Raptor plastic nails and staples

[CJage]

Has anyone used these? How did it go?

https://raptornails.com/product-appl...t-building.php

Thanks - Chris

[David G]

I've used them for years, and I like them. Used to have a Senco brad nailer that would shoot the brads. When it got stolen, the new equivalent Senco would not shoot them. Just crumpled 'em. So I spent the (not cheap) $$ for the dedicated brad nailer. It works fine. Quality gear.

As far as the ammo - it's interesting. When it fires, it appears to heat up briefly from friction before entering the wood. Which seems to give it extra gripping power somehow. It's not as rigid/hard as steel brads, so you can crumple them before you learn the quirks. And, of course, the selling points are pretty much correct: you can sand or cut them with no damage to your tools. They don't corrode. And even if you expose them during later machining... they are often hard to see.

[JOBBER]

I originally thought these were the cat's meow - twice the tensile strength, and not ruining blades when hitting them.
The 1st con was you had to buy their proprietary gun.
I then found out CNC guys love them. See the link why.

https://www.instructables.com/Polymer-nails-for-CNC-workholding/

No shear strength ended my further pursuit.

[David G]

I originally thought these were the cat's meow - twice the tensile strength, and not ruining blades when hitting them.
The 1st con was you had to buy their proprietary gun.
I then found out CNC guys love them. See the link why.

https://www.instructables.com/Polymer-nails-for-CNC-workholding/

No shear strength ended my further pursuit.

I tried your link, but my ad-blocker said it had been hacked by a data miner. What do you mean about CNC, and shear strength?

[Torna]

What do you mean about CNC, and shear strength?

From that site's text: "So it sounds like these nails can be finicky, right?! Well, their shining glory is revealed when you need to remove your part. One quick tap with a soft mallet is all that's required to snap them off. While they're strong in one direction, they're basically mush in the other. Strong, but brittle, as it were. Ever see Samuel Jackson in Unbreakable? You get the idea."
-Leif

[Illinois Switzer]

What everyone else has said. I also use a Senco SPBN18XP, so I know nothing about the more expensive Raptor gun, but I've never experienced a jam or issue. I love the fact that these work well for gluing up projects and sanded and stained....at least well enough to be barely discernable at 3 feet away. Really handy when using a plane or good chisel with them....no chance of buggering a nicely honed edge.

[John Meachen]

It looks like a better solution for some CNC work that the often used double sided tape or CA glue.The more heavy duty machines wouldn't use either as vacuum hold down is faster and doesn't leave any blemishes.I have known of the Raptor product for about 25 years and have yet to meet a real,live user in any field of work,but some of you seem happy with them.

[Rumars]

No shear strength ended my further pursuit.

If you need shear strength you can use LignoLoc, a phenolic resin impregnated wooden nail. In 2020 it recieved general construction approval in Germany after 3 years of testing. One application is purely nailed (no glue whatsoever) cross laminated timber panels for house construction wich are used as load bearing walls.
They are sold in the US, and of course you need to buy the dedicated gun.
https://www.beck-fastening.com/en/innovation/lignoloc

[DeanP]

I built my Beg-Meil hull using Raptor nails and staples and love both. The hull is cold molded so I used 1000's of staples. In my mind, they add no strength, but hold everything in place while the epoxy cures. The best part is that these plastic fasteners can be drilled, sanded, planed, sawn, etc. without damage to tools or the surrounding wood. Both the pneumatic stapler have performed without issue.

[sp_clark]

Farzino the Raptor staples need a proprietary driver.

Their 1/2" 18 ga. brads worked find in my Senco & Porter Cable brad guns. I used 'em last winter to secure the decks I was epoxifying to the two amas I was building for my Waterlust canoe. Worked great!

Then I discovered I'd glued the decks onto the wrong amas... they're asymmetrical, I wasn't paying enough attention, they had to come off.

So with heat gun in one hand and a stiffish scraper in the other I pulled those 4mm ply decks off toot sweet, about half an hour each.

The composite 1/2" brads stayed (mostly) behind, the decks were trashed. But prepping the sheer clamps for the next go was easy, those composite brads yielded cleanly disc sander, no need to pull 'em all, just sand 'em flush, get on with it.

I'd think they'd be ideal for cold-molding, where cutting away what's proud of the last layer's necessary before starting in on bonding the next, if maybe a bit expensive.

They worked great for my modest application, and I have a bunch left over for when next I can use 'em effectively.

[UCanoe_2]

I have used the Raptor brads and like them a lot. They are brittle and don't add much strength, but they are great for holding parts together while epoxy cures. They will not damage cutting tools, so you can saw, plane, and chisel to your heart's content.

The brads don't show in this photo, but they are holding 3 layers of 9mm plywood together for my rudder blank. There are clamps around the edges, but brads in the center where clamps can't reach.

Rudder blank clamped.jpg

I just have a cheap pneumatic brad nailer from a swap meet. It jams occasionally, but it cost less than 1/10 the price of the "official" gun. It's usually a simple matter to disassemble the front of the nailer and clear out broken bits of plastic brads. I lubricate it liberally with air tool oil and graphited lock fluid. I also have learned to use slow hardener with my epoxy, in case I need extra time to clear jams.

[Andrew Donald]

I use raptor plastics for glue ups when positioning is crucial and I can dispense with screws and the soldering iron to get em out. Perimeter and field of large panels such as cabin-top was a good use.

[kbowen]

I liked the raptor nails for strip planking. I used them to hold 7/8 x 7/8" strips while the glue hardened. In addition to the assets above I would add a nuance: The chisel- point nails are great when used with the tip slicing the grain lines rather than splitting them. If used with the point parallel to the grain they often catch a grain ring and shoot out the side of the plank. Not the end of the world, because they can be sanded off, but it's much better to orient the tip as you would a cut nail. Unfortunately the longest Raptor nails for my gun have a pyramid point rather than chisel, however you can take them in their attached bandolier-loading format and pass them over a belt sander to make the pyramid-point into chisel-point and increase your happiness.

We used the Raptor staples as a test at WB school when Clint Chase led a strip / composite St Lawrence River Skiff build. I think the strips were 1/4" bead and cove. The idea was to get the two legs of the staple in adjacent strips to hold the glue line together while the googe kicked. One side of the boat was stripped with them and on the other, the strips were pinned each to the mold with #4 or #6 uncoated box nails angled thru the strip onto the molds. I think the consensus was that the box nails pulled the strips tighter together and were east to pull out with a claw hammer. The Raptor staples allowed the strips to separate more than desirable, and they were buzzed off with a random orbit sander.

Ken