{"id":4363,"date":"2015-02-25T17:22:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T17:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/?p=4363"},"modified":"2015-03-27T15:45:01","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T15:45:01","slug":"snap-tackle-n-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/?p=4363","title":{"rendered":"Snap Tackle \u2018n\u2019 Pop!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nNew Tool Makes Installing Snap Fasteners a Breeze!<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Raven<\/em><\/p>\n

Ahoy, shipmates! The Sail Doctor, your Small Craft Advisor<\/em> man of the cloth, here to give you the lowdown on a new cool canvas tool.<\/p>\n

At first, I thought Sailrite<\/a> VP, Matt Grant\u2019s creation, the SnapRite System<\/a> for installing snap fasteners was maybe just one more ho hum improvement on a nautical mouse trap. But, turns out his idea is the cat\u2019s meow!<\/p>\n

For me, as a sailmaker\/sailor, there\u2019ve been bolts of projects that used snap fasteners: sail and boat covers, storage bags and pockets; anything where separate canvas pieces must be opened and closed\u2026. or attached and detached from a hard surface. But, the installation of those studs, sockets and buttons was always one royal pain in the stern! <\/p>\n

Heretofore, there\u2019ve been three installation systems available: mallet and dies, crimper and dies or, alternatively, vise-grips and dies. Each system required pre-punched holes in the fabric, was difficult to align, iffy to crimp and slow as sailing a bale of hay to weather.<\/p>\n

Sailrite\u2019s snap tackle makes dandy use of a common pop rivet tool and has none of the fore mentioned problems.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s it Work?<\/strong>
\nThe pop rivet tool is not used with the usual pop rivets, The fasteners\u2019 components are riveted together with the stud part of the fastener; neatly smushed over by the compressing action of the rivet tool which incrementally grips and pulls a finishing nail-like mandrel. The mandrell is inserted through the fastener parts and also aligns the components.<\/p>\n

And that, me hearties, is why the SnapRite button portion of the snap fasteners, unlike conventional buttons, has a hole in it, for the mandrel! The socket and stud components from other suppliers already have a hole through which the SnapRite mandrel will pass. The pointed mandrel is poked through the fabric. That action pre-punches a hole and facilitates alignment of button and stud. So, no scalloping or shortfall between consecutive snaps!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Big Test<\/strong>
\nTime to check the new system out! I rounded up some dockside riffraff and, in a rather scattered experiment, without hardly a glance at the instructions (much as you might attempt yourself), proceeded to install a snap fastener. <\/p>\n

In spite of us, things went well; thanks to the color coding on the dies. In fact, it was a snap! However, we did notice right off how essential it is to have the SnapRite holey buttons, and that thick or stiff fabric might require a little advance hole poking with a sharp awl.<\/p>\n

Wuddaya Get?<\/strong>
\nFid out your ears holes, matey! You can get the grand skinny on all this, and especially a coupla persuasive videos at: http:\/\/www.sailrite.com\/Sailrite-SnapRite-System-Complete-Kit
\nI\u2019ll just give ya the big number; however, you can figger on saving a lot if you already have a rivet tool, just wanna do canvas-to-canvas fastening, or only need a few fasteners. Anyway, for under a coupla Ben Franklins you can purchase all the dies needed, a rivet tool, a case, mucho mandrels and enough fasteners to put snaps all over your boat.<\/p>\n

All ashore!<\/strong>
\nIn the wake of all this snap happy enthusiasm is there any turbulence? Not really, as long as ya got the do-re-mi and Sailrite keeps making their holey buttons. A pro would consider whether the cost of the special buttons was sufficiently offset by the increased efficiency and quality of the operation.<\/p>\n

I suggest a nice sail cover (See The Sailmaker\u2019s Apprentice<\/a><\/em>, pg. 424 for the recipe) or a tool pouch, like the one in the SnapRite video<\/a>, for starter projects. Then, use Sailrite\u2019s snap tackle an\u2019 pop those fasteners right on in!<\/p>\n

(Photos from Sailrite)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Tool Makes Installing Snap Fasteners a Breeze! By Raven Ahoy, shipmates! The Sail Doctor, your Small Craft Advisor man of the cloth, here to give you the lowdown on a new cool canvas tool. At first, I thought Sailrite VP, Matt Grant\u2019s creation, the SnapRite System for installing snap fasteners was maybe just one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4363"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4387,"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363\/revisions\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallcraftadvisor.com\/our-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}