Fasteners – Important items needed to repair, attach and help you hold it together during a crisis

UbiqueContributor - May 9, 2021

Advice

We think of fasteners as nails, screws, bolts with nuts and washers. Most preppers store a wide variety of these items. But there are other kinds of equally important fasteners to store.

Zip ties are good to have on hand in a variety of lengths with a consideration that white zip ties don’t last as long as black ties will last. Some types of zip ties are reusable.

I also save twist ties, such as the long ones that come with the packaging of certain items. Twist ties also come in packages of garbage bags or can be on bread. I use them to hold inventory tags on my prep item shelves and can be easily moved around.

Rope made of synthetic or natural fibres such as hemp and in different length and weights. Watch the synthetic rope for quality. My husband just found out yesterday that a rope he just bought was not the typical poly rope he believed he had purchased. It will need to be repurposed for a much lighter project so as not to waste it. It was good to find that out before it might have been needed in an emergency.

Don’t forget the importance of string as a fastener. It can be used to bind and hold herbs for drying. Heavier string can be used to macrame a plant holder.

Yarn can repair or bind together when you darn a hole in a sweater or socks. Thread in a variety of basic colors, weights and type cotton and polyester with an large supply of needles of various sizes, plus dressmaker pins are necessary if you need to repair or make clothing. In a long crisis you may need to remake clothing as children grow.

Snaps, hooks and eyes, and a grommet tool with grommets are good to have on hand. What about buttons and zippers? Have a variety of sizes on hand to repair clothing. During a crisis, clothing takes a beating and if it becomes a longer duration, consider the need for have buttons and zippers on hand. 

Bungee cords in a variety of lengths can serve in a range of situations with it’s handy flexibility.

Adhesives are a fastener also and should be on hand to repair a variety of materials. “Shoo goo” is the brand I keep in my prep and regular supply for repairing boots. I have kept boots water tight and in use for many additional years using “Shoo goo.” For certain repairs to boots, I have used clamps to hold the pieces together while it cured for twenty-four hours.

On the subject of boots, keep a good supply of extra boot and shoe laces in your preps.

Superglue doesn’t have the life span of other adhesives, although I keep it on hand for quick repairs of lighter items. I keep Gorilla glue, two-part epoxy glue, wood glue, and ceramic glue on hand. Even acrylic and silicone caulk can be included in glues. I have used acrylic caulk to install small pieces of baseboard.

Tape of various types are also important fasteners. I keep tapes like foil (for sealing HVAC ducts, hockey, masking, tuck (for sealing vapor barrier), duct, and a lot of packing tape for it’s variety of use.

A good staple gun/brad nailer combo with an assortment of each is very important for repairs. Don’t forget household staples and an assortment of bulldog clips. These items are useful for reorganizing hard printed copies of important information as a crisis continues. Also bulldog clips can be hung with items attached and can be used for more than paper.

A pail of roofing repair tar to seal leaks in a roof, roofing nails, and extra shingles can help secure your home if no one is available to repair it during a crisis. Learn how to do it before a disaster happens.

There are many other types of fasteners. To be fully prepared, review all the components of your home and your preps and consider what kind of fasteners you might need in a crisis of a long duration. What might wear out? How could you repair the item?

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I keep large bulk bags of zip ties on hand.  They are exceedingly handy.

 

We get our zip ties in large bags as well and keep a variety of sizes. They are very handy and quick to deploy for a rapid repair in an emergency until other means can be used.

Everyone’s needs are different, but fasteners that hold items together cannot be stressed enough for prepping. It’s worth taking the time to examine the home, outbuildings and property for potential issues and repairs.

This also applies to people who are renting any kind of property. Landlords may be not be prepared and it can fall to a tenant to repair their home in an emergency.

 

Just had to order some of these rope clamps, that fasten 2 ropes together… normally to make a loop.  These hold the clips that I attach to the horses’ halters in my wash rack.  Saturday morning I was grooming my buckskin, Rowdy, and while rubbing the inside of his ear, which he loves, he knocked a curry comb off the top of the post.  For some reason, that spooked him & 1200 pounds of horse snapped both clips off their ropes.  They had gotten old & they failed before the break away straps in his halter.

 

Your clamps reminded me of something – my husband learned rigging as a crane operator. They would weave 7 strand wire back into itself to create a loop called an “eye”. This can also be done with any rope.

The “eye” can hold a shackle or hook for lifting and pulling or tieing down items.

The resulting splice is 100% strength versus 45% when a knot is tied which weakens the rope.

A long splice can join two ropes together to make a longer rope.

It is a very good skill to have as a prepper. We have his original rigging book at home, but it should be possible to get a rigging book through a crane operator school.

This kind of knowledge might help if clamps were not available.

 

That’s a pretty neat clamp. In boy scouts we were taught to ‘whip’ a rope to prevent it from fraying or to do something similar to what your picture shows.

 

Thanks for the illustration, Jay.

Also a very handy skill to have as a prepper.

 

Re “snaps, hooks and eyes”; I’d like to add a square coth section with a preexisting button slot. For the record, they do sell new ones but I used old button slots from the old field shirt they were once part of.

My use is using these button slot sections instead of grommets or other metal fittings for lightweight tarps I make for individual carry. Besides the lighter weight, the tarp folds up better.

 

Good morning Bob,

Dismantling garments for certain parts is an excellent way to cover needs without sewing.

I have kept a grommet maker in my sewing supplies but haven’t used it for years. If there isn’t enough backing/interfacing in the header, then the grommet can pull off or shift. I used to use it for lace up garments or shower curtains.

I can see where the tarp would fold up better also and be easier to pack.

Really good idea, Bob.

 

Sugru would be a good addition as well.

 

LBV –

Really cool moldable glue. I had never heard of it and checked it out. I can see where it could be very handy to have on hand. Thank you for suggesting it.

I added in a link for anyone who isn’t familar with it:

https://sugru.com/

 

Advantage is that you can use it several ways. If you mould it directly onto the item it sticks. If you cover the item with petroleum jelly  you can make something loose that can be removed. Makes it a very useful item, especially if you need some flexibility. 

 

LBV,

Thanks for the tip about applying petroleum jelly – this really expands the uses for it.

 

Good afternoon LBV,

On my list to research for us is Sugru.

I wasn’t familiar until now.

It does sound like a preppers love at first sight.

 

Only downside, short shelf life. It is a very handy material.

 

Good afternoon,

Knowing about splicing of wire rope and the related lifting matters is an important skill just to know about.

I used to know how to do this when working on overseas offshore rigs although someone more experienced than me actually did the splicing.

For those interested, my basic book to learn splicing was Department of the Army Technical Manual – TM 5 – 725. dated March, 1964.  All this is probably contracted out now – if even used.

TM 5-725 tells and illustrates starting a basic splice. I once used the TM’s section on rope ladders (wire rope). 

Prior to the web and for fabric slings, there’s a catalog if company still around with illustrations labeling the terminology. I remember the overlap of terminology between the fabric and the wire rope.  The company: “Wire Rope Corporation of America, Inc” out of St Joseph, Missouri.

Splicing knowledge can be valuable for a prepper.

 

Good afternoon Bob,

I thought you might recognize it with your offshore rig experience.

I never realized how important splicing was until I saw him doing it. The gears turned in my head and I thought if you didn’t have the fasteners, this could really come in handy.

I found the book he has (his is from 1977) on Amazon.ca 

Handbook for Riggers by W. Bill Newberry

I am going to buy another copy as his is intact but another copy wouldn’t hurt as back up. It was around 15.00 CAD. BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology also has a copy on their school website around the same price).

They were taught to do up to seven strands on wire rope, so the ability repair and splice ropes into longer ropes could be invaluable in a crisis. Also, that skill could come in handy for bartering.

Once I get my own copy, I am going to try to learn how to do this as a fall/winter project. Plus I think it could be good therapy for arthritic hands. I usually do crocheting in winter to keep my hands functioning, but I didn’t this year and the difference is noticeable. 

I used to know how to braid twine into thick ropes, but have lost that. I should look that up because it was a good skill also. We reused our baler twine and it never went to waste. We used the ropes we made for halter ropes or tasks requiring rope around the farm.

 

I woke up at 2am this morning and the first thing that came to my mind was HOT GLUE. I realized how much I use hot glue and was going to come on the forum and talk about it today. But after seeing this thread, I thought it would be better nestled under here.

Hot glue is my favorite fastener because it is strong, versatile, and non-marring it is. 

I use it all the time to temporarily mount something somewhere. For example, I was able to mount an extension cord on the inside of my desk to have a little charging option inside of there, it is only held on with hot glue, and it holds very well. If I ever wanted to remove it, I would just have to pull it off, and the hot glue would peel off as well and there would be no trace of it ever being there.

I also like putting dabs of hot glue onto the bottom of things to prevent slipping, sliding, and scuffing. I have a fan that always seems to rotate itself out of position and ends up pointing not at me. But after putting a bit of hot glue on the bottom it stays put on a table and doesn’t rattle or rotate.

I’ve put hot glue on the bottom of boxes, ammo cans, printers, and more to prevent them from scratching the delicate wood underneath, otherwise it would be sharp metal, wood, or plastic against the wood table.

Hot glue can act as a good little rubber bumper on closet drawers to prevent wood against wood sound. It becomes a nice dampened thud with hot glue. 

It’s a great fastener, cheap, and has so many uses. 

 

Thanks Jay!

Here I am with a hot glue gun in the shed and I forgot to include it! As long as power is available it is a wonderful tool and very fast to tack or secure something.

Good tip about using it for anti-mar/scratch purposes.

 

Hello everyone! One thing that I thought of is saving your bread clips.

These can be used to close other bags like chip bags, you can use them on a clothes line in place of clothespins, and another thing we like to do in our family is to put them around the cables and plugs to our computers and tv and then use a sharpie to write on the clip what that plug goes to. That way we aren’t always having to follow the entire cable back to the source to know if it’s safe to unplug or not.

Like I just said, using as clothespins on a clothes line can be a good use for them. Just having the old fashion clothes pins can be a good fastener as well. If the power goes out for a long period of time, I bet many people will string up some sort of clothes lines in their yards to dry their clothes. Get your clothespins now!

 

I actually store old fashioned wood clothespins… just in case.  But thanks for this heads up.  I never thought of using these clips as clothespins or as cable organizers.  Brilliant!

 

I like to find more uses out of everyday things. And while these bread clips probably won’t be able to hold up something heavy like a towel or a coat that you washed, they could maybe hold up a sock or underwear.

 

Nice idea Isobel!

I keep twist ties and use them to tag my pantry shelves in the basement. I have to move them around a lot and the twist ties work well on the tags.

 

Some baking soda added to joints with superglue makes it less brittle.  Common trick used when building miniatures for table top gaming.  Also if you buy from someplace that caters to gaming or model aviation you can get different thicknesses of CA, which is super useful.  

Along the hot melt line there are low heat and high heat (industrial) which I suggest having both on hand.  I have a battery powered hot glue gun that can handle both.  I also keep a ton of hot melt designed for arrow points since I do a ton of archery.  Regular hot melt can work, but it isn’t as strong.  

I also love artificial sinew for leather and heavy duty clothing sewing.  It is super strong and nice to work with.  I keep a big 1 lb spool with my leather crafting supplies and a bunch of different cutting needles.  

For high strength rope if you know any climbers you might be able to score a retired rope, slings, or cordelletes.  If it is retired don’t depend on it for life-safety applications, but it is still likely very strong unless it took  a core shot.  I am retiring a ton of soft goods this season and have a bin full of that crap that will mostly get used for training or for my rescue sled.  

 

Scott – Awesome reply! I learned so much from your reply.

I always steered clear of relying on superglue because it is so brittle. Now I know how to fix that.

Also battery powered hot glue gun is a great idea.

Artificial sinew is another really great item to have on hand. I sew and didn’t even think of it. Thank you!

Climbing rope and materials (with the cautions you stated) is another brilliant suggestion. Aside from being incredibly useful to have in preps, these materials would also save some money on a prepper’s budget.

Noted the rescue sled – Good on you for participating in rescue!

Thank you again for all the great tips and suggestions.

 

Good afternoon Scott,

Appreciated reading about having the rescue sled.  This is upbeat news. Thank you.