Coolaroo301392 Accessories, Black Shade Fabric Attachment and Placement, (20 Count) Tie Wraps, 20Count

Like many others I had trouble getting these to snap closed at first. I tried pliers, then bigger pliers. I was ready to grab a hammer when I thought "Wait, it can't be that hard. Slow down."The trick is to make sure the little spikes are already through the material. Press down material with your fingers til they pop through, *then* press clip together. No tool needed. I felt dumb, but they should make this clear as it makes all the difference. They really are good clips, and can be used in different ways. I'm not running them on a cable, but using the hole to attach zip and leather ties.

Coolaroo needs to improve this product. They become brittle and break. I bought three 20-packs two years ago and installed them holding three 6' x 30' runs of shade cloth spanned lengthwise between nylon coated cables. This setup shades my back yard from the intense sun here in Southern California. The cables slide through the clips and are rather loosely spanned, not taut.Despite claiming three times in their product description that their plastic is "UV stabilized to provide lasting protection from the sun's rays," ten of the 60 clips have deteriorated and broken at the bend, rendering them useless. Several others are half broken. I believe I can expect to have to replace all of them eventually.There is an additional flaw. Two years ago when I was attaching the clips to the shade cloth, several of the plastic barbed pins (two per clip) broke while pressing the clips together around the shade cloth. I pressed them together carefully using finger force, not a hammer or pliers.This frailties are unacceptable. With all we know about plastics and UV rays nowadays, shame on Coolaroo for manufacturing such an inferior product.UPDATE August 2020Nearly all of the rest of the 60 clips now have either partially broken (one half of the cable loop) or completely broken. The "UV stabilized" plastic becomes brittle in the sun.

If you have this super rare thing called wind, don't expect these to do anything for you. I bought 5 packs of these to attach a large roll of sunshade fabric on top of my pergola. When the first Santa Ana wind rolled thru, these things started popping like the buttons off a male strippers shirt. I had to go buy some emergency clamps just to not lose all of my fabric. Once the wind died down (as well as the heat) I went back up there, ripped them all out and replaced with deck screws+fender washers at the exact same spacing interval. Have another Santa Ana wind event right now with even stronger winds (40mph+) and those seem to be holding up just fine. Luckily these things are cheap or I would have been really unhappy at having bought 5 packs of them only to have to thrown them all out.BTW - I'm still finding random popped green clips around my yard several months later.

I used this lacing to attach two pieces of shade together as well as to make some pockets to fit a rod through the top and bottom of the shades. Everything seemed to have worked out well. The needle was helpful put I just used it to poke the hole and then fed the lacing through manually. You have to be quick though because the Coolaroo shade does self heal a bit so the hole begins to close back up.I did find that once the lacing is cut, it tends to unravel quite easily. To solve that, I used a lighter to melt the end after it was freshly cut. If you're careful and wait a second after removing the flame, you can even make it into a bit of a point before it dries completely. If you touch it too quickly after melting with the flame, you could burn yourself of course.

You will receive a bag of nicely painted metal strips with spikes punched through the middle. I had to secure a 10'x26' tarp covering a chicken run and raised bed area and this was the perfect amount to hold it down. My mistake installing these clips was that I used a hammer to nail down the right side and then the left side, always causing the fastener to pop up on the opposing side. I wasted about 10 fasteners doing thisas the spikes weren't sunk evenly into the wood. So, when you go to install these, hit the fastener dead-center and it will sink right in.

Does the job. It only gets 3 stars becausePros:+ Easy to use right out of the package. Just need a hammer+ Inexpensive and quick for fastening into wood+ Did not damage the pergola fabric nor the wood+ Holds the fabric very tight and securely in place.Cons:- They are not meant to be removed and reinstalled. Using needle nose pliers to remove them, and it's 50/50 whether it retains its shape or all of the 8 teeth. Even being super delicate to remove them, resulted in unusable fasteners.- Of the 50 only about 3 didn't successfully get all the teeth in the wood on the first attempt at hammering them into the wooden pergola. Some teeth collapsed and just laid down rather the enter the wood.Yes, would recommend these fasteners to others. I would also use them again to maintain my current pergola. I also would still be open to better solutions if they are out there.

I hung Coolaroo shade fabric along the back of my pergola so that the setting sun wouldn't blast my windows. It was very easy to use these Timber Fasteners. All you do is hammer them through the fabric and into the wood. I attached a photo of the result.

We put our Coolaroo shade canopy up yesterday and are VERY pleased with it. I was a little hesitant to buy this product because of all the negative reviews about the clips being almost impossible to close. I can imagine it might be difficult to use these if you have very weak hands and low grip strength, but I am almost 60 and my 55 year old wife helped and, although she had some difficulty at times, we both could close the clips fairly easily. The trick is to get the material COMPLETELY over the nubs - which takes some perseverance. If there is any material covering the nubs, the clips won't close. You have to push the strands of fabric over and around each nub and hold it back while you close the clip. If you do this, they close without much effort. I only gave 4 stars because it's not SUPER EASY too close them, but it's not that hard either. And our satisfaction with the overall product - look, function, etc. - is worth 5 stars. Durability will be another question over time, but the product looks and feels very very durable, and there are absolutely no issues at this point.

Joints are hard to bend and can injure your finger if proper precautions are not taken. Once the shade net is clipped, it does not comes out easily which is the plus point of the product.

Bought sturdy poles form the hardware store, sprayed them black and inserted them into hems I had made. Gave it weight & support. Bought another roll to add down the side for shade in the afternoon. Now I have shade I didn't have before over my pergola!!

For hemming my Coolaro blind but also a strong cord for many other reasons/projects. Came with a strong plastic needle to weave thru the cloth - looks good.

Built a half pergola topped with Coolaro shade cloth. Used clips to secure cloth to tensioned airplane wire. Worked perfectly as advertised. Easy to use. However, not designed to be re-opened. So if that is your plan, expect to destroy a few.