The Arrow T-59 Cable Stapler
Last updated: 2/29/04

It's a sad story that keeps repeating in our forums... A new home owner has had his our her entire house wired for networking, the dry wall has been installed, and the network doesn't work. The wiring was done by a unqualified subcontractor (or the homeowner) who stapled the network cabling to studs, etc. with a stapler that was not designed for the job.

That may work for telephone lines and even dial-up MODEMS, but it will stop a 100 bps 100BASE-TX Ethernet, operating at frequencies in the 38 MHz range, cold. Maintaining the geometry of CAT 5e and CAT6 cables is abosolutely critical for signal propagation at these higher frequencies. Kinking it, bending it too tight, stretching it too much, or squashing it will permanately ruin it.

I have purposely tried to use this stapler to drive a staple through a CAT 5e cable. Because of the arched nose piece (3), that fits over and protects the cable, it is next to impossible to do.

The cost of a network cable stapler is not the only consideration if one is going to do a lot of cabling. The price of the staples, how many staples a stapler will hold, and the ease of loading the stapler are also factors. As compared to the Arrow T-59, a competing product, which holds 30 insulated staples that cost $6.50 for 300, the Acme 25AC holds up to 84 uninsulated staples that cost $2.89 for a box of 1,000.

The Arrow staplers I have have an inferior, rear-loaded staple magazine with a pusher that must be removed to load staples. I have tendency to misplace the pusher when hunting for the correct staples to load.

The tips of the staples in the T-59 rest on either side of a slot in the bottom of the stapler to keep them from falling out. This makes the stapler more difficult to unjam--the first two of the four Arrow staplers (JT-21, T-50, T-25, and T-59) I own jam so much and are so difficult to unjam that I don't use them anymore. The inside arch of the staples, but not the tips, are thus exposed through the slot. The pusher and its spring are also exposed at the bottom of the stapler.

Some building codes require insulated staples, even for low-voltage wire.

The Arrow guns require complete disassembly of the magazine to clear a jammed staple while on the Acme guns with bottom-load magazines, one has to just slide the magazine open to clear such a jam.

Although both the Acme and Arrow products will not crush the cables, the Arrow staples are approximately 800% higher in price than the Acme staples. The T59 has a rear load staple magazine while the 25/37AC guns have the standard Acme bottom-load features. Furthermore, the T59 can only hold 30 staples while the Acme guns hold up to 84 staples, greatly reducing staple reloading frequency.

To be fair to Arrow, I have used my T-25 stapler for many years to install CAT 3 and silver satin telephone cable and the like. It has held-up well through heavy usage.

My remaining stapler is a general purpose Stanley TRE500 Electric Sharpsooter and it has a bottom loaded magazine that is also superior to the Arrow staplers.