Stainless steel grommets

[Mortuus]

Anyone know where to get stainless steel grommets? I have called/gone to no less than 8-10 hardware, marine, canvas, sailing, and fabric stores, and no one seems to carry them. This is pretty surprising since Seattle is such a huge marine and industrial area....

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[Joshua Smith]

I bought some from Seattle Fabics, but that was a few years ago.

[Mortuus]

Funnily enough the parking lot of Seattle Fabrics was where I did most of my calling from. I was in the area and figured I would try there, but they were closed today. I will be calling them tomorrow, but I didnt find any evidence of ss grommets on their website

[oldsalt]

Try the website for McMaster-Carr, www.mcmaster.com. Type in stainless steel grommets and you will find several options. I've used them several times to get stuff that's hard to get.
Good Luck, Curt

[Mortuus]

Try the website for McMaster-Carr, http://www.mcmaster.com. Type in stainless steel grommets and you will find several options. I've used them several times to get stuff that's hard to get.
Good Luck, Curt

I dont need enough to justify online shipping and waiting. Despite the myth that online shopping is somehow more convenient, I find it to be much easier to just drive somewhere, purchase my item, and be home in an hour or less. I consider it far superior to paying stupid amounts of money for shipping, and then waiting two weeks for your purchase to arrive. So I would prefer local stores. If online is my only option then I am not even going to bother

[renoun]

Some of the local sail lofts might have a few. North Sails above Fisheries Supply on Northlake would be my first choice. Watch out for the nickle platted grommets, just because they are shiny silver doesn't mean that they are stainless steel.

[Joshua Smith]

Try the website for McMaster-Carr, http://www.mcmaster.com. Type in stainless steel grommets and you will find several options. I've used them several times to get stuff that's hard to get.
Good Luck, Curt

I dont need enough to justify online shipping and waiting. Despite the myth that online shopping is somehow more convenient, I find it to be much easier to just drive somewhere, purchase my item, and be home in an hour or less. I consider it far superior to paying stupid amounts of money for shipping, and then waiting two weeks for your purchase to arrive. So I would prefer local stores. If online is my only option then I am not even going to bother

Mcmasters is really awesome, though. They ship even small orders really fast. I wouldn't write them off so fast.

[Nwbrewer]

Funnily enough the parking lot of Seattle Fabrics was where I did most of my calling from. I was in the area and figured I would try there, but they were closed today. I will be calling them tomorrow, but I didnt find any evidence of ss grommets on their website

I'm reasonably certain that all seattle fabrics has are nickle plated brass. Any reason you NEED stainless? Nickle plated (or even plain Brass) is fine for most applications.

[Mortuus]

Funnily enough the parking lot of Seattle Fabrics was where I did most of my calling from. I was in the area and figured I would try there, but they were closed today. I will be calling them tomorrow, but I didnt find any evidence of ss grommets on their website

I'm reasonably certain that all seattle fabrics has are nickle plated brass. Any reason you NEED stainless? Nickle plated (or even plain Brass) is fine for most applications.

Well brass is kind of weak, correct?

[camerone]

Well brass is kind of weak, correct?

Yes, but it's all relative. I have high pressure brass parts on my compressor filtration stack, and they're more than capable of withstanding the stresses, for instance.

It's all about what you're using them for. The biggest problem with any grommet is installation; getting them correctly "set" at home is a skill that takes practice with an anvil and hammer (or I prefer a small arbor press because it's easier to deform the material evenly.) Most of the grommet difficulties I've seen are tearing of the underlying material.

Whatcha building?

[Mortuus]

Well brass is kind of weak, correct?

Yes, but it's all relative. I have high pressure brass parts on my compressor filtration stack, and they're more than capable of withstanding the stresses, for instance.

It's all about what you're using them for. The biggest problem with any grommet is installation; getting them correctly "set" at home is a skill that takes practice with an anvil and hammer (or I prefer a small arbor press because it's easier to deform the material evenly.) Most of the grommet difficulties I've seen are tearing of the underlying material.

Whatcha building?

Not building anything. Using this for my backplate webbing, which is why I posted this here on NWDC.

Now if you guys think that nickel-plated brass will work for this, then I trust your judgement since I know nothing about metals. All I know is that all the grommets I ever see on scuba gear (most of the time in 2" nylon webbing) are stainless steel. I figured there may be something to that

[Nwbrewer]

What Camerone said. For most scuba applications I can think of Brass is plenty strong enough. Even brass though can be a PITA to get set correctly.

[renoun]

If it is just for webbing a BP you can just burn a hole in the webbing with a hot nail or a soldering iron. I don't think that there is enough strain for a grommet to matter.

[Mortuus]

Well I called Seattle Fabrics today and the guy I talked to was pretty knowledgeable about grommets. He gave me plenty of info on the nickel coated brass ones. So I drove down there and bought some as part of a kit with all the tools to set them. Got it set just fine. Hopefully it holds up. Im sure it will.

[camerone]

It should be just fine.

As renoun mentioned, I also just burn a hole through the webbing with a hot nail (heated in a torch - melting plastic is a great way to destroy a soldering pencil.) The webbing has always worn out or frayed faster than the hole has stretched... there's no stress on that hole, since the webbing is woven through the backplate slots; you're literally burning a hole just to let the bolt for the tanks pass through.

You're gettin' all fancy pants on us

-c

[fnerg]

I used webbing to sling my pony bottle, and brass grommets to hold the webbing together:



It's been on many dives with no tearing or corrosion.