Hey Keith, will keep you posted on the tool, but Crain has not responded to my email of yesterday as yet, so may have to find my phone and give them a voice call, if I remember how, lol.
BTW, I opted against the aquabar, mostly because of their distribution system. They would be happy to sell me 10-20 pallets at a time but no price break over a one pallet order so wasn't going to be economically sound.
Instead, I tracked down the manufacturer of Bruce's Vapour-lock and struck a deal with them.
FYI, since we started using it on all main floor installs, especially in new houses, we have not had one call back regarding cupping. The price is a bit higher than underlay paper, but the reduced stress on the service dept. from dealing with incessant cupping calls has been well worth it.

Well I talked to the Crain guys, and dissected the tool.

1)They dont have any plans to manuf. a dedicated model for cleats. They said "The country is about 50 50 on preference of cleats or staples, and this tool does both". They may eventually expand to different thickness woods.
2) The tool is very well made, ( machined steel ). Fairley small, nice weight, and comfortable to use.
3) It has a thingamajig on the back for seperating individual staples or cleats, ( it drives 1 at a time)
4) "Typical" nailers drive or shoot staples or cleats in at 45 degrees. The Crain drives in at 65 degrees, ( so that the tool is closer to the wall ).
5) Staple application- Seperate a staple, pull out the plunger, push the single staple inside, push the plunger back in over the staple, ready to go.
6) Cleat application- Seperate a cleat, tap the cleat into crease at top of the tongue ( just tap lightly, enough to hold it in place), tap in at approx. 65 degrees but not critical, slide the Crain over the top of the cleat( this will also adjust the cleat angle).
Now this part is important, so the cleat goes in straight . Once the Crain is over the cleat...Slide the Crain over to support 3 sides of the cleat, ( otherwise there is no adequate support around the cleat, and the cleat will not drive in straight).

The cleat application sounds like a pain, but it's more of a pain to explain, the application is really very quick and easy. Crain is in the process of putting together simple instructions and pictures for posting on their site.
As I mentioned, the " # 559 close to wall staple tool" will be available middle of March.

Gary & Stephen,

I got some more info on the Skill. Some of it I dont know whether you guys already know. I didnt buy one, I almost did , just not for me. But Stephen, I was nice... to the cute demo girl .

1) The dust collection is very good, there's still dust, but very minimal, ( tuesday the turkeys forgot to turn the vacume on). Which brings me to the point of getting one of those automatic turn on deals, for the vacume.
2) Built solid,precision movement, only weighs 20 some odd pounds.
3) runs on a grinder motor, pretty loud ( you dont hear the vacume ), brushes last 60 hours.
4) For cutting ends, you slide the blade over the wood, while your positioned at one end of the tool. Then if you want to rip ...you lock the saw into place, go around the other end of the saw, where there's another switch( to use as a table saw ). You also release the wood support for crosscutting and secure it into the fence position. You can rip any length. You CAN freehand rip by using a little like gun sight attached to the blade housing,that will adjust to ride on top of the wood, BUT, you cannot see the blade. No bevel cutting, no casings , outside corners or any of that type cutting, ( limited freehand ).
5) Blade size & arbor only available from Skill, ( nice blade, 10 bucks ).
6) Will be available starting in March ,"At some Lowes back east, not all Lowes will carry it. Available on Lowes website, or Amazon.

Appreciate your time spent Howard. Did you buy her a drink?

Well...You know what they say about Vegas No no just kidding