Zipper madness!

[suzelle]

12 minutes ago, DanaStanley said:

I Ordered some from Zipper Stop but another one that looks promising is Ohio Travel Bag. Well organized site, tons of leather hardware and tools, as well as Zippers and zipper stuff. Whdlesale Hardware for Handbag, Leathercraft & Repair Industries (ohiotravelbag.com) The prices are very reasonable!

Oh good Dana! thanks so much for that - always good to have resources, especially lately.

I'll say I'd thought of telling you about Zipper Stop too, but declined because it had been so long ago since I ordered from them. What I remember ordering was a very wide tooth (teeth?) plastic zipper in a roll, I ordered as many yards as I wanted, and also the zipper pull, which I believe was metal. It was a great zipper and I think what I was doing at the time was some sort of a cloth dog house made of sunbrella fabric that was collapsible. Also, I think I used the same zipper for a machine quilting frame. Anyhow, Zipperstop at that time was very affordable and their goods were high quality. 

Another one I'd though of was WAWAK.com.   This one I don't remember how I came acroos, but probably a friend who does Commercial sewing. They have lots of options for zippers too, lots of other stuff as well! Great Company and I have no complaints at all. They have a nice catalog they mail out every year or semi-annually.

[$$hobby]

welcome,

sometimes you need to work at it to get what you want.

heres where i will shop locally.... i will let you take it from there... note im downsizing and have not been there for any supplies other than glue.

https://oregonleatherco.com/

i also get some stuff from here too.  Note, if you are not sure about some fabrics/zippers, i was able to get a "sample" swatch of various colors/sizes...ect.  They are not free, but at least you can do the touchy/feely and get an idea on size/shape.

https://www.seattlefabrics.com/

I also used to buy from weaver.  Dont know if you have their catalog or not, but you may want to look them up and see if anything interests you.

 

also, when it comes to things, you may want to BUILD UP your REFERENCE LIBRARY.  You may not want "books" but i find them handy.

[leather671]

On 4/5/2022 at 10:45 AM, suzelle said:

YKK is major zipper manufacturer. Look that up, might help. YKK Heavy Duty.

YKK #10,heavy duty,  but as he said above, the websites are screwy.. difficult to maneuver..

Zippershipper.com

 

[Spyros]

Oh yeah, my favourite rant.  Fkn zippers.

On 4/5/2022 at 10:32 PM, DanaStanley said:

What do you do as far as stocking zippers, and where do you buy them? 

Buckleguy, and I make sure to get drunk first to get through the buying experience.  Just click and click until the cows come home, and 99% of the time something is not in stock whether its the colour or the size or the zipper pull or the stops.  And you can't find out if you can actually assemble a complete set or not until you've clicked on half the website it seems.  And yes, I do have a small pile of RiRi zippers in the shed without matching pulls or stops because I got frustrated and ordered the wrong thing.

The stupid website should be guiding you with those things, it's 2022 not 1990.  Choose a colour and size, and the website should recommend all the pullers and stops that match the size and the colour and are actually in stock.

They have an engine in the background that gets online quotes from couriers based on size and weight of your shopping cart ffs, this is really not that hard.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Spyros

[alpha2]

I think a lot of the hardware is available in brass, which won't rust either. I must agree on getting info on zippers from, well, those that sell zippers online! My pet peeve when I was searching for a long zipper for a rifle scabbard, was that no one or two places had the zipper and the hardware I needed! Shipping costs for anything now is absolutely insane, and I would have to get bottom stops from one place, top stops from another, a pull from another and a zipper from yet another, because they didn't even have top/bottom stops in the same color or size at the same place that had a pull in that color/size! I finally found a place online called "The Zipper Lady". Looked up her shop location, it was just across town from me! 

I won't expect that to happen again in my life.

[Spyros]

I'm much more likely these days to change the design than convince myself to deal with ordering zippers.  

[Wizcrafts]

I know that this topic has reached its intended outcome. But, I want to share my primary source of YKK zippers and zipper parts and tools, as well as the double sided tape I use to secure them for sewing. Wawak.com stocks a huge amount of zippers in tooth widths up to #10 (chaps size), in various lengths and colors. They have top and bottom stops, pullers and tools. Here is the Zippers landing page.

The double sided tape get from Wawak is called HyperStik and is listed on this page. This is really aggressive tape. If your needle sews through the tape it will tend to gum up. To counter this I only use titanium or Gebeder needles when sewing through the tape. Plus, I keep a jar of Goof Off nearby and dip a dauber into it, then wipe the needle down every so often as I sew through the tape. If the machine has a lube pot, I pour in silicon lube and run the thread through it. Both of my patchers have stock lube pots and it's trivial to pour in a bit of silicon lube.

[Northmount]

Adding to Wizcrafts' comments:

Wawak ships to both Canada and the USA.  They have s shipping service in Canada, so no unexpected brokerage or GST charges.  Much appreciated.