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Tools & Materials

Cordless Stapler for Hard-to-Reach Spaces

Offering power and portability, the Milwaukee 12v cordless stapler is light enough to use above your head all day and fits just about anywhere you'd want it to.

By Andrew Zoellner Issue 312 - Dec 2022/Jan 2023
No cord required. The Milwaukee M12 3/8-in. crown stapler isn’t much larger than a standard stapler and fires up to 1500 staples on a 1.5-Ah battery. Photo: courtesy of Milwaukee

I remember seeing Milwaukee’s 12v cordless stapler at the home center a few years back and wondering who would buy one. When I found myself with my head in between my basement floor joists, stapling about 800 sq. ft. of aluminum heat-transfer plates under the dense solid-board subfloor, the reason for such a tool became perfectly clear: power and portability. The stapler ($130 for the bare tool) is slightly larger than a typical handheld stapler, and weighs about 3-1/2 lb. with a battery, which means it’s light enough to use above your head all day and fits just about anywhere you’d want it to, including comfortably on your tool belt.

The tool takes 1/4-in. to 9/16-in. T50 staples; one pull of the trigger fires one staple, or, if you hold down the trigger, it’ll fire a staple every time you depress the foot—not quite as responsive as a pneumatic stapler in bump-fire mode, but still very convenient. It has plenty of power to drive 1/2-in. staples through aluminum and into old dense wood, and the fact that you’re not dragging around a hose is a bonus. The controls are intuitive, and include the ability to dial in how deep the staples are set (try doing that with a manual stapler). If you’re doing any kind of repetitive stapling with T50 staples, it’s a worthy investment to save your hands.

Andrew Zoellner, editorial director

From Fine Homebuilding #312


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