YKK Garbage
sherwindu wrote:
Diaper pins
Dennis Pogson wrote:
Rosalie B. wrote:
sherwindu wrote:
Dennis Pogson wrote:
sherwindu wrote:
I have several 8VS zippers on my boat cover, which was made for me
about 5 years ago. The teeth and sliders of this zipper are in
excellent shape, but the pin and boxes have dried out and
disintegrated.
The pin and box is the small item at the start of the zipper to
guide the slider on.
I am told this item is integral to the zipper and cannot be
repaired. I think YKK's recent fix for this problem of using UV
resistant zippers is not necessarily the best fix, but the only
choice in using
a YKK system. Years ago YKK zippers had a removable pin and box
piece that could be attached if the original one broke, but now
everything
is one piece to save costs. Although YKK hints at paying for the
material
costs of new zippers, labor could cost me as much as 35 dollars
each to replace and I have over 20 zippers on this cover.
Sherwin D.
The zippers with large teeth do not need the end stops moulded into
the zip tape. I worked in the trade before retiring and bought the
zipper in rolls of 100m and the sliders separately. The stopper at
the end of these large zippers can be simply a piece of zip tape
sewn horizontally thru the teeth and triple-tacked. The teeth are
soft p[alstic and an industrial sewing machine will punch right
thru them, but a domestic machine would need a little coaxing, or
if you are stuck a sailmakers needle and palm can be used.
Perhaps there is come confusion here about which end of my zippers
is failing.
It is the starting end when trying to begin closing it, not the
end which stops the zipper
after it has closed the opening.
I thought he addressed both the starting ends and what to do if you
didn't want it to separate all the way..
FWIW, If the bottom end of a zipper fails, and I don't want the slide
to go all the way down and come off, I put a safety pin across just
before the end.
What a jolly good idea!
I think most people think that having a moulded starter on a large-toothed
zipper is essential. It isn't. If you can find some way of stopping the tape
from fraying, it's easy to feed the zipper into the slider, so long as you
get the correct end to start off with, which can usually be learned by
looking closely at the teeth. A zipper can only be opened one way, unless
brute force is used, then it's goodbye zipper!
Obviously it's much nicer to have a plastic moulding sliding into a
"garage", but in a marine environment these should always be of the plastic
variety, not the cheap alloy which so many manufacturers use, which corrodes
like hell and is impossible to get the salt out of, even by boiling. Check
out your (expensive) sailing jacket and you'll see what I mean.
Makers of "sausage type" racing sailbags get round the open-end problem by
simply extending the zipper about 18" past the end of the bag, like a long
tail, and terminating the closed end with a substantial multi-stitched tape
stopper.
20 zippers is one hell of a lot to repair due to the costs of dismantling,
and I would bet that a new cover would be almost as cheap, but think about
touch-and-close Velcro before designing same. There are numerous strengths
of these fastenings, some of which would hold the Queen Mary! Not very
convenient for long lengths due to handling problems, but infinitely longer
lasting. A sail batten stiched into a hem, and finished with touch an' close
makes for a much easier-to-handle closure than a damaged zipper.
Dennis.
Thanks again Dennis for your reply.
A rust resistant safety pin may work here except if even a few of the teeth
open
at the starter end, it's almost impossible to open the zipper fully past
them. However,
if YKK does not come through with a good solution for me, I will consider the
safety
pin as a much cheaper alternative. Anybody know where they sell large rust
proof
safety pins? I will then take a picture of this 'fix' and send it to YKK
corporate as
an indication of their 'quality' products.
Sherwin D.
grandma Rosalie
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