Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I was building my mock-up side yesterday and decided to use staples on the batten between the two pieces of siding. I, um, changed my mind about six staples in and thought, oh well, I'll just get out the 3" brick chisel and mallet and pry them apart. Nope. Staples are a lot stronger than I had given them credit for. Good thing it was the mock up.



I'm thinking I'll use a couple of screws first to establish alignment and allow for corrections, then staple once I'm sure things are where they are meant to be. As long as the staples countersink a bit, life should be good.

nikwax wrote:I was building my mock-up side yesterday and decided to use staples on the batten between the two pieces of siding. I, um, changed my mind about six staples in and thought, oh well, I'll just get out the 3" brick chisel and mallet and pry them apart. Nope. Staples are a lot stronger than I had given them credit for. Good thing it was the mock up.



I'm thinking I'll use a couple of screws first to establish alignment and allow for corrections, then staple once I'm sure things are where they are meant to be. As long as the staples countersink a bit, life should be good.

Sounds like a plan. I freaked with every screw and the big gaping holes they need. If you can get the staples to go in and stay there, more power to ya. Maybe Mike will buy me a stapler too.

...many brad guns will fire staples as well...we use a lotta staples because they fasten better than brads...be aware that one leg or another of the staple will be more prone to "turning" out than a brad will.......
madjack

I'm using an air stapler. No problem getting the staples in. Air tools are fun.

Yep Miriam, get Mike to buy you one of the little HF air nailer/staplers. It uses 18ga wire brads & narrow crown staples up to a little more'n 1 1/2" long. The brads aren't much in my estimation but the staples are great. HF puts it on sale fairly often for around $20. Brads & staples are sometimes hard to come by (HF runs out pretty often) but I've been able to find workable substitutes at HD & Lowes most of the time. Best thing about it for me is that it isn't an 'air hog', & my little $79 (on sale) HF compressor runs it just fine.

Nobody wrote:Yep Miriam, get Mike to buy you one of the little HF air nailer/staplers. It uses 18ga wire brads & narrow crown staples up to a little more'n 1 1/2" long. The brads aren't much in my estimation but the staples are great. HF puts it on sale fairly often for around $20. Brads & staples are sometimes hard to come by (HF runs out pretty often) but I've been able to find workable substitutes at HD & Lowes most of the time. Best thing about it for me is that it isn't an 'air hog', & my little $79 (on sale) HF compressor runs it just fine.

same setup here. I'd also go for the extended service contracts on the HF tools, as they are prone to fail in my experience. HF is very very good about exchanging and replacing failed tools if you have your receipts.

Staples can be used to preassemble framework prior to drilling and driving screws. It helped me to get everything layed out before assembly.

more on staples: because you can't easily get them out, they have some definite downside compared to screws. I may continue to use staples in some situations but screws seem to be a better universal fastener.

If I only knew where I was going to make my mistakes ahead of time...

I used staples on the headliner of the Baja Benroy. It worked out pretty good. I had the air pressure up high enough that it would sink the staple half way into the plywood. I then filled the holes with putty. I wasn't real happy with the putty, but overall, it worked out okay.

The biggest problem is setting the pressure to high, and putting your staples all the way thru the plywood.

Mike...

LOVE my HF air stapler/brad gun. Staples are so hard to get out because they have a coating of glue on their shanks that heats up from the friction of being driven into the wood. That little bit of glue cools immediately and really holds them in!
I used it to install the FRP sheets on the roof and headliner as well as interior paneling/wall board & moldings.

Staples were always used on cold-moulded wood boats because they could be easily removed after the glue had set!

A good trick to make staples removable is to shoot them either side of polypropylene packaging/banding tape - the tape is so strong that it can be used to pull the staples out. The extra thickness and strength of the tape also stops the staple from sinking into, or even marking, the wood. You shouldn't need to have to lever against the wood which also reduces marking.

Don't shoot through the tape - you want to be able to slide the tape under the staple to get the right angle of pull on each staple in turn.

Andrew