Slippery Rock Gazette

The new Cinclips Undermount Sink Support System gives fabricators, installers, and ordinary customers a fast and easy way to secure sinks without the risk of an embarrassing failure.

Inventor Dow Blaine, the owner of Atlanta Classic Stone LLC, developed the product, which is now carried by Braxton-Bragg. Once a customer installs a sink using Cinclips, they never have to worry about it falling down, he said. “I’ve never had a sink come down with the way I mount them. I don’t want to badmouth anybody else’s products, but I’ve seen a lot not hold up to what they say they’ll do.”

Each Cinclips pack comes with five nylon braces, four full length and one short for the front, and all the hardware needed for the installation. Simply put each brace under the lip of the sink and attach to the side of the cabinet with the screws provided. 

When installed correctly, Cinclips can support up to 550 pounds of weight, more than enough to support a sink. “What makes it strong is the design,” Blaine said. “First off, you have a thick knucklehead end on it. The I-beam shape is what gives it so much strength.”

Cinclips can save shops time and money because no special glues or epoxies are needed. Installers do not have to screw anchors into the stone of the sink. Another attractive feature is the braces can be easily removed if a customer needs to replace a sink.

Blaine gives customers a lifetime warranty. If a sink installation using Cinclips fails for any reason, he wants to know about it. “It’s my business to know why things fail and to figure out a way to keep them from failing,” he said.  In addition to the lifetime guarantee, Braxton-Bragg offers a 30-day, unconditional, money-back satisfaction guarantee on Cinclips and all its other products.

When installed, each Cinclips brace allows two inches of contact to firmly support the sink. “Even in thin plywood, with four screws in it, they are strong because of the design of the arm and the clip and because of what they are made of,” Blaine said. “So if you put four of these braces in, you’ve got eight inches of contact with the lip. I jump up and down on it at the shows. It bends the sink, but it sure doesn’t come out of it.”

Once installed, Cinclips also help support the countertop. There is no need to drill into the stone. The tough nylon braces are insect and moisture resistant.  They can be used for any kind of installation — a new sink, a remount, or just for peace of mind — and give installers flexibility to adapt to the bewildering variety of cabinet designs, Blaine said. “Every cabinet is a little different. There are so many configurations, but I’ve yet to find a cabinet they can’t fit in.”

Cinclips can be used to mount sinks in mere minutes. Sinks can be hooked up to the water supply and used immediately. There is no wait time. “They are so fast,” Blaine said. “The beauty is by the time you put eight screws in a cabinet with another product, you’re done with installing mine.”

Designed to be easier to use than other alternatives, Cinclips do not require a great deal of experience or skill to install correctly and quickly. “Once you try them, you’re a believer,” he said. “Everybody I show how to use them, that’s how they want to do it now,” he said. “They are so user friendly.”

In fact, Blaine said one day his own patent attorney called to order some Cinclips after coming home to find his wife in the bathroom cranking the sink back into place with a car jack. “He ended up putting it in by himself.”

The ease of use can benefit anyone — fabricators and homeowners — who decides to install a sink. Unlike other methods, there is no delay in hooking up the sink in order to let adhesives dry.

Using Cinclips for sink installation minimizes time on the job site, saving installers labor costs and offering more convenience to homeowners. “There really is no wait time,” Blaine said. “You’re in and out of there. It doesn’t take 30 minutes to install, and the customer can put the sinks right to use.”

The savings in labor and time that Cinclips offer make them worth the investment for shops to purchase, Blaine said. “If fabricators knew how easy these things were to use, there is no reason for them to want to use anything else. There is nothing as strong or fast or easy as my product.”

Clinclips are designed to meet Blaine’s own standards and to correct a problem that should not exist in the first place. “When somebody puts in the sink, it should be put in so it doesn’t come back out,” he said. “People pay a lot of money for these countertops and their sinks, and they shouldn’t be coming back loose. If you put things in properly, there is no reason why it should fail.

“Somebody wants to go charge them $300, $500, $600 to fix their sink, and homeowners shouldn’t have to pay for that. I came up with Cinclips not just for me and for fabricators, but for customers whose sinks have fallen — to help them out. It’s a big savings for the DIY type of guy.”

Blaine’s business, Atlanta Classic Stone, offers stone restoration and maintenance for commercial and residential projects as well as tile services. He puts Cinclips to use in the day-to-day operations of his shop.

“Since I’ve been manufacturing the new clips, I’ve been putting them in every job I do,” he said. “To this day I still get calls to go out and remount sinks that have fallen down. It’s a great product to use.”

It took Blaine about one-and-a-half years to develop the system. He has a history of tinkering and looking for solutions to common problems found in his shop. “I’ve always been an inventor,” he said. “I’ve always come up with different ways to make tools. All the things I’ve come up with, somebody would say you’ve got to go patent that. I finally did that with Cinclips.”

Looking ahead, Blaine has some new offerings coming through the pipeline in addition to the Clinclips system. “I’ve got some new products that I’m in the middle of developing,” he said. “I’ve started a new patent on another one. I’m just about done on the developmental stages of it. I hope to have it sometime after Christmas. I’d like to have it out right at the first of the year. It’s a new product for the plumbing industry. Anybody that works with sinks would probably really like to have it.”

Braxton-Bragg offers 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 Cinclips or to order, contact Braxton-Bragg toll-free at 800-575-4401 or visit www.braxton-bragg.com to order 24/7.