than the rental.
Both took a little time getting the shoe depth shimmed to perfect height. I used multiple layers of .015" thick plastic; and both needed only about 65 psi (on my cheap gauge) to perfectly sink the 2" staples without breaking the tongues. In the end, the Harbor Freight stapler is setting the staples more perfectly and with greater consistency than the Bostich !

Bottom line: The two staplers are as identical as two tools can be ! If I have any problems with the new stapler, I will report back !

PS: With my recent multiple posts I don't want to give the impression that "do it yourself" is really "easy". I had 4 years experience as a kitchen remodeling contractor in a previous life; so I feel like I had a big head start on most do-it-yourselfers. Now, i am just getting back into some home improvement projects for myself. "Do it yourself" is damned difficult and incredibly time consuming, especially if you want to do it right.

I had the same experience with the Stapler. I have used it for multiple DIY jobs and its performed VERY well. The chinese made a great copy of the Bostich, It is virtually identical.

Howd you get it for $134? The website says $170.

[quote="AllGoNoShow"]Howd you get it for $134? The website says $170.[/quote]


Individual stores will have specials all the time.

I use several HF tools, and they hold up to what I put them through.

I did have a $9 angle grinder quit on me, but they replaced it, no questions asked, and it was dusty from grinding a high spot in concrete.

[quote="AllGoNoShow"]Howd you get it for $134? The website says $170.[/quote]


They have two....1 stapler only and 1 that will do both staples and cleats. Here is the deal for the Stapler only at $124

[url]http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=93197[/url]

Yes, I think that if you are willing to buy online you can get it for $124.
When I was actually at Harbor Freight, the sales clerk said that the floor stapler comes under two different SKU numbers, but they are actually physically identical.
Their local price of $134 was closer to $124 than $170, so I just took it.
Harbor Freight store are studies in mass chaos, so I felt lucky to get out with no serious injuries !

I was using it again last night: it does an excellent job.

I rented the manual Bosch nailer from HD...whew that will kick your can.
Then I got fed up...fixed my compressor and bought the HF floor stapler for $124. I've read articles on the net saying the nails are better than staples...bull. I can wiggle the nail and the flooring pulls right up b/c it acts more like a punch as it's driven through the plank and osb. The staple? You practically have to rip the plank apart to get it up.

The stapler...for whatever reason...does mess up more often but no big deal. Just cut the staple with a pair of dikes..hammer and punch the staple over and it hold fine. The L nail? The heads snap off when your trying to pry them out. Also, be sure to get the output pressure right on the compressor b/c it doesn't take much 'force' to drive the staple right through the tongue and snap it off.

HF also sells the staples for half the cost of HD for staples. My vote Harbor Freight Commie Pinko Stapler all the way. Get the extended warranty too for $20 in case it messes up. Besides 1 week rental at HD $120 which is the cost of buying the stapler and you can always sell the tool on ebay when your done.

[quote="RD"], I went to Harbor Freight and looked at their stapler, SKU 90399.
It looks virtually identical.
It is really very well made and works even better than the rental.
Bottom line: The two staplers are as identical as two tools can be ! If I have any problems with the new stapler, I will report back !

.[/quote]

Hey RD, would the Harbor frieght stapler split a thinner floor type with a small tongue, I'm getting ready to lay 1/2" x 5" cherry engineered floor and was going to rent and I had looked at the HF one and thought the 15 gage staple with a 1/2" crown would pulferize the small tongue on my engineered floor, or would it?

Cheers

soarneez

You will get "pimples" where the fasteners are using the bigger gun.

Harbor Freight usually turned out to be a hit or miss for me. I now usually buy my tools from Amazon (good prices, no taxes and usually free shipping) and buy the items that might go bad from HF such as rubber mallets, sand paper, etc etc.

Does the HF stapler come with the plastic piece to protect the wood like the Bostich Stapler has?

Comes in a big plastic carry case with two footings, small oil bottle and a box of staples. 2000 staples is $12 at HF, sounds like a lot of staples but I'm suprised how fast one goes through them. I'd practice the technique of applying the right compressor pressure, hand pressure on the tool and swing speed (rather than force) to use the tool w/o marring up the edge of the plank. I'm using 5/8 solid maple strip and it's worked fine. If you don't securely hold it in place it can kick back and not drive the staple deep enough or kick up the lip on the edge and cause minor chipping on the tongue side. If it does blow through the tongue just cut it off and drill a pilot hole and blind nail or scoot over and whap it again. So far so good.

I've even been able to squat down and use it in a small closet b/c you don't have to hit it hard to drive the staple, just sufficient force and quickly.

Although I've now seen staplers that are more like nail guns with just a trigger release. If that's sufficient force to make the compressor blow then why are they still making one you have to whack with a mallet? I'm not a professional by any stretch but many of you are and I can't understand why they haven't made a more (back friendly) user friendly nailer. After a few hours of stapling/nailing you feel like your back is permanently frozen. I can't imagine doing that all day long, day after day.

Electric floor nailers/staplers? Do they exist?

I can't be sure; but I can say that you canm do an aweful lot of "adjusting" by changing the air pressure and shimming the shoe plates.

Both the Bostitch and the Harbor Freight tools were splitting tongues on my 5/8" bamboo until I shimmed the plates and turned the pressure down. I ended up using only 60-65 psi. Also, it seems very critical to shim the shoe plates so that the staple is entering right in the angle at the root of the tongue. I actually set mine shooting slightly "high" so that the staple just skims across the chamfered side-edge of the board above the tongue and then is forced to enter just at the "board side" of the root of the tongue.

I shimmed with numerous sheets of thin plastic (.015" thick" and experimented a lot before doing real boards.

After adjustments, the staple head lays just barely below surface at the root of the tongue without splitting the tongue. It is very repeatable after adjustment. It leaves no "bumps" or dimples on the surface either.

Conclusion: Staples hold a LOT better than 8d finish nails !!!!! You can hardly pry the staples out even after ripping the boards away, leaving the staple standing there by itself !!!



I also have a 15 GA finish nail gun, that I use where the floor nailer is inaccessible and I venture to guess that you could do a whole floor with it. Tongue nailing just requires a good aim, and it also is handy for face-nailing the last row or two.