Review of Ryobi Compression Drive Crown Stapler

This is episode number 189 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're a DIYer or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Greg Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another live episode of The Homeowner Show here in the studios. How you doing, Kev?

I am great. Things are good because today— well, not today. Tomorrow, the day that this comes out on audio. I did it. Bumpity bump.

Fixed it. Don't worry.

Carry on. Tomorrow is—

pretend like nothing happened.

It's a great day.

Why is tomorrow a great day?

Tomorrow's a great day.

Why?

Because I'll be a year older tomorrow. Tomorrow's your birthday? Today, tomorrow, whichever day you're looking at this, listening to this, whatever.

April 26th is your birthday.

That's the one.

Dude, happy birthday.

Thanks.

How did I— I know we celebrated this last year.

Yeah, we have.

Maybe it's because we celebrated too well last year.

Yeah, we, we did not— we did not mess that up.

We— no, we did that just right.

We did. There's, there's no doubt that last year, which was a big year for me, I was wondering why my wife had like some PTSD right around now. She's feeling some sort of year-long—

Yeah, like something's coming back around.

Yeah, she did definitely.

She had a really good time.

She, she, she had the best time. I should have had the best time, but I know now that I did not have the best time at my party.

At your own party?

No, your wife had the best time.

Yeah, she didn't screw that up. No, no, no. Yeah. So, uh, that's all we're gonna say about that.

That's right. So it was— today's a good day. Tomorrow, whichever one you're, you're seeing this, listening to this, whatever, it's, it's a good day.

I gotta tell you, 41 is way better than 40.

Okay.

Everyone makes a big deal about 40.

Yes, they do.

You know, I didn't like— it was fun. Yeah, it's a good time. I much preferred 41.

Why?

To me, it was, it was sort of like when I turned 20. Which I think is the dumbest age possible.

Oh, it was the worst.

It was the worst. You—

it's funny, I think you and I have discussed this, but like a lot of people are— if you were to ask me what was the worst age, it's 20.

20 was the worst.

And a lot of people are like, oh, you know, whatever number. And I'm like—

And if you disagree with us, you're stupid. You're so stupid.

It's definitely, it's definitely without a doubt 20.

Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway, go ahead.

So anyway, 41, like, because everyone makes such a big deal, like, oh, over the hill, you know, it's like, 41, like, I'm here.

Here I am. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm 40s.

Yeah, I'm in the 40s. It's good.

Well into the 40s somehow.

Yeah, you all had a year to get it out of your system.

That's right.

You shut up.

Shut up. And honestly, like, if, if I'm being really honest, I, I remember when I was young thinking Oh, yeah. 40, over the hill.

Definitely. Dude, when I was a kid, 40 was ancient.

Oh.

And I— Like, my dad turned 40, and I was like, we're gonna lose him soon.

Like, what's funny is, like, my son—

Enjoy him now.

Yeah. My son, last year, he was like, he's like, Daddy, I don't, I don't want you to die. And I was like, what? He's like, you're so old. I'm like, I'm really not that old. Like, and that's the thing is I think people, whenever we were kids that were 40, they acted way older than you and I do right now.

For sure.

Right?

Yeah.

I just think it was a different time. It was a different time.

It was a different time.

Surely over the hill is 50 now, right?

I mean, who knows, man? I mean, like, the answer I want to give you is 60.

Okay.

Because it's much further away from where I am now.

Feels way more legitimate at 60.

Yeah.

Honestly, like, technology's come a long way.

Yeah.

We could live a long— longer than— I don't know if I want to, honestly, because some of y'all suck.

Exactly.

Like, I— it's funny, one of our mutual friends, um, who's quite a bit older than us, but he, uh, he actually was telling me just the other day that he— his brother, who is a, um, a doctor, he has told him, if I hit 80, right, shoot me. And I'm like, 80? And he's like, 80. If I hit 80— and I'm not saying I will— but if I hit 80, shoot me, dude.

So this will be a good— because I was gonna, I was gonna talk about the thing we went to, uh, this weekend that J-Hugh and I did. We went to the, the shootout.

Yeah, right.

So the dude that we ended up having dinner with was like 82 years old.

Okay.

And was like a world champion skeet shooter He was having the time of his life. And I was like, man, if like— because you tell me like shoot me at 80 and I'm like, that dude's having a blast.

Yeah. And, and that's why I'm kind of like, 80's, 80's not that bad. Like my, my parents are like 70-ish right there.

Yeah.

And I'm thinking they still easily got 10 years in them. Yeah, easy. My, my mother-in-law, she's like 71 and she acts like she's 60. Maybe, maybe 50. I was blown away.

I was blown away when you told me how— I mean, like, not to say that she's old, but like, when I thought she was much younger than what you told me, right?

I mean, she, she looks younger, she acts younger. I mean, that— I think that—

I think it's progressively becoming more and more the case.

Yeah.

I mean, just like, you know, we just— we have access to better medicine, we have— we know more. And, and so like, we're progressively going to be living longer and longer.

I mean, I think in many ways— I mean, I know a lot of people say a lot of things about GMOs and different things like that, but I of ways, we're eating better. Like, yeah. I mean, I don't know. I think healthcare has gotten— has come a long way. And you— we can debate all day long, honestly, if, if we think that's a good thing.

Sure.

Like, living longer with the population and all that kinda stuff is good. However, I think it's happening.

Well, the, the, the issue is it's not necessarily because, like, we can make people live longer. That's no question.

Right.

I mean, like, it's, it's not becoming abnormal for someone to get to 90. Sure.

Right?

I mean, it's becoming— it's like people are expecting that more and more.

Yep.

Quality of life on your way there, that's, that's the issue. And, like, there's, there's guys out there like Dr. Peter Attia. I mean, like, this is his whole area of study.

Yeah.

And, like, really, I mean, like, you can go listen to him, but, like, what he's gonna tell you is, like, if you figure out how to exercise on a regular basis, and eat well, you're gonna have a better quality of life and a longer life.

Sure. Makes sense.

And I don't, I don't want a longer life that's crappy.

Right.

I wanna be able to enjoy the time that I am here.

Mm-hmm. In general.

In general.

However long that is. Yeah.

Whether that be, you know, 55 or 95.

Right. And like Kimberly's mom, my wife's mom, she lived— I say her grandma, She lived to 102 and it's almost 103. And honestly, she lived in her home until she was 100, and then she had a stroke and needed to go into a nursing home. But up until 100, yeah, she lived in her home by herself. And I, I— that's gonna be my mother-in-law. Yeah. I mean, she, she's just a healthy, healthy person, you know. It's just the way her family is. So—

I gotta say, I'm, I'm seeing the live feed and I actually like that I've got my guitar in the back. There it is.

Yeah, I see it.

That's my favorite axe, in case you guys are wondering. Yeah, she is, dude. So, like, we, we, we, we did the shootout this weekend with JHU. Uh, our company was, was sponsoring this thing for the North County Young Life. Um, fantastic organization. It was super fun to support them and help raise some money for them. And we got to do that all at Blackwood.

Okay.

Which is the gun range out on 2854. It's just, it's like close. like 6 or 7 minutes from here, right? Um, our friends Jeff and Aaron own that, and like, they are such fantastic people. They have done such an incredible job improving that facility from what it was, you know, several years ago when they, when they acquired it. Um, and man, what a, what a fun group of guys to go out and just shoot some clays with.

Nice.

I mean, like, and I, I, you know, I, I, I've been to like tons of banquets and fundraisers and Like, I would rather go to a clay shoot than almost any other kind of fundraiser I can think of. If you ask me to go like a golf scramble, I'm gonna be a guy that has like a bag of like aluminum bats and I'm just gonna be smacking. I don't play golf. Like, it's no fun for me. Like, I know people enjoy it. It's not my thing.

I do.

But, uh, you know, and like, I'm sure that's a great way to raise money too, but like, let me go shoot some guns.

Yeah.

With a group of guys and eat some barbecue.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll do that every weekend.

Yeah, happily.

Yeah, and I, you know, we got to go do it with my dad and, and J-Hugh and Colin, one of, one of the guys that works with us.

Yeah.

Um, and man, like, if you, like, if you haven't ever— like, I think that's probably one of the best ways to get people, uh, introduced to gun ownership is like, here's an actual sport. Yeah, that like Because like there's nothing involved like killing, right? You know, like, but it's just, it's popping some clays.

Yeah.

And it's so satisfying when you hit one.

Oh yeah.

Because when you hit it just right, it just explodes.

Yes.

Um, and you're like, I did that.

I did that. Yeah. And, and, and I think there's a lot of controversy and we could talk about that all day about like gun controversy, right? But at the end of the day, there's no controversy. Not with me, but there is out there.

Bring it.

And, and, but at the end of the day, it's like, look, I— this is an opportunity for you to go have fun.

It is. It's a blast, and it's, and it's, it's super safe.

Yeah.

I mean, like, because— I mean, like, it, it took us like a good— like, everybody there is a gun owner.

Yeah.

And it's like, most gun owners I know are very responsible gun owners.

Yep.

But you still have to go through like a 20-30 minute safety briefing before they even let you on the course, right? Um, and like Lo and behold, no one got shot.

How about that?

And everyone was safe and had fun, and it was incredible.

Yeah, I mean, think of it this way. How many gun ranges do you hear about in the news that somebody got hurt?

I think, I think the last one that we had was the special ops guy that got shot at one. Oh yeah, and it was actually here in Texas. Yeah, but that was some crazy loon.

Yeah, weird. Like, I mean, because legitimately those types of places, they're well regulated as far as like the, the rules.

You, you do not want to get crossways with a rangemaster.

No, I mean, they got cameras in there. I mean, and they're like, there's all kinds— like I say in there, that's an indoor facility, but some of these outdoor facilities they got—

Well, this one's all outdoor.

Yeah, this one is. But like, yeah, there's— they've got systems set up to make sure you're not acting like a fool. Yeah, you know, and, and They, they don't allow that. They've got way too much riding on their ability to, to have a, a place to do that.

Yeah.

Um, it's their business, right? Absolutely.

So anyway, if, if you're local and you haven't had a chance to check out Blackwood, go.

Please go. Yeah.

I mean, it's a fun— they've got skeet and trap.

Do you, do you ever hear the shots from here?

Can you hear?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can hear like on, on Saturday mornings in particular.

Yeah.

But, but, but I mean, like, that's the most active That that course is going to be is on most people can't get out there on at nine a.m. on a Tuesday, right? So like I'm just not going to hear it.

Sure.

Every once in a while we'll hear it like in an afternoon when people are out there doing it. But like man yesterday it was like a Civil War reenactment, man. Nice.

Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop.

I mean because we were working sixteen stations.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah. So yeah. That's fun.

Oh dude, it's a blast.

Hey, you and I are going to do something fun a week from Friday.

Is that the axe throwing?

Yeah.

All right.

We've— I mean, I've not done it yet, but I know a lot of people have done it.

But I've thrown some axes unsuccessfully.

Well, I have too, but not at a course like this.

Like, yeah, there's that cockeyed squirrel that crossed my lawn. He got away.

I think— yeah, I think I saw him. Um, no, but like when I was in Scouts growing up, there was an axe throwing merit badge.

Okay.

So yeah, so I was able to, uh, I was able to acquire the axe throwing merit badge back then. I don't know if they have that still, but we just threw them at trees.

Yeah.

It was back in the day, right?

Well, I'm interested to try it because, uh, the place that we're going, I don't know if they have axes or tomahawks.

I don't know either.

I've thrown tomahawks and I really like it.

Yeah, um, they're weighted really well.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, I, I haven't, and, but some places only do axes. Yeah. And so I'm interested to see what this one is.

Yeah, well, it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Yeah, so we're, we're, we're about 15 minutes in.

Okay.

Should we get to the actual meat of what we're doing?

I mean, I guess so.

Yeah, because the, the people that, that get drove— driven nuts by this are gonna love this episode.

Yeah.

Because we're gonna review yet another Ryobi product.

Ryobi! The Ryobi!

Yeah, so you, you know, you come to hate us to when we, we love on Ryobi. I, I saw it actually on a chat board one day. Somebody was like, hey, has anybody heard about this Homeowner Show podcast? And there, this one guy responded, he's like, yeah, those guys really love Ryobi. And it's like, yeah, we do, but it's because like I actually use it in the field, right? And you, you have Ryobi stuff as well.

I've had it for a long time.

You know, we would be happy to review any other tool line.

Absolutely.

They just need to send it to us.

Yeah, and or, or lower their prices.

Or lower their prices.

Or extend their, you know, their product line. Yeah, because I mean—

Make something interesting.

Yeah, because at the end of the day, I mean, Ryobi continues to put out low-cost, not low qual— I don't think it's low quality, low-cost tools. And, um, their product line far exceeds numerically the other products out there, you know?

Yeah, numerically they, they, they are. There's, there's a couple things that they're missing I'd like them— I'd like to see.

Okay.

There's a new one I wanna try out. They have a battery-powered set of limb loppers.

Oh, really? Yeah.

The price is not like, it's like $150 just for the tool without the battery. That's high for some of their tools without a battery. It is high for some of them, but I wanna try it.

Sure.

Like, it looks interesting to me and I have like a lot of limbs to—

Wow.

Yeah, so if it's functional, it would be like really helpful.

Um, yeah, because I've got like the loppers that I've got, um, are actually kind of nice. They've got a, um, an extra hinge in there.

Yeah.

And so it makes it a lot easier.

Get some more leverage on it.

Yeah.

I like those.

Yeah, but I mean, it doesn't— I mean, they wear out.

Yeah, they do. So, and I get tired.

Exactly.

So, and like batteries wear out, but I can just pop in a new one.

Uh-huh.

So, but anyway, what we're talking about today, I got, I got it right here. It's the, the Ryobi Compression Drive stapler.

Okay.

Um, pretty, pretty cool thing. And it's, it's, it's sort of outside of the, uh, HP line.

Yeah.

Um, I, and I think it's because of like the mechanism that it uses. It doesn't make sense to have that, um, what is it?

Brushless?

The brushless, because it's— that's nothing that would exist in this, right?

You don't— it— yeah, it doesn't need that.

So it's a different, it's a different technology, but it's still one— their new stapler.

Yeah.

Um, because I've—

okay, we, we could go back for a minute. I've got one of the original staplers, right? Uh, it's blue. Okay, that tells you something. But it also— yeah, but it also was, um, a combo, uh, brad nailer. Okay, so it's a brad nailer and stapler, and honestly, it works great. Um, the one that I got, they— so they had one, and it people had a lot of problems with it, jammed all the time, and it was, it was just a problem.

Right.

They took it off the market, um, and then they brought it back briefly, like for like a year maybe. And I got one in that time period, and then they discontinued it again. And years later, they've now come out with another line of staplers and nailers and all those sorts of things. But, um, But this, this is, uh, specifically, uh, they, they call it a crown stapler.

Uh-huh.

But it's just, it's just gonna drive regular 3/8-inch staples. That's what it's gonna do.

Yeah. So, I mean, like, if we're talking about, like, the technical aspects of it, so it's, it's a, it's a 3/8-inch stapler.

Yep.

Uh, compatible with 1/4-inch up to 9/16-inch staples.

Right.

So the 9/16 being a much longer staple.

Right. Um, the, uh, specifically the, the T50s.

Yes, the T50s.

Um, but then depending on the length at that point.

Yeah, so it's either quarter inch or 6.4 millimeters or 9/16 or 14.3 millimeters.

There you go.

Um, so I mean, just like right off the bat, there's not a lot of bells and whistles on this thing.

Yeah.

Um, but what it has is just functionality.

Okay.

Um, So for, for me, like, and I, I use— I actually use quite a bit of staplers, which is actually going to be one of my criticisms of this thing here in a minute. Um, but this actually has one of the best loading mechanisms that I've used in a while. I'm gonna try and get this on screen because a lot of them have like a push-in, right, with a spring-loaded deal that you push it in and push it up in order to get it to release so that you can reload.

Right.

But all this has is just a trigger release where you push down and everything slides out.

Oh yeah, that's actually really helpful because, um, the one that I've got, you actually have to like, like pinch it and pull it out.

Right.

And that— it's, first of all, it's difficult to do. And second of all, it's plastic. That is not plastic.

It's not plastic, it's metal.

Yeah. The whole—

I mean, like the whole assembly all the way through up to the front is nothing but metal. And the way that you load it is you just stick the staples right on top and then they're in.

Okay.

I mean, it's easy. There's nothing to it.

Right. I mean, you really— I mean, the thing that's great about that is that there's not much you can do to actually screw that up.

Right. And I actually did that wrong. Let me—

let me—

sorry. What you do— I actually got that backwards. You don't put it on top.

Okay.

You actually slide it in right here in the bottom.

Okay.

Place it in the bottom.

Easy.

Boom.

Still easy.

Still super easy.

Yeah.

Um, so, and then I don't have a bat— I don't have a battery in this, so this is actually safe. But the way that the, the staples are actually engaged, it's got a little trigger right there for like when you press, it won't shoot a staple unless that's pressed. Yeah, which is true of most staple guns nowadays, electric or manual. Correct. And then the other thing that you have is a depth gauge. Okay, so you can set the staple to be you know, not go as deep.

Like a flush, like a flush.

Like a flush or, you know, out.

Yeah.

Um, and there's different reasons for doing that, but what's cool about it is it has this indicator on the front.

Ooh.

So you can see exactly that. You're not guessing when you turn this thing.

It normally is a guess.

It is a guess.

Yeah.

And so like when you turn it, it actually moves this little gauge right here. And if you're— sorry if you're listening to it on, on the audio, um, but you can, you can look at this, pictures of this online. It will— there's an indicator on the front of the stapler that as you turn the knob on the top, it will actually show you the depth to which the staple should go.

Yeah.

When, when you push it in.

I love that.

So, I mean, I, I've, I've actually used this a couple times now.

Okay.

Um, and I haven't had, I haven't had an issue with it yet. I mean, like, and the, and the depth on it has been accurate.

Really?

Yeah.

Because, like, there's a lot of times you— I may be jumping the gun on you. No pun intended. But, like, there may be times whenever you're installing cable or, or wiring of some sort that you do not want it to compress.

Well, that— so that's actually one of my criticisms of it is, is, like, if I'm dealing with wiring or cable or something like— and I think for, like, if you're installing, installing typical electrical wiring, it would be functional.

Yeah. Because, I mean, for that, I mean, You, you— because that's flat. It's flat. You may not want it to, um, you may want it to compress but not like too much.

It would cut it in half.

Right. But if it— but if you're doing like any kind of line, like a mosquito line for example.

Right. I, I install a lot of quarter-inch tubing.

There you go.

And so there's actually a specific stapler that I use for that.

Okay.

And it's, it's a round stapler.

Oh.

There's— they actually make round staples.

Oh.

And there's a— I can show you the gun later. It's a— I think it's a Stanley.

Interesting.

But it, uh, so where on this one, if you— I don't know if you can see, but there's like a little groove in the tip that gets pushed in.

Yeah.

On, on the round stapler, it's actually a quarter-inch half moon.

Oh, interesting.

That goes around the quarter inch. And so it's, it's there to guard the quarter inch.

Oh.

Uh, and so it's, it's designed for putting in things like, uh, Oh yeah, that makes sense. So it doesn't cut the coax, but you can install it and put it flush up against the wall, secure it.

And that's huge.

There's, there's a lot of round things that are a quarter inch around.

Yes.

And so like that staple, you're able to secure it up against a wall and it's just a perfect round staple that just holds it right in place. It's beautiful.

Love it.

I really wish that, uh, some company— and I don't really care who— yeah, some company would come up with a battery-powered version of that. Because doing this, you know, squeezing over— because it takes quite a bit of pressure to do it.

Yeah.

To do it over and over and over and over again over the course of like 4 hours, right, can be like— it'll wear your hand out.

Sure.

And it just, you know, it's annoying, right? So this stapler doesn't do that, right? I wish it did. That's, that's really my biggest criticism, is because it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to have an interchangeable, uh—

Oh, a loader.

Loader of some sort, or magazine, however you want to call it.

Like, a magazine better.

Um, probably better. It just seems like that would be something that they could come up with that wouldn't be difficult, because I mean, the, the firing mechanism is essentially the same.

Yeah.

Um, so anyway, but I mean, as far as for what it is, um, it's fantastic.

Yeah.

So I, I actually use it quite a bit to staple, um, I don't know what to call it other than like chicken wire.

Oh.

Um, but like, you know, um, there's, there's a name for all those different kinds of metals that have holes in it.

Yep.

But it's not like chicken wire. Chicken wire is really, really like, it has big holes in it, and there's ones that have much smaller holes in it.

And, and some that have even rectangles and different— Right, right, right.

And I use a bunch of different of those the time. And this is able to staple those up against wood, keep it flush, keep it neat, and, and able— allows me to do it very quickly.

Right.

Without having to run any cords. Because a lot of times when, like, me or any of my guys are doing it, we're like, we're up on a roof. And so, like, having, having a cable of any kind is actually really dangerous because you can get tangled up in it and cause you to slip, all sorts of different things. Having something like this where it's just battery, Yeah. You know, and it's, it's free. And, and not only that, I mean, like, I'm gonna hand it to you, Kevin. Like, it's not— if you look at it on the, on the video, like, it doesn't look really big, but if you hold it in your hand, like, it's pretty dense.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely, it's definitely substantial. Like, that's one of the things that we, that we talk about often is like the how things are weighted.

Yeah.

And, and honestly, like, I mean, if doing, doing things sideways you really need the battery in there to counterbalance it. But I assume that it does counterbalance pretty well. But it's— yeah, that's substantial.

Yeah. And you— I mean, like, you could put— you could put the 4 amp battery in there and it would be okay. I, I like it better with the 2 amp.

Yeah. Okay. So one of the things just, um, in the, uh, kind of the description of this, if you were to go look at it online, one of the things it says is that with a 4 amp-hour battery You can put in 5,500 staples.

I don't doubt it.

Yeah. I mean, and so you, you just put in a 2.5 amp-hour battery, which is gonna be roughly half the size.

I mean, I mean, even, even if it only does, like, 2,000.

Exactly. How, how many people are putting in 2,000 staples a day?

Yeah.

I mean, I know there are people out there that do, especially, you know, depending on what industry you're in.

Yeah.

But I, most people that are buying Ryobi products, like, especially homeowners and stuff like that. Like, that thing's gonna last forever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's much better than the, uh, vintage ones as far as that, you know. And I'll tell you this, one of the, one of the other things I thought, I mean, just in the unboxing of it, um, it does have a belt clip.

Oh.

So, like, you know, so, like, if you're going up a ladder, you don't have to hold it.

That's awesome.

You could use the belt clip if you want to. I typically use a tool belt. Um, so I don't, I don't take advantage of the, the clip. Um, but it also, it, it comes with a set of, uh, quarter-inch, uh, staples.

Oh, okay.

Already.

Okay.

So, like, I mean, like, you don't— I mean, like, if you've got a job and you're like, man, I need a quarter-inch staple and I need a staple gun, you know, it already comes with a sleeve.

Okay.

So you're, you're good to go right out of the box as long as you have a battery.

Sure. Um, and I I'm sure they, I'm sure they got a version that comes with a battery.

And you might be able to check this on, on your computer, um, but I think they're only like $49 right now.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Interesting. I'm gonna go look.

Um, so I mean, like, if, and if that price was right, I mean, it was, it was, it was a steal for me. I mean, because I think like a normal staple gun that's just a manual one is like, you know, $25, $35 for a good one.

Sure.

So to pay $49 for one I don't have to like use, you know—

It's hard to tell. Like right now, I mean, they've got some— they got a 2-pack of the 4 amp-hours for $80.

No, no, no, though. How much is the stapler?

Oh, the stapler? I thought you're talking about batteries.

No, no, the batteries.

No, right now online they're saying at least, at least just online it's showing $80. $79 actually. For the stapler?

Uh-huh.

Really?

Does it come with a battery?

It is not. That's what they're showing right now.

I didn't pay that much for it.

Well, you found a deal.

Yeah, I think I only paid $49.

Yep.

Well, either way, I mean, like, I feel like I need to like double-check me. Yeah, okay, I believe you.

Yeah, I, I mean, um, that, that is the tool only. They do sell it with a, you know, 1.3 amp-hour battery and with a 4 amp-hour battery. Um, just kind of depends on, on which one you want. But, um, but yeah, I mean, uh, I do see the belt clip that you're talking about now. Um, it's just kind of a metal, metal hook that kind of hooks on.

Oh crap, $79?

You really didn't believe me, did you?

$119 with a battery.

Uh-huh.

Or $158 with 2 batteries and a charger.

Uh, yeah.

Dude, that sucks, y'all.

Would, would you have bought it for that price?

Let me ask you that. I really wouldn't have.

Okay.

Yeah. All right, fix yourself, Home Depot.

Yeah, who knows? I mean, like, supply and demand, who knows?

It's, it's still, it's, it's still a good stapler. It's not an $80 stapler.

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing, it all really depends on what you need.

You know?

Yeah, I mean, that's true. Because I mean, honestly, one of the things that I, I know that—

See, all those, all those people out there like, those guys are just like bird-dogging for Ryobi. Like, that's, that's too much.

Yeah, okay. I mean, I'm with you. I'm, I'm—

Let me ask you, would you pay $80 for the stapler?

Only— here, here's the only reason I would. I would— no, not right now.

Okay.

I mean, if I, if I needed a stapler—

Kevin just bought a house.

He's not buying nothing.

Not the house.

Um, but like, if I, if I If I needed a stapler to do a few things here and there, I would much— I would probably go be like, okay, I gotta put 30 staples in. I'm gonna go buy a manual.

Right.

Versus that. Because a manual you can buy for $20, probably.

$20, $25.

Okay.

Around there.

Yeah. So, and, and, you know, it's, it's gonna work. It's just gonna work.

Yeah.

Right?

But let me ask you this. Because here, here's, here's the thing I think that they're trying to achieve. I think, I think most people who need a stapler, like an industrial stapler, like what we're— like a crown stapler, like what we're talking about, probably have one.

Probably.

And it might be like 5 years old, 10 years old, but like even at 10 years old, it's probably pretty functional.

Sure.

I know that my round stapler that I have, it's at least 10 years old.

Yeah.

It's a fantastic stapler.

It's gonna work forever, and you don't have to put a battery in it.

Right.

Right.

So let's say that you have that. You, you have a reliable crown stapler.

Right?

And you have a job, and you're gonna have to put in 100 staples.

Yep.

Are you spending $80 to go get a new stapler? No. Or are you gonna use the old one?

I'm, I'm, I'm using the old one. I, I, I'm actually— I'm friends with you, so I'm just—

You can borrow mine.

Yeah. But, like, I, I mean, honestly, I, I think that there could be moments where— I mean, again, this is what I was about to say earlier. I, you know, our wives, They, they, they get on us all the time. It's like, do you really need to buy that tool? It's like, look, it, it's an efficiency thing, you know. How badly do I want to do the job, you know? But if I have to put in 2,000 staples for something, heck yeah, I'm buying it.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, at some point it's like— or if I'm going to use it repeatedly over time for, for one reason or the other, yeah, I would probably buy it. But no, I guarantee you right now that if I was like, okay, I need to go buy some staples for my stapler. That's really what would happen, right? Can't find my staples, so I need to go buy some staples. So while I'm at Home Depot, I'm just gonna find out how much it costs to get the tool, right? If it— if I pulled up and it was $80, I would walk out with a sleeve of staples. Yeah. And go home and use my manual.

So what, what's, what's, what's the cutoff point for you? I mean, because you're not spending $80.

No.

Would you spend $70?

No.

$60.

I, I would—

Would you be tempted at $60?

I would be tempted at $59.

$59?

Yeah, uh-huh, $59, I would be tempted.

So what if it was like $55?

If it— honestly, like, I think the no-brainer point is somewhere around $50. I think that's where no-brainer—

I mean, like, I know, I know what I paid for it, okay? And that's why I bought it, because I was like, this is a no-brainer, it's $49.

Yeah.

Like, I, I must have caught it on a crazy deal or something like that.

Yeah, you must have. And, well, the other thing is, depending on whenever you bought it, Ryobi does these crazy deals where if you buy a tool, you get another one for, like, really cheap.

That's true.

And so you may—

I did buy 2 tools that day.

Okay. You probably got one of those deals where you can get any tool up to a certain dollar amount for half off or something like that. That may have been what happened. They definitely do those deals quite often. But that— okay.

So that, And the other 2, I was willing to pay $100 for.

Okay. So that's, that's what I was about to say. Like, if you're willing to pay full price on one of them because it is worth it, whatever that one is, this might be the one thing that you're going, okay, I'm not gonna pay $80 for it, but I would pay $49, you know, whatever it is. And, and there's, there are several tools that Ryobi does where it's like, okay, I'm probably not gonna go buy a $40 flashlight. Right?

Right.

But for $20, I might pay $20.

Well, except for when we did that episode on the Nova, and I definitely paid more than—

That's, that's, that's different. I mean, this is, Uh, this is like a, like a shop—

You're talking about like an on/off flashlight, not like the Swiss Army of flashlights.

Right, exactly. So I, I don't know. I think that— I don't know. I, I think around $50, this is definitely worth it. The other thing that, that it, it is a little limiting on is, is the size of staples.

Yeah.

I mean, not just the— not the shape of staples, but I mean, there's different— like the T50 is— that's a one size, right? Depth, you can get different depths. You get one size. Yeah. Um, you know, if you could do different, different sizes with it, that might change my mind a little bit. But I mean, most people doing T50s. Most people. Yeah. I mean, let's be real. I mean, because a lot— well, a lot of people, like, depending on where it is, um, like some finishing staples, they're real, real kind of skinny.

Yeah.

Um, I, I don't know. I, I, I think that there are some things that they could do to improve it that might be worth, worth $80. If it did the— okay, if it did the combo like mine does and it did it well, like the brad nailer with it, yeah, I could maybe be a little more tempted to spend a little bit more.

I wonder why they didn't do that on this one.

I mean, well, I'm telling you, they had a lot of problems.

They had a lot of problems.

And, and so what they did is they said, forget this, we're gonna separate 'em and then put the Power Strike or whatever that thing is. Yeah. And the, their—

which we've— I've got that one in there.

Yeah, exactly.

And it's, it's great.

fantastic. And so I— Airstriker, whatever it's called.

Yeah.

But, like, they, they basically figured out a way to make a, a finish nailer with the power and capacity of, of an air tool.

Right.

Is what they did. Yeah. They did a fantastic job.

We're still waiting on that framing nailer. Yeah, we are.

Yeah.

You know, it's coming. I mean, it's gotta, it's gotta be coming.

I mean, yeah, it would have to be.

So, and because I think I told you, they've got the 40-volt backpack sprayer coming.

Yes.

I'm excited about that one.

Yes.

I use that thing every day.

Yeah, yeah. And people that do, that's a fantastic tool.

Yeah. So, well, and like, here's, here's the other thing that I, I try and tell people. Like, I had a guy telling me the other day, he's like, why do you use Ryobi? And I'm like, dude, here's the deal. Every single tool that I buy, if something goes wrong with it in the first 2 years I walk into the store, and I say, it's broken.

Mhmm.

No questions asked other than, do you want your money back?

Mhmm. No.

I just want another tool. Oh. Go pick it out.

Yeah.

I don't have to show them my receipt.

Right.

Nothing.

Right.

I just get another tool.

But see, I've done that with things after 2 years, like, in batteries in particular.

Well, that's because you're unethical.

No. I walked in, and I said, hey, this battery isn't working anymore.

Uh-huh.

And they've just— no, it wasn't a battery. It was the battery charger.

The battery charger. Okay. Battery charger.

I walked in. I said, this isn't working anymore. And they said, do you have a receipt? I said, no. They said, well, let's try to look it up. They looked, tried to look it up, and they were like, well, it's obviously a Ryobi product.

Right.

That we are proprietary in. And so go get a new one.

Yeah.

And I don't, I don't know how long I had it. I could have been within 2 years, but I think it was longer than that.

Could have been.

Yeah. Um, and they exchanged it.

Yep.

So, I mean, you know, good products are, are warrantied well.

Yeah.

And I mean, they're, they're good with it. I mean, the tools don't cost them that much. It's the batteries that are—

The batteries do cost them a lot of money.

That's where the battery, uh, that technology is just They've come a long, long way with it.

Yeah.

You know, and actually, here's an interesting topic, and I don't know, maybe we'll get into it someday. But that same friend that I was telling you, mutual friend earlier that I was talking about, who you don't know who it is.

Because you're being cryptic.

Because I'm being cryptic. But that same person, this will give it away, is a geologist. And I was talking to him the other day, and he was telling me that, you know, the crazy thing is that lithium is, is not unlimited.

Right.

There's not an unlimited supply of lithium and it costs a whole lot of money to mine. To mine.

Yeah.

And so I asked him the question. I was like, is there another product? Is there another resource out there besides lithium that can achieve what lithium is able to achieve? And he said, absolutely. And that's what he and his team are working on mining now. And so they're working on new technology now to try to be— I don't know if it'll be a replacement for lithium.

Yeah.

But it would definitely be like the next thing that would kind of take over.

Well, here's what I don't understand. I mean, like, because, and again, like you said, this is another product. Like, you say we don't have an unlimited supply of lithium. What is it that we did to the lithium that we put in there initially that we can't reuse? Does it cease being lithium once we use it for so long?

I don't think— I just don't think it's— I don't think it's an unlimited resource. What I mean by that is not that you can't find an unlimited supply. It doesn't regenerate forever.

People go into old TVs and they harvest the gold and the silver out of it, right? Because it's still gold and silver despite the fact that electricity has been running through it for however long that TV ran. It's still gold. It's still silver.

Yeah. I think I— and, and again, I, I am not the person to ask about this. Yeah.

I, I'm not asking you, like—

No.

I need an answer, Kevin, right now.

Right. Right. Our friend is. He, he would be able to tell this like that. He would, he would know the answer to this. Yeah.

What's, what's the issue? Is it because, like, it's not—

But I, I think it's consumable.

Uh-huh.

We're, we're like—

It wears out.

Yeah. You— yeah. Like, I mean, the first—

But, like, so, like, what does it become?

I don't know.

Like, what—

I mean, because, like, coal, for example.

I need somebody to explain this to me. Like, like, coal.

eventually you burn it up and it's gone. Right?

Right.

So I think that it's similar to that. These natural ores, whatever they are. That's how stupid I am. Right.

Whatever they are, these natural things. Minerals. Yes.

Table of content. Like all the chemistry stuff.

Right. Table of content.

Yeah. Table of content. You know what I mean? I think they go away after time. You burn them up, they're gone. Gold and silver are different.

They're not gone. They have to change into something if they're not usable anymore. They have to become something else, which means that something else can become lithium.

Y'all, please rescue us. We have no idea what we're talking about now. We are so far out of our realm right now.

It doesn't come from nowhere.

No, it doesn't. It comes from somewhere. You know, but where does it go? Where does it come from?

Where does it go? I don't know.

I caught that, Jeff. I don't know either. I don't know. We got to get Dave on the show. That's what needs to happen. When Dave comes on the show, he'll be able to answer all these questions. Actually, that might actually not be a bad idea.

It might not be a bad idea.

Yeah, I mean, it would be a very different type of show.

Yeah.

And he would take us down.

He would go more off the rails than we would.

The places he would take us off the rails would be probably phenomenal.

I would enjoy the ride.

I would too, man. Yeah, the guy's smarter than you and I ever thought about being.

So anyway, I've never thought about being smart.

Clearly true. That is clearly true. All right, uh, I think we've kind of exhausted the conversation about this, uh, crown stapler.

So stapler, it's a win at $49. It's a loss at $79. You take your win. Don't do it.

Don't do it.

But just envy me because I got mine for not $79.

Again, but you could— you might be able to get it if you buy another tool. Get it.

I don't know if they're still doing that deal or not, but they do it. They do it pretty regular.

Pretty regularly.

Yeah.

Um, so yeah, but anyway, uh, thanks for being here. Thanks for downloading the show. Thanks for watching. Uh, if you haven't already, like, subscribe, tell your friends.

Do the clickety-clickety.

Do all the things. We appreciate you. Leave us a 5-star rating and review, and on, on iTunes specifically, that'd be fantastic. And, uh, we're here each and every Tuesday, so thanks for being with us. And until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.