Accessories

Second One Works Fine
The first PowerShot stapler that I purchased did not work at all. I have to assume that it was manufactured improperly. In that stapler, the hammer that came down to hit the staples was too far forward towards the nose of the gun. It would miss every staple. I never got it to shoot ONE staple. As you look at the stapler from the bottom, there is a black metal "tray" that holds the staples. The hammer is supposed to come down inside this tray and hit the first staple. In my gun, the hammer would come down on the outside of this tray toward the nose of the gun. You would have thought that the hammer might just hit the tray itself by accident, but it did not. It seems that there was enough space between the staple tray and the external staple gun housing that the hammer could go all the way down and never hit a staple. I returned it and got another one. The second one has worked perfectly. I don't think that it has jammed once.

So, now that I have a staple gun that works properly, how do I like it? It is just OK. I don't shoot thousands of staples. On paper, it looks like such a cool design, but in usage, it is about the same as my Sears staple gun. I often use my staple gun for attaching bell wire to walls such as for electric garage door openers. The PowerShot staples are narrower than the traditional staples. I am more apt to hit the wire or the wire insulation with the PowerShot stapler because they are narrower. If I have to staple 4 bell wires at once with the PowerShot stapler, it becomes a chore. My handiwork in that case, looks like I was drunk. There are times when I have to reach up to staple wires as they run up a wall to meet the garage ceiling. I really have to be able to get my hand all the way up into that corner with the PowerShot since I have to apply force to the handle at the nose of that gun. With the traditional stapler, I don't have to reach as far into the corner, since the force is being applied to the handle, more from the rear of the gun. If I can avoid stretching and reaching less when I am on a ladder, I am all for it. If I can avoid sticking my head further into the cobwebs on the garage ceiling, the better. If I had to shoot thousands of staples in a repetitive motion at waist level, I might choose the PowerShot, but I am not even sure about then. You do have to wonder, if the PowerShot stapler was such a cool design, why hasn't it cornered the stapler market? It has been around awhile.

Junk
It worked intitially (through Lowe's return period) but now will not fire a staple into any material whatsoever. Hold it against a board, press it with all your might, and it absolutely will not fire. Point it at the sky, pull, and it fires a staple far up into the wild blue yonder. Press it against the board, try again, no go... Point it at the sky, blam! Works great. Press it against the board, shake it, wiggle it, tilt it every which way, nothing. Towards the sky? Blam!

I guess if you want to staple clouds to the clear blue sky, this would be a good tool. For any practical use, it's junk. I'm going to toss it and get a simple, traditional model. There should be a "zero star" rating for products like this.

A piece of garbage
This stapler is the worst....constant jams, no-fires, misfires, and plain tiring to the hands. So much for their ergonomic design! I bought mine at Lowes and without a receipt (my bad) they won't refund. Don't waste your money on this stapler. I threw mine away and bought the simple one from Arrow...works like a charm.

What a waste of time!!
I bought one of these a few years ago and have never gotten it to properly lay even a single stick of staples. It will false-fire (act like it's shooting a staple then not lay one), mis-fire (shooting the staple when you release pressure on the trigger), not fire at all, and then jam consistently. Finally in frustration, I opened it up to see what the problem was. One of the anvil pins is too short. As this is a hardened & polished pin, you're not gonna find one at your local hardware store. and because my problems have been reflected by many others with similar experiences, I can only conclude this was not a one-off assembly line error. Clearly someone got cheap and decided to save a few pennies by intentionally using a shorter pin (and probably got a promotion for saving the company money). This thing went into the scrap pile & I went back to my father's old Arrow that has worked for 40 years now. This, combined with similar problems I have had with other new Black & Decker products, I can only assume the proud name of Black & Decker is now being used to market cheap & shoddy products with no concern for use or life after the sale. No more Black & Decker products for me.

UGH!
I bought the Powershot a week ago. I needed and liked the ability of this tool to staple wires without penetrating them. I also thought the design was very logical and more ergonomically correct.

I shot about 5 staples and then it began to misfire, no staple came out. I removed the loading spring, shot a few more staples and then it jammed.
I cleared the jam per instructions and then the operation only got worse.

I should have read the reviews before purchasing. It goes back today and I don't want a new one...I want a different model or brand.

VERY DISSAPOINTED!