Here is a link to a company that sells some of the ITW Nexus fittings that seem so difficult to find. Of particular interest to myself are the SuperBloc buckles and bottom strap grommets which are handy for making backbands and such.
I have not yet ordered, so I cannot comment on customer service.
Jim
http://store.ryansproducts.com/index.html
StrapWorks.com
I’m laughing because I feel like this is a I’ll “one up you” type of response. I was just glancing at the site you posted and thought about www.strapworks.com. They’ve been good to me the time or two I’ve ordered from them for plastic D-rings.
Strapworks are good guys.
They just didn’t have what I was looking for.
Same with Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics. I periodically order stuff from them, but they don’t stock the items I mentioned.
Jim
Ahh, sorry.
Jim, how do you sew the straps?
Will a regular household duty machine do it, or am I likely to raise the ire of its owner for even suggesting such a thing?
It depends…
… on the machine and the webbing in question. The number of layers makes a big difference and as you would expect, the more layers, the less likely that a typical home machine will sew it. Some home machines will work fine on the softer types of webbing, but not on others. You’re best bet is a heavy-duty “walking foot” type of machine, but they’re not common and they’re expensive. Barring that, some of the all metal machines from the 50’s and 60’s (or even earlier) will work well on heavy materials. You can find these for a song on Ebay, Craigslist or even at your local sewing machine repair shop.
Another option is to hand-sew the straps with an awl. It works, but it’s tedious, especially if you’re sewing multiple rows for durability, which is a very good practice.
itw nexus
just go to their website…you can get 5 piece samples for free…easy way toget parts!
You can buy walking foot attachment
for sewing machines. That will advance the material evenly from both sides. I use one when sewing different weight or different texture material together. The attachment screws on in place of the regular presser foot, and it’s like putting a set of feed dogs on top of the fabric to match the feed dogs on the plate under the fabric.
Also, one of the reasons a machine will not sew seams on heavy fabric is because one side of the presser foot gets higher than the other as it’s trying to do its job…sort of like going uphill. If that’s a problem, you can take a small piece of cardboard and put it on the side of the foot, or at the back of the foot, out of the way of the needle, to maintain the level height of the presser foot. It works.
It’s also important to use the right size needle for the fabric.
Apologies tktoo
for not responding to your question in a timely manner.
I have my Mom’s 1930’s Singer, and it handles up to about 3 layers of webbing without choking. No zig-zag, no bar-tack (bummer) and no walking foot available. But it is great for hobby sewing.
Jim
'Sokay, Jim.
I used to design multi-venue custom packaging for traveling art exhibits and the guys in the shop often used Fastex hardware on polypropylene straps on the inner crates. They used brass grommets to fasten the strap to itself, melting a hole with an old soldering iron. It seemed to work pretty well for that application - the buckles pulled apart before the grommet showed any sign of failure - and appeared finished enough, but I thought sewing would look and perform better in more demanding situations.
Along those lines
I have experimented with using a heat gun to melt a 2" section of 1" strap and then quicklyfolding it back on itself. Punch a grommet hole and set. Seemed to be pretty secure, but I am a seamster at heart.
Jim