I recently purchased a fabulous pneumatic stapler gun, the Omer 3G.16 . This thing is made in Italy (by a skilled craftsperson in a quaint little seaside village, right?).
It’s the creme de la creme of upholstery staple guns for a semi-professional upholsterer like myself.
The gun is pneumatic, or powered by air, so I needed an air compressor. Easy to come by the air compressor was, but harder to actually get operating. You see, the thing with the manual that came with my air compressor is that is was not written for an air compressor dummy, like myself. It was written for the guy who has a experience working with machinery and mechanical stuff. (The machines I’m used to blend food and copy paper.)
Added to my insecurities as a novice air compressor user, I was also worried about disturbing the neighbours below. I live in an old wood-framed apartment building (owned by Tommy Chong of all people), which isn’t exactly sound proof. There’s already been an incident let’s just say, but half of my living room is an upholstery workshop. I need an air compressor. End of story.
Day 1: A pessimist would call day one a fail, but for optimists like myself, we call it an orientation. I opened the air compressor box, took the machine out of the box, unwound the twisties on the cord (important stuff, you know), looked at all the parts and went “uhmmmm…”. I soon realized that day one was not going to be the day of operation. I felt satisfied with an orientation, and continued to read the manual, analyze the parts, do some online research and talk to a machine-using friend (let’s call him “machine friend”).
First question: The manual says to put a few drops of air compressor oil on the valve before using it; however, air compressor oil was not provided. What is air compressor oil? The internet tells me that specific air compressor oil is not necessary and that you can use any “20 or 30 weight non-detergent motor oil”, but what is non-detergent motor oil? Regular motor oil? I ask machine friend. He confirms yes, this is regular motor oil. Okay, I can handle that.
Next question: What is this strange white tape-like-but-not-quite-tape wrapping around the ends of the hose? It looks like packaging to protect the hose ends, but I’m not sure. I’ve never seen this substance before. I ask machine friend. He doesn’t really know what I’m talking about (for good reason) so I convince myself that it is packaging that can be discarded.
Day 2: I realize I don’t have the right staples for my stapler gun, and of course these are needed before I can use the air compressor and staple gun. After calling every tool shop in town and driving 45 minutes, I have the correct staples in hand and I’m ready to go! Alas another setback – I connect the hose to the gun and the air compressor, but I can hear air leaking and some parts are definitely missing. Frustrated, I give up for that day.
Day 3: The day is fresh and I feel new renewed sense of determination. With air compressor manual in hand, I head to the local hardware shop to figure out what the missing part is and why air is leaking. Turns out I need a coupler. Two male couplers to be precise (makes me think of my Granny explaining “male” and “female” snap buttons to me when I was a kid…haa), which connect to each end of my female hose (that seems wrong) and in turn to the compressor and stapler.
I also find out that the strange white tape-like-but-not-quite-tape substance on the ends of the hose is not packaging. It’s Teflon tape (which you get in the plumbing aisle, by the way) and it’s supposed to be on the hose to seal the connection. I remembered seeing this stuff in my air compressor box so I didn’t need to buy more, but why couldn’t the manual tell me this?! Anyways, I was 90% confident leaving the store that today was going to be the day I would put my new toys to use.
When I got home I put everything together and shizam battabam it’s works! And it works like a dream! I finish half a chair and I am pumped. I love my stapler gun. It is music to my ears. Sadly, it’s likely not remotely even close to sounding like music to my neighbours ears. I close things down in the “shop” for the day and promise myself to have a conversation with the neighbours re loud machine noises from the apartment above. Thanks Tommy.
Photo: www.listal.com
Bonnie
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