Super Fast Sink Bracket
The Newest Great Innovation from the Father and Son Fabricators for Fabricators Team
by Joel Davis
Photos Used Courtesy of Prestige Granite and Fabricators for Fabricators LLC
Mouse over photos for captions
How fast is super fast? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Fabricators for Fabricators LLC wants to show you.
Braxton-Bragg now offers the firm’s new easy-to-install Super Fast Sink Bracket developed by father and son duo August and Matthew Iocco to meet their own needs in their fabrication shop.
Using the brackets makes for quick work on the jobsite, said Braxton-Bragg Product Manager Steve Bussell. “It is one of the fastest ways I have seen to install a sink. August and Matthew have looked at everything from a real practical viewpoint. They are installing sinks and have examined how to speed that process up and make it accurate.”
Failed sink installations can hurt a shop’s profits and reputation, so one of the major selling points of the new product is that it does not trade off reliability for convenience, Bussell said. “They’ve not sacrificed anything in the strength of the product. With how they’ve designed it, the Super Fast Sink Bracket is just easy for everyone to use.”
Using the Super Fast Sink Bracket couldn’t be simpler. Place the open end of the bracket clip over the cabinet side wall. Hammer down until flush with top of cabinet. Then hammer the bracket into position on the side of cabinet. After all the brackets have been secured, the fabricator can then level the sink by using a 1/4 inch hex head socket to raise or lower the support arms.
The Super Fast Sink Bracket is intended for cabinet side walls 3/8 to 5/8 inches in thickness. For proper mounting of a sink four brackets are recommended. The product evolved in response to the day-to-day demands that August and Matthew encounter installing stone countertops.
“There had to be an easier way of attaching a sink to a granite top,” Matthew said. “We didn’t like drilling into the bottom of the stone to attach various hardware. We came up with a system that clips onto the side wall of the cabinetry. The unique feature of the bracket is it needs no drilling, screwing, nailing or adhesives of any kind.”
Some of the advantages of the bracket include:
- Carbon spring steel clip; bolts and hardware are grade 8, high-strength steel
- Self-contained system – no little parts to lose
- Gives you the flexibility of installing a sink before or after stone is in place.
The product streamlines the installation, Bussell said. “A lot of products are going to require that you have to pre-drill, screw, nail, glue, or notch the cabinet. Maybe you have to do a lot of precise measuring or you have to use temporary fastenings to hold the sink in place. Those procedures have already slowed down the process.”
The patent-pending system is also very forgiving when it comes to measurements. You can be off by several inches and still pick up the rim of the sink with the 90 degrees of support arm rotation provided by each bracket. This leads to another advantage. The support arms can be lowered to leave a convenient gap between the sink and the countertop for easier application of seam sealant – No need for temporary support devices.
Tight spaces provide no installation challenges for fabricators using the new product. “Sometimes the sink can be close to the side wall of the cabinetry and you can’t get clips in these areas,” Matthew said. “With the Super Fast Bracket it can be right against the side wall and still pick up the rim of the sink.”
The design of the bracket support the main weak spot for stone sinks and reduces the chances of breakage during installation or everyday use. “As you tighten the bracket up, it bends this spring steel clip so it actually ends up supporting the sink at the weakest point and the worst spot for breakage, which is the cutout,” Bussell said. “Instead of the granite supporting the sink, these clips supports the sink and the granite.”
The bracket utilizes metal stab locks that pierce the wood holding the bracket in place along with a spring clip. “You can have your granite job sink ready within 30 seconds,” Matthew said.
Another advantage of Super Fast Sink Bracket is the lack of extra and unnecessary hardware. “It is self-contained,” Bussell said. “A lot of things have a screw and a washer and something else. With the Super Fast Sink Bracket, there is nothing to look for, no pieces in a bag. They’ve done a fabulous job.”
Father and son run a small family fabrication business in the Pittsburgh area called Prestige Granite. They sell their products through Fabricators for Fabricators.
“We’ve been doing stone for about 15 years now,” August said. “I have been in general construction since I was a teenager. I’ve been in all phases of construction. We were bricklayers and block layers and cement finishers to begin with.
We always had our hands on stone.”
Seeing a market ready to serve, the family decided to branch out into the granite business. “We bought all the equipment and everything necessary to start a fabrication business and install kitchens,” August said. “Everybody looks for new opportunities.”
The more they learned about the stone industry, the more they saw an opportunity to meet the needs of installers and fabricators. “I saw a call for new tools in the industry,” August said.
Being working fabricators gives the pair insight into the real needs encountered in day-to-day shop operations. According to the company’s www.fabricatorsforfabricators.com website: “As granite fabricators ourselves, we’re out there in the field working and dealing with the same problems as you. The granite industry is fairly new unlike the carpentry industry that has been around for thousands of years. This gives granite fabrication an opportunity for innovative tools, items and new ways of doing things. As we work, we discover new ideas and products to fix common problems that occur.”
Using the brackets reduces the amount of handling needed during fabrication of sinks, which reduces the chance of mishaps. There is no need to turn the stone over in order to drill holes to secure clips. “When you are doing this flipping back and forth you always risk breaking the stone or scratching it,” August said.
Less steps means less labor costs and less time fiddling around with other, fussier methods. “It increases your sink installations speed so fast that you won’t even think of going back to the old way of mounting a sink,” Matthew said. “Let the installation of the sink be the last thing you worry about.”
Expect more products from Fabricators for Fabricators, whose mission is to create granite fabrication and installation tools to make the job faster and safer. “While we’re working, we’ll see something that we need to make the job easier,” Matthew said. “We’re trying to make things go a little faster.”
Meeting their own installation needs with the Super Fast Sink Bracket resulted in a product tailored to the workday challenges facing fab shops. “We made a product and thought it would help out with the problem,” August said. “It took about two years. You design it and then it’s never right the first time you have to go back to the drawing board and redo it again.”
August’s favorite part of his job is “seeing the final product working,” he said. “It’s a long road to get there.”
Running a small business gives August and Matthew insight into the whole fabrication and installation process. “If we had a real big shop, everybody would have their own job,” Matthew said. “One guy would be a sawer, one would be an installer, one would be a templater. In our job, we have to do everything, which gives us insight for new ideas and new product. Throughout the process you get to see everything, too,” he said.
August and Matthew developed the product as a follow-up to their popular Bumper Cushion, which allows the movement of stone without the fear of cracking or chipping the edges. It offers fabricators a cost-effective means to protect themselves from everyday accidents. Not confined for use in seams, the Bumper Cushion makes a great means of stabilizing slabs on a bridge saw.
“It is a good product to help prevent crashes between two pieces of stone when you’re moving it off of the CNC or saw bed or your cutting table,” Bussell said. “It also works great in helping you keep from damaging the edges as you install countertops by not allowing the slabs to bump too hard into one another as you bring the stones together at the seam.”
The Fabricators for Fabricators product line is a worthy addition to the Braxton-Bragg catalog, Bussell said. “August and Matthew have given these things a lot of thought, and they are great for every shop.”
Braxton-Bragg offers the Super Fast Sink Bracket as well as a full range of fabrication tooling and installation accessories including sinks, installation hardware, and every tool and piece of equipment needed to run a professional stone, tile, and polished concrete shop.
For more information about Braxton-Bragg and its publications and products, contact them toll-free at 800-575-4401 or visit the website www.braxton-bragg.com for current sales and new products.