Thanks all for some great ideas! The creativity and wisdom here is amazing and much appreciated. Here's a new twist that looks good: I modified an air stapler (BEC brand) that shoots 18 ga. 1/4" x 1/2" staples. I extended the nose with a MIG weld and machined it into shape, I also modified the ram and punch so that the stapler now pushes the punch 1/2" beyond the elongated nose. I milled a slot in the nose to pick-up the flat wire and act as a centering index. With the stapler at a 20 deg angle, the staple follows the wire down after it leaves the nose and enters the wood right next to the original staple without "falling off" the punch. Taa-Daa!!! Pull-out now exceeds 60 pounds, probably closer to 100 but my pull-scale stops at
60....Good enough! It takes about 3 minutes per brush and the staples are $6/5,000. I'm looking at how to automate it but I only have @3,000 to do so, brute-force with a human looks good. Thanks again!!!