Staple guns are used in a variety of work, from crafting at home to construction sites. They are undoubtedly a handy piece of kit to have in your toolbox, but there are some safety issues inherent with a handheld tool that fires sharp metal objects out of it. Here is our guide to the do’s and don’ts of using staple guns.
Personal protection equipment
As a minimum, you should use safety goggles (a stray staple in the eye can be life-changing), and safety gloves – choose ones that resist penetration by staples but allow you the dexterity you need to manipulate and use the staple gun safely. For heavier duty pneumatically powered industrial staple guns, you might also want to think about ear protection, particularly on production lines where the tools might be used non-stop for the duration of a shift.
Don’t neglect common sense
Basic safety is often just a matter of common sense, but here are some important staple gun specifics to abide by:
- Don’t point the gun at anything you don’t want a staple in
- Don’t walk or run with your finger on the trigger – you should only be touching the trigger when you want to release a staple
- Where possible, use clamps or vices to hold the workpiece when you are stapling it – further removing your hands from the business end
- Make use of the built-in safety features, don’t remove or bypass them – they are there for a reason
Do get to know your tool
Make sure you have a good understanding of your staple gun: specifically, how much pressure you need to put on the trigger to release a staple. For an industrial model that might have an automatic feed, make sure you know how long it takes from releasing the trigger to the staple’s stopping.
You should also develop a good understanding of the power of your staple gun and what kind of materials you can use it with. Attempting to put a staple in the wrong material can cause a bounce-back at relatively high speed, causing injury.
Knowing your staple gun thoroughly will also allow you to get a better sense of any issue before it escalates. Suddenly not providing enough power to penetrate a normally easy-to-staple material? Stop using the gun and find out why. Similarly, you should check your staple gun over before you use it, so knowing what it looks like and how it acts when it is in optimal condition can give you better insight into whether it needs cleaning or other maintenance before you start work.
