Career Electrician Designs Innovative Cable Holder

Here's a story I feel is worth sharing. Recently Gary Gintz contacted me about his concept for a new product he designed and developed. I always welcome the opportunity to help out whenever I can, especially when someone has spent years, and possibly lots of money, chasing their dream. I'm sharing Gary's story in the hopes that there's someone out there that can partner with him and help bring his vision to the market. Gary's story piqued my interest as I hope it will yours. I’ll share my thoughts with you at the end... 

I remember well, a cold November evening in 2013. I was sitting in my chair fiddling with a plastic silverware holder. My wife was looking down at me, with a slight scowl. Being self-employed for 30 some odd years, and being married for best part of 41 years, my wife and I have seen good times and tough times. This was a tough time, to be sure.
I was fiddling with the utensil holder, and she was scowling, because the only job I was working on, had a STOP WORK order put in place that lasted from Thanksgiving through the first of the New Year. This was due to an errant hole drilled through a support beam. We had to wait for the Engineers back East to return from their seasonal celebrations.

I remember thinking to myself, “stapling wires above the panel, against a cut, toenailed 2 x 6 piece of wood, is pretty much the same on every job.” I thought, “what if the wires could be strung through a bracket that was installed ahead of time? It would save time in not having to cut a piece of wood and toenail it between studs, and still have to staple the wires to boot!”

So, with a little time on my hands, I went to work designing a bracket that would fit between two studs above a electrical panel. That was when I started drilling holes in a rubber utensil holder: my first attempt at making a prototype for the support bracket. I went through quite a few utensil holders before I got something that seemed to work.

Then it hit me, “if I am eliminating staples above a panel, why couldn’t I eliminate staples everywhere”? So, I went to work making Prototypes out of plastic and glue. Prototypes that would hold the wires in place, so the sheet rockers could do their job. Finding a suitable adhesive was important, as it would have to hold the RMX immediately to the stud, and still be strong enough to keep the wires in place. I figured it had to be faster than hammering.

I showed my ideas to a few close friends and asked them if they would like to invest. They did, and we started Sticnstac, LLC. We went directly to the patent attorneys along with my prototypes, and got the ball rolling for Patents, with provisional patents issued swiftly. We worked with a local 3-D company and had 3-D printed parts made. We did this, so we could do testing before we had a single cavity mold made for the injection molded part. The mold we own is simply an R&D mold.

Our first attempt for dispensing the “Stic-n-Stac” cable holders, was to have them on a cardboard card that you just peel off. That idea did not seem to work out too well, and it was not very handy. Then I thought of dispensing them off a roll, much like a roll of tickets. A roll, that would fit in an existing electrician’s
Pouch, and still allow for super-fast part peel-off along with quick installation onto wood or steel studs.

We call the cable holders “Stic-n-Stacs" and we call the bracket above the panel a “Panel Wire Support Bracket” (PWSB), or “Home-run Support Bar”.

We have current, up to date Utility patents on the “Stic-n-Stacs” along with the PWSB. The “Stic-n-Stacs” are UL Listed and the PWSB is UL pending.

Building statistics show over 1.3 BILLION staples are hammered in, each year in the USA alone. (oh, my aching elbow)!

Every electrician we have shown “Stic-n-Stacs” to, has wanted to know where to buy them.

The installed cost of a “Stic-n-Stac” can be as little as one-half the cost of an installed staple. ¹Every staple has a built-in cost of hammering-time.

Another huge advantage of “Stic-n-Stac”, is that you can “pre-staple”, so to speak. Every electrician knows where staples need to be installed. Now, “Stic-n-Stacs” can be put on studs while you’re “boxing out”, on home runs at the pinch points, and wherever a staple would be needed, all before running the wire! This will speed up a job unbelievably. Why? Because now an electrician can wire and cut-in a house with just a pair of wire strippers in hand. No need to change any tools while running the wire.

Our Innovative products are Injection Molded. The manufacturer we are looking for will need to have the resources to produce production molds and be able to manufacture “Stic-n-Stacs” in the hundreds of millions to billions per year. Our hope is the manufacturer would be able to reach electricians around the world creating a global demand for “Stic-n-Stacs” having a potential in the area of 1 billion units per month.

Our manufacturing partner will have product naming rights, and patent protection for the life of the patents, and the “Stic-n-Stac” website. We have suggested manufacturing methods, packaging methods, and dispensing methods. All of which work very well!

If I am able to make a finished product in my garage, then there certainly is a manufacturer out there, who would be able to mass produce cost effectively and get it to market quickly.

We are ready to discuss partnering with (and licensing our patents to) the right manufacturer! Our future manufacturing partner will have the benefit of collaborating with the inventor in the development of additional patented products for commercial electrical applications.

In all transparency and all cards on the table, I truly believe in this product and the anticipated demand that will surely follow. We hope and pray for the best.

Sincerely, Gary Gintz

¹ At $85/hr. shop rate equals $.023 per second. Hammer a staple using avg. 20 sec per staple to install = $.46 hammer cost, add $.06 cost for staple and wind up with a $.52 cost for each staple used. These times vary depending on conditions. Stic-n-Stac: 2 second install plus $.20 part cost equals about $.25 each as compared to $.52 stapling cost.

 
ELECTRICIANS!

If you are still hammering staples when installing Romex™ , you have got to check this out! Peel off self-adhesive fasteners that you simply stick to the studs! How? You just peel-off a 1” plastic shield and stick it to the wood or steel stud efficiently and permanently!

I know what you’re thinking, “we already have zip-ties and mounting blocks!” This is true and they’re great for work inside of cabinets and motor control centers but when is the last time you tried to use one on the side of a framing member, let alone installing them in advance of pulling the wire? Installing and snapping the “Stic-n-Stac” over the wire takes a fraction of a second. I can do that before you can even pull out the zip-tie and start to feed it through the zip tie hole.

As you run the wires along the studs and over the pre-installed “Stic-n-Stac”, you simply snap it over the wire! This secures the cable without reaching for a hammer and staple and with no damage to the wire! You put these on ahead of time or as you go. Either way, you won’t believe the time you’ll save, wiring a house, condo, or apartment complex!

Simply and quickly stick these on ahead of time as we already know where we are going to staple our wire. You could even do this at the same time you’re “boxing-out” the job! As you run the wires against the studs and snap the part over the wire, you already have your strippers in your hand, not a hammer! Now you can remove the sheathing from the Romex™ and place your wire directly into the switch box; ready for make up, and without switching tools! You’re not switching from a hammer in your hand, to your wire strippers in your hand, back to a hammer, back to your strippers AND you’re not smashing your fingers!

“Stic-n-Stacs” may come in 20 or 32-piece rolls that fit in your pouch (where you used to keep your staples.) They are pre-scored on the roll, so you simply peel them off and stick them where needed.

Stick them up on the studs, joists, and on pinch points for your homeruns. You don’t need any tools except for the handy available “Alignment Tool” that makes installation even faster. When you find yourself working in cool to freezing conditions, use a simple lighter to heat up the part for about a second, and the “Stic-n-Stac” will vulcanize on freezing steel or freezing wood studs immediately and permanently!

The cable securement part can hold many wire combinations; from a CAT 5 to a 10/3 Romex™ and everything in between e.g. 1- 14/2 to 2-12/2’s, 1-10/2, one 12/3. For the Range wire, choose either a #8 RNG or a #6 RNG.

Now here is a BIG plus!
When you have more wires coming down the stud than you have room form you simply “Stick-n-Stac” one on top of the other, creating your own cable stacker as you go, “on the fly!” You can stack a 6/3 SER over 14/2! You can’t do that with traditional cable stackers!

A three or four bedroom home will use about 8-20 RNG “Stic-n-Stacs” for the range cable and approximately 250- 300 RMX “Stic-n-Stacs” for the lights, switches, and outlets.

Figure the time you spend swinging that hammer, smashing those fingers, and changing tools to get to make-up. Now, eliminate that time off the job. Then you will see why these new, revolutionary cable holders will save you time and money!
Yes, they are UL Listed.

Now check this out!!
A bracket that fits between the studs 12 inches above the panel with the gripper hole for every conductor, before it goes into the top of the panel.
No more scabbing in a piece of 2 x 6, toenailing it in.
The Panel Wire Support Bracket should cost less than the cost of looking for, cutting, and nailing-in that “free piece" wood!
You will think, “Why haven’t they thought of this before?“
You are going to Love these! Coming Soon!

For more information email Gary or Harry.

As promised, here are couple of my thoughts on Gary’s design...

• I believe that this product is indeed a timesaver, as Gary explains, and a market that may be more appealing to the younger electricians in the field. Many of us have been buying and using conventional staples by the bucket for so long that by nature, we are resistant to change when we’re accustomed to doing things a certain way.
• I also think that Gary makes a logical and accurate argument as it relates to any cost concerns that may arise, in that the anticipated time and labor costs saved more than offset the product cost. Add to that, the costs of the “Stic-n-Stacs” can be recovered in the “shop materials” percentage included in your bid or estimate. (If you don’t include a shop materials allowance in your estimates, you should start! Otherwise you’re paying for those staples, wirenuts, tape, fasteners, drill bits etc.)
  

Every once in a while, a new product enters the market that makes you say to yourself, “man, I wish those were around when I was in the field!” Gary Gintz’s “Stic-n-Stac” just may be one of those products!
As always, stay safe out there and God bless!