Kevin Pridemore, President of Sinkits LLC, is Dedicated to Doing It Better
Joel Davis
Special Contributor
The inventor of the Sinkits sink undermounting system, the Miter-It lamination clamp, LC Brackets, and Stop Blok drill stop, Kevin Pridemore specializes in developing tools to help fabricators do their jobs safer and more easily.
After nearly 20 years fabricating granite and selling tile and stone as owner of KPC Tile and Stone in Ozark, Mo., Pridemore sold the company in order to devote himself to inventing. His new business is based in Nixa, Mo.
“We are doing Sinkits full-time,” he said. “We manufacture Sinkits and LC Brackets, which is another type of bracket used for mounting sinks. LC stands for low clearance. Its purpose is for any time there is not enough room for Sinkits or any other mounting systems because the sink is too large.”
Sinkits are a new clamp design for undermounting sinks to granite, quartz, concrete, or any other stone or hard surface material. They offer speed of installation, strength, versatility, and ease of use.
“They work by static friction or binding force,” Pridemore said. “You just drill a 1/4-inch hole in the stone, bend a pre-load tab, and shove it into the hole. It binds and stays, and you tighten it down with a nut and driver. It just holds itself in. It works by using binding force. No adhesive needed.”
The pre-load tab has a dual purpose. It helps hold the hardware in the hole until it is tightened. It also helps keep the hardware from rotating during tightening, which could lead to a slipped sink.
Pridemore keeps refining the design. Sinkits now have longer binding posts and can accommodate sinks with rims up to 3/4-inch thick.
The Miter-It Lamination Clamp is a fast and easy-to-use jig that allows finished-side-up miter laminations. The clamps securely hold pieces in place at 90 degrees, eliminating the need for extra workers to position the material.
The combination of the clamp’s weight and the non-marking, non-skid contact surface hold the product and piece in place. The Miter-It does not require the use of suction cups that can lose vacuum.
Miter-It came about because Pridemore was looking ahead. “I saw that the popularity of mitering was growing and thought the clamps out there were too expensive or cumbersome to use,” he said. “I thought there could be a better, easier way to do it.”
Miter-It is designed to minimize maintenance and parts. It does not require the frequent and sometimes awkward adjustments needed to utilize other miter clamps.
Being able to miter finish-side-up without having to turn the material upside down improves safety. It lessens strain on workers. It keeps the seam in view during lamination. Less handling means reduced risk of breaking, scratching, or damaging the piece.
Featuring coarse and fine-tune adjustments to allow tight, exact seams, the heavy-duty clamp has a baked-on powder coat finish with durable steel construction.
Miter-It accommodates laminated edges of 1.5 to 6 inches and can help shops utilizing tape-only methods to improve their process quickly and conveniently. It also saves time by automatically squaring the miter.
Pridemore recently licensed the Miter-It design to Omni Cubed, Inc., which has relaunched the product under its own label.
The LC Bracket, a low clearance sink mounting bracket is useful when there is not enough clearance for traditional mounting clips or clamps. It also works well for repairs when a sink has fallen and needs to be reattached.
Installation involves eight simple steps: place a bead of caulk the on sink rim; place the sink and hold it into position by using tape or a bar clamp and clean off excess caulk; push the end of the LC bracket with the tab and screw up against the sink rim; if necessary, bend LC bracket at the notches to allow flat placement against cabinet side wall; pre-drill holes for the screws to mount the LC Bracket to the cabinet side wall; install provided screws; adjust screw to sink rim to snug sink against stone, being careful not to lift the stone; and smooth and clean up any excess caulk.
The Stop Blok is a depth stop that clamps onto a drill bit and controls the depth of the hole. It allows fabricators drilling sinks manually to maintain the consistency of an automated process, Pridemore said.
The development of the different products often followed different paths. Sinkits were inspired by conditions in Pridemore’s own fabrication shop. Prior to developing Sinkits, Pridemore’s crew would try to secure anchor points for sinks by drilling holes and securing hardware with epoxy. It was not a satisfactory process, he said. “It was time consuming and every once in a while, we’d actually have one pop loose if you tightened it too much. I thought there needed to be a better way that did not rely on adhesive.”
Pridemore started experimenting and progressed through five or six versions until reaching the design produced today. “It happened over a period of a few years,” he said.
Miter-It was quickly developed in December of 2013, just before StonExpo in Las Vegas the next month, Pridemore said. “I just barely had time to get it there.”
Miter-It did not take as long to develop as the Sinkits. “It was a little different,” Pridemore said. “I actually thought about it one night lying in bed. The next morning I started welding the steel together. It came out right off the bat. The time of conception and the time of completion of the first clamp was less than a week.”
Pridemore was named the Stone Fabricators Alliance “Innovator of the Year” in 2011. He continues to develop new tools and is waiting out the patent process before going public on them. “I do have a few things on the shelf,” he said.
Currently, Pridemore is waiting for another manufacturing company to develop the tooling to produce the LC Brackets. He prefers to spin off the manufacturing of the tools to other firms in order to concentrate on inventing. “They can take over the manufacturing of that,” he said. “When that happens, I will be moving on to the next product. That seems to be the easiest way to go about it.”
Licensing the products lets Pridemore keep Sinkits MS LLC a lean business. “There are just four of us right now,” he said. “I prefer to keep it small. That’s my preferred way of doing things. It keeps my overhead low.”
After the economic downturn in 2008, Pridemore learned the necessity of maintaining a lean operation. “We went through that and decided we were going to do everything in our power to keep our overhead as low as possible.”
Braxton-Bragg offers these products 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.