WEN 61710 3/8-Inch to 1-Inch 18 Gauge Narrow Crown Stapler

At under $22 this Chinese-made stapler costs less than some boxes of staples. It arrived promptly and in good condition.WHAT'S IN THE BOX:In addition to the stapler you get a plastic case, a small cheap bottle of air tool oil, two hex keys, and a booklet of operating instructions. It includes no staples, which you'll have to buy separately.THE CASEThe plastic case is better than I had been expecting for the price of this tool. The tool sort-of fits in the case, but not well. It's as if Wen decided to stop refining the case's design too soon, to save costs.THE OILYou get a small unmarked bottle of what should be pneumatic oil. It has a spout that you'd need to remove from the bottle, reverse so the pointy end is out, and puncture with a pin to use. I already had an open bottle of pneumatic oil, so I didn't use the one supplied, but even so I credit Wen for including it.THE HEX KEYSI haven't had to use the two supplied hex keys yet, which are held within the case. The operating instructions call them an "S3 Hex Key" and an "S4 Hex Key". I'm not sure what is meant by the "S" prefix, but they appear to be ordinary 3 mm and 4 mm hex keys. The body of the stapler has several 4 mm socket screws, and the magazine assembly uses 3 mm socket screws.THE INSTRUCTIONSThe operating instructions aren't bad. They are written in American English, and consist of two 8.5" x 11" sheets folded in half and staple bound, to produce an 8-page 8.5" x 5.5" booklet. By my count it has a total of 5 tables and 4 figures, including an exploded view drawing and a parts list. There is an insert with a one year limited warranty for non-commercial use against defects, with proof of purchase. But, there's only a 30-day limited warranty for commercial or rental use. There is also a sticker on the front of the manual giving the phone number for Wen's customer service department, and an admonition not to return the unit to the store. This sticker and warranty insert are the only parts of the operating instructions that mention Wen; the rest is written anonymously for a generic air stapler model 61710.THE STAPLERThe tool comes assembled -- ready to load staples, add a few drops of oil, connect to an air supply, and drive staples.The tool's body, painted blue, is die-cast aluminum, and the Wen logos are part of it. Other parts are made of various materials including steel and plastic. The handle has a rubber "soft-grip sleeve" wrapped around it with some raised dots for texture. (Those dots remind me of pips-out rubber on a ping-pong paddle.) It fits well in the hand and has good heft, weighing a few ounces less than 3 lbs. For what it's worth, it has a CE-mark label on it, meaning that Wen declares this tool meets EU safety, health and environmental requirements.Three additional features are:1. A window with a scale on the side of the fixed magazine that lets you see how many staples are left until it is time to reload.2. An adjustable exhaust deflector, consisting of a black plastic cap (exhaust cover) on top of the tool. There are two holes in the side of the cap that normally aim the exhaust towards the front of the tool, which should be away from the operator. But, the exhaust cover is mounted by a socket screw in its center, and with some force it can be rotated 360 degrees.3. The tool's nose has a latch designed to make it easy to clear staple jams. I haven't had to use it yet.A feature that I had hoped for, but this unit lacks, is an adjustment controlling the driving depth. Contrary to the Amazon product description, there is no "variable depth control for quick countersinking adjustment". *** THE ONLY WAY TO CONTROL THE DRIVING DEPTH IS BY ADJUSTING THE REGULATOR'S AIR PRESSURE. ***There also seems to be some confusion in the operating instructions about the depth adjustment. The twenty-first safety caution says, "THIS TOOL IS EQUIPPED WITH SAFE BRACKET THAT CAN ADJUST THE DEPTH OF THE DRIVER. When adjusting the depth of the driver, first disconnect the tool from the air and rotate nut by thumb to satisfactory position." But, I think these safety cautions were just boiler-plate copied over from some other tool's manual. The safe bracket has no adjustment nut. None is shown in the exploded view drawing or parts list. And the section of the instructions called "operating the tool" says, "Test the driving depth in a sample piece of wood before using. If the fasteners are being driven too far or not far enough, adjust the regulator to provide less air pressure or more air pressure."There is no serial number on the product, and the model number is only on a sticker.THE STAPLESAs I mentioned previously, the tool comes with no staples, so you'll have to buy those separately. The tool uses 3/8" to 1" long, 18-gauge staples with a 1/4" crown. I bought a box of 5,000 5/8" x 1/4" (15 mm x 6 mm) Fas'ners-Unlimited-brand galvanized staples at a local Lowe's home-center store for about $18. They fit and worked fine. I was using about 72 PSI from a small DeWalt compressor, and the staples were sunk just below the surface of 1/4" lauan over 3/4" birch plywood.My first use for these staples was to snug-up the back of a bookcase that had come loose in a few places. It had previously been attached with brads. I've discovered that for this use staples do a much better job than brads.OPERATIONSo far my stapler seems to be working well. All of my test shots were OK, and there have been no jams.While stapling into the back of a bookcase, there were some misfirings, but perhaps the safety in the tool's nose wasn't always getting fully depressed. Also, I found one staple I needed to tap in further. I'm not sure what caused that one to be higher; it may have been caused by a drop in air pressure during rapid use.DURABILITYI still don't know how well it will hold up long term, but this Wen stapler seems to be made well-enough that it should last a long time. At first I was concerned when I saw some brown marks on the yellow-painted nose of the tool that looked like rusted scratches in the paint. But, they wiped off, revealing pristine yellow paint underneath, so those marks were probably just grease. If I were planning to use this tool commercially, I'd also be concerned about the 30-day limit on the commercial-use warranty.CONCLUSIONSMy previous experience with pneumatic tools was with a more-expensive Hitachi brad nailer, which exudes quality. On a 0 to 10 scale, I'd rate this Wen stapler at 7 for features, 8 for build quality, and 8 for value. I don't have enough experience with it to judge long-term reliability, but it seems well made. I have no problem recommending it for occasional non-commercial use. For extended use, I'd suggest getting a stapler with a depth adjustment.

Amazon just gets better and better about shipping things. I ordered this stapler, was shipped out in less than 24 hours and had it on in my hands a few days latter. I don't know how they do it for the money. The staplers build (that you can see)is excellent. My guns paint was perfect. The fit of the parts was perfect. Even the labels where put on straight. Looks very heavy duty to me. It's comfortable to use and staples load easily. The case is nice but the gun doesn't fit in it perfectly but good enough. I shot 1/2" and 1" staples through the gun and it drove them into new 2X4s and even some real old 2x4s to slightly below the surface of the lumber. You have to adjust the depth of how far you want to drive the staples in with the regulator on your air compressor. From 60lbs to 100lbs. If you go below 55lbs the gun won't cycle. I know because I was trying to put up paper back insulation with it. It just won't shoot the staple in soft enough so as not to go through the paper. As I thought about it, it's probably not supposed to, having that narrow of a staple. It works perfect for every thing else I have used it for. I only gave it four stars because it does NOT have a manual lever safety. It does have the end like on a nail gun that has to depressed before it will fire. Also, the least I have been able to drive staples in (even at 55lbs pressure) is almost flush. I don't see this to be a problem for most uses but there might be an application where you don't want the staple in all the way. For everything but real delicate work, I don't see how you could beat this gun. Almost every tool I have Is Dewalt and it killed me not to by the Dewalt stapler but it was almost three times the money. I new I wouldn't use this very much so I went for the WEN. I'm glad I did.

I didn't start out looking for this stapler. I was simply trying to tack down a small piece of carpet in our motorhome. The carpet was originally stapled by the motorhome builder with very thin 3/4" staples. None of the hand staplers I tried would go thru both the folded carpet and hard board. I went on Amazon to look for a carpet stapler, but was turned off by the high price and the fact that, after tacking down the carpet, I would have a tool that would probably never be used again. When I changed my search to be simply "Stapler" this tool popped up. It is an air driven tool, but I have a compressor so that was not a problem. I ordered the tool for an unbelievable low price and got FREE shipping. The tool arrived in perfect condition and ready to use out of the nice plastic carrying case. I had ordered 3/4" staples with the tool and bought a combo pack at the local Home Depot. Two minutes after taking the tool out of the box and reading the instructions I was ready to use it. The instructions simply state that that the stapler can use 3/8" thru 1" staples and operates with 60 to 100 psi air pressure. I set the pressue to 80 psi and shot a 3/4" staple into a piece of scrap wood and the staple was cleanly driven below flush with the surface of the board. I used the tool to tack down the carpet and it worked flawlessly. I then used it to build a box to store our motorhome BBQ so I could haul it on the back of our motorhome. The box was constructed from 1/4" and 3/8" plywood stapled to a 3/4" pine frame. The tool worked perfectly with both 3/4" and 1" staples (I did increase the pressure to 100 psi for the 1" staples). There were no jams no bent staples and 100% of the staples were driven into the wood straight and below flush. If you have a compessor with a regulator I highly recommend this stapler.

This stapler might not be good enough for professional use, but it is more that adequate for hobby or DIY projects. The only issue with this model is it is limited to 1" length staples. If you are interested in a stapler, I can recommend this one, but be sure you will not need to use 2" staples if you buy this one.

Great product for the money and performed very well. Also bought extended warranty at a very reasonable cost just as added protection.Not a tool that I use everyday and I expect it to last for a long time with periodic use.l

Used a couple of times building Bee Hive parts works great , seems well made. Used with 5/8" and 7/8" & 1" staples allhit there mark.

it staples and doesn't jam, nuff said

Great value. Works flawlessly