Electric Stapler: Friend or Foe?

Usually I'm not a big fan of electric staplers, and i don't know if i still am. When i first spent time with this stapler i was a bit skeptical as to how good it was going to be. After using it i have to say that my experience with it was so on the fence that I'm still torn between electric and manual staplers. Neither one has fully won my hear over but there was definitely things that i liked and disliked about the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler.

One thing i definitely liked about this stapler was the power and precision that it had. This thing would rip through huge jobs like they were nothing. Which was always nice because it meant that i could then quickly move on to another task. The Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler definitely impressed me here because i believe it advertises being able to staple through some 45 sheets, but from personal experience i can say that it can indeed handle bigger loads than that. I didn't ever push the limits by any means but it still maintained very well when i would run projects through that were upwards of 55 to 60 sheets. Which was something it did with ease, which was definitely better than any manual stapler that I've ever used in the past.

Another thing that i loved about this stapler and as i mentioned just briefly before was the precision. I use the word precision for lack of a better, but it was amazing to watch the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler staple through 50 sheets just as smoothly as it did 10. I rarely ever had bind ups or problems with staples getting twisted either, problems generally associated with manual staplers when stapling larger amounts of paper.

Last but not least, another handy little feature that the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler had was a little light that would light up as the staples were getting low. This was helpful because then you could anticipate a staple change and know when it would be necessary. This was a very helpful feature. Loading staples was fairly easy as well but routine considering the nature of most electric staplers.

A few things that made me dislike the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler, however, were the fact that at times stapling sheets seemed a little like playing double dutch, not quite sure when to jump in. At times the optical firing mechanism that fired the staples seemed a bit twitchy, and fired the staples just a bit before you wanted which would cause problems at times. So there would be times, especially with delicate projects that required every attention to detail, where you'd place the project on the edge of the stapler and as you slid it in, it would start working and the tendency would be to pull the paper out fearing that it would misfire. Maybe I'm paranoid or just a perfectionist or something but i had some intense moments working with that thing.

Also, as far as where you wanted to place a staple was extremely limited with the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler. There was pretty much just one way that you could get a staple in and at times that may not be what you're looking for. Especially when only one staple is required, the ideal is to place the single staple in the upper left hand corner on a diagonal angle so to optimize the best possible page turning. However, this is quite impossible to achieve with the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler. This really limits it's versatility and makes a manual stapler easier to use and definitely maneuver.

In the end the Stanley Bostitch B8 Electric Stapler had big things that i really liked about it. As far as bigger projects went, this was the only way to go. With smaller projects, i tend to prefer a good hand stapler, so in my opinion you almost need both which is one reason that i didn't really care for this stapler, it seemed incomplete without a hand stapler sitting right next to it whereas a good manual hand stapler is all you need if you need to.