Fiberglass Staples

A contractor friend told me today of a boatbuilder using fiberglass staples for composite construction. He said they don't have to be removed before glassing over. I thought he might have been confused, but just found this link on line: http://raptornails.com/

Has anybody tried these?

-Wes


8 replies:

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RE: Fiberglass Staples

Looks interesting - they specifically mention strip-built boat building:

http://raptornails.com/app_boat.php

Would love to see close-ups of process and finished product (the photos in the link don't enlarge but if you click on the .pdf brochure at the bottom of the page you can see larger photos). Looks like Dan Shea from Bristol Boat Co. is the person to ask!

Hey Hickory, do you want to be the guinea pig on these since you were asking about staples?  Let us know how they work!

RE: Fiberglass Staples

Very interesting.  I bet some of these will find a place in builds.  I'm looking for staples/nails that can be removed once I've got the deck formed up, so I can't be the guinea pig here (just regular pig perhaps).

Hickory Smoked

RE: Fiberglass Staples

At one of the CLC demos (probably O-fest) they showed us how they use plastic nails to hold multiple sheets of plywood together on the CNC machine. That way they can cut a bunch of sheets at the same time without worrying about trashing the router bits in case they hit a nail. Great for reducing labor on high volume parts without having to build special tooling.

Don't know what the brand was, but it looked very similar to the pictures in Wes' link.

Laszlo

 

RE: Fiberglass Staples

Dan is the boatbuilder my contractor mentioned. Maybe he is the only one using them so far. I would guess that they would not be appropriate for a clear finished deck, but then again, might add an interesting pattern. -Wes

RE: Fiberglass Staples

I saw the Raptor composite staples last winter before O-fest.  I believe that I first saw them at http://www.duckworksbbs.com/tools/raptor.htm and then again at O-fest as I beleive that CLC uses them, as Laszlo noted, to hold multiple pieces of plywood together for cutting with their CNC machine.

I viewed at the Rapor website/youtube videos, and it appears that they would be good for strip building as they should shear off and would possibly accept satin, and at least, not need to be pulled out...

I would be interested in trying them if 1) If I could use a standard staple gun, and 2) could buy less than 5000 staples.

If anyone knows if one use a standard saple gun and would like to try and split and order, hit me up.

Regards,  Mike C

RE: Fiberglass Staples

Maybe our friends at CLC could comment on their experience with these products, and offer them in smaller lots along with an appropriate stapler.

-Wes

RE: Fiberglass Staples

An obvious problem just occurred to me: while these staples might be good for binding strips to each other, they would not be good for attaching strips to forms, which need to be removed. Duh---Wes

RE: Fiberglass Staples

Mike - you can't use regular nailers / staplers with the Raptor fasteners. If you look at their nails and staples, they list the compatible tools. I haven't used them, but Raptor fasteners sure got my attention when I came across them. I can see using them on some future projects. There would be an investment of a few hundred for the drivers, but I think it would be worth it.

Keith

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