Cap Staplers and Nailers

Tester Comments
The most useful tools of the test, the identical 58 tools are reliable, compact, and lightweight. All are made by Pneu-Tools and also branded for Grip-Rite and Senco. The inline, horizontal cap barrel keeps the front and sides clear of any extra hardware, so it’s easy to sneak the nose into tight quarters. Being the lightest and most maneuverable helped make these staplers the collective favorite. These tools feature a fast cap-reloading system and the most trouble-free collation system once loaded. Before being loaded, the edge-welded cap clusters must be handled with care, as they tend to break apart easily. The staples load from underneath, which opens up the staple track for jam clearing as well. The staples are finer wire (21 gauge) than the other staplers tested and limited to 5/8-inch leg length, so these tools aren’t useful to fasten insulation materials more than 1/8-inch thick. But they are just right for housewraps and roof underlayment–our most common use of a cap tool–and had plenty of power for shooting into any material. These tools also can use shorter staples down to 5/32-inch, but may not provide enough holding strength for caps. The belt hooks are a welcome feature on this size and weight of tool.

Contact
Grip-Rite
800-556-6696
www.grip-rite.com

Tester Comments
The most useful tools of the test, the identical 58 tools are reliable, compact, and lightweight. All are made by Pneu-Tools and also branded for Grip-Rite and Senco. The inline, horizontal cap barrel keeps the front and sides clear of any extra hardware, so it’s easy to sneak the nose into tight quarters. Being the lightest and most maneuverable helped make these staplers the collective favorite. These tools feature a fast cap-reloading system and the most trouble-free collation system once loaded. Before being loaded, the edge-welded cap clusters must be handled with care, as they tend to break apart easily. The staples load from underneath, which opens up the staple track for jam clearing as well. The staples are finer wire (21 gauge) than the other staplers tested and limited to 5/8-inch leg length, so these tools aren’t useful to fasten insulation materials more than 1/8-inch thick. But they are just right for housewraps and roof underlayment–our most common use of a cap tool–and had plenty of power for shooting into any material. These tools also can use shorter staples down to 5/32-inch, but may not provide enough holding strength for caps. The belt hooks are a welcome feature on this size and weight of tool.

Contact
Pneu-Tools Inc.
888-689-2529
www.pneutoolsinc.net

Tester Comments
The most useful tools of the test, the identical 58 tools are reliable, compact, and lightweight. All are made by Pneu-Tools and also branded for Grip-Rite and Senco. The inline, horizontal cap barrel keeps the front and sides clear of any extra hardware, so it’s easy to sneak the nose into tight quarters. Being the lightest and most maneuverable helped make these staplers the collective favorite. These tools feature a fast cap-reloading system and the most trouble-free collation system once loaded. Before being loaded, the edge-welded cap clusters must be handled with care, as they tend to break apart easily. The staples load from underneath, which opens up the staple track for jam clearing as well. The staples are finer wire (21 gauge) than the other staplers tested and limited to 5/8-inch leg length, so these tools aren’t useful to fasten insulation materials more than 1/8-inch thick. But they are just right for housewraps and roof underlayment–our most common use of a cap tool–and had plenty of power for shooting into any material. These tools also can use shorter staples down to 5/32-inch, but may not provide enough holding strength for caps. The belt hooks are a welcome feature on this size and weight of tool.

Contact
Senco Products Inc.
800-543-4596
www.senco.com

Tester Comments
For thicker materials, this is the stapler of choice. It has the most power and a long staple length. All that muscle comes at a price, though; its head-heavy design makes it feel heavier than it is. It’s too much tool for just using on housewrap because extended use can be very tiring, but it will attach foam or fiberboard sheathing up to 1-inch thick. This is the fastest tool for reloading caps and fasteners at four seconds per pit stop, and the string-collated caps are among the most durable in transport. The vertical cap barrel mechanism sticks 4 1/2 inches off the right of the tool, so thoughtful aiming is required near obstructions.

Contact
Bostitch
800-556-6696
www.bostitch.com

Tester Comments
This updated version of the popular CrossFire model looks bulky, but it has the best balance and feel. It had no problem sinking its maximum 1 1/4-inch staples into dense sheathing, although there was some recoil. The coil-collated cap reloads take longer than barrel-loaded cap tools and take a bit of practice, but once loaded, you’ve got twice what the other staplers can hold. It’s the only tool without directional exhaust, but it has lots of other features such as a single-fire trigger switch, an easy jam-clearing latch, adjustable depth of drive, and a belt hook.

Contact
Spotnails
800-873-2239
www.spotnails.com

Tester Comments
This updated version of the popular CrossFire model looks bulky, but it has the best balance and feel. It had no problem sinking its maximum 1 1/4-inch staples into dense sheathing, although there was some recoil. The coil-collated cap reloads take longer than barrel-loaded cap tools and take a bit of practice, but once loaded, you’ve got twice what the other staplers can hold. It’s the only tool without directional exhaust, but it has lots of other features such as a single-fire trigger switch, an easy jam-clearing latch, adjustable depth of drive, and a belt hook.

Contact
Pneu-Tools Inc.
888-689-2529
www.pneutoolsinc.net

Tester Comments
This tool has a body the size of the 58 staplers but with a bulky vertical cap storage tower. Reloading caps into the cylinder is just plain awkward, although the wire-collated caps are very sturdy to carry around. Heed the red warning label on the lid, or you’ll end up dumping a load of caps–or worse, the pusher spring will pop out. The tool is a little weak and doesn’t sink longer staples into dense sheathing. The cap tower limits the manueverablility of the tool and requires more careful aiming than others.

Contact
XM International Inc.
888-880-3118
www.wexcell.com

Tester Comments
This tool is basically a Bostitch N66 coil sheathing nailer outfitted with the same cap delivery system as the Bostitch cap stapler. It’s very head-heavy, so much so that it’s not practical for housewrap installation. When you’re reaching up and around to attach 9 -foot tall rolls of housewrap in a hurry, it’s too much to handle. But it’s got the longest nail capacity of the entire test, and it’s the only tool that can attach 2-inch thick foam sheathing. It has the power to drive into the densest sheathing, and I backed down the depth of drive adjustment more than once. Caps have to be loaded three times for each coil of nails.

Contact
Bostitch
800-556-6696
www.bostitch.com

Tester Comments
Our favorite cap nailer. When you have to cap off 30 squares of roof felt or housewrap, reach for this tool. Once loaded, you have 350 shots before reloading. The cap reel magazine hinges down to expose the entire cap path for amazingly easy and fast reloads. And its near-perfect balance makes the tool feel much lighter than it is. The tool has just enough power to drive nails into dense materials with little recoil. There’s a selectable trigger switch for single shot or bounce fire. The 2-inch nail length limits foam board sheathing thickness to 1 1/2-inch. The only flaw is the depth of drive knob; it’s small and awkward to turn. The caps come in enclosed reels for tanglefree reloads.

Contact
Hitachi Power Tools
800-829-4752
www.hitachipowertools.com

Tester Comments
This tool has plusses such as the sleek, inline cap storage, a handy depth-of-drive adjustment, and selectable trigger, but its performance minuses overshadow them. Lacking in power, even with the depth of drive at the deepest setting, this tool wouldn’t consistently sink even short (1 1/2-inch) nails in 5/8-inch OSB. Also, the caps folded in half if the tool was in forward motion when bounce-fired. This didn’t occur in backward or sideways motion. It was very head-heavy as well. And caps must be loaded three times to every load of coil nails.

Contact
Pneu-Tools Inc.
888-689-2529
www.pneutoolsinc.net