# How do I use a banding buckle

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 30, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857 "2003-12-30T23:46:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857/1 "2003-12-30T23:46:21Z")

</div>

Im shipping a crate later this week. My partner says we have banding straps for crates. A perusal of shipping confirms we do in fact have plastic strapping material and with it were [these](http://www.gerrardco.com/plasbuck.htm). It’s the thing on the far right. There wasn’t anything that appeared to be a tool for it. Is this done manually? Playing around with the strap and the buckle does produce a pretty tight bind, but can it really be that simple? Somebody help me out.

Thanks for the help in advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857/2 "2003-12-31T00:10:20Z")

</div>

(As pictured) One end of the band goes under the whole assembly from the left side, up through the middle, loops back over the top bar and threads back down on top of itself.

Oh heck; hang on a second, I’ll sketch it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857/3 "2003-12-31T00:17:04Z")

</div>

The strap goes up through the center over the upper tang and then between the strap and the lower tang. Do the same to the other side. When pulled tight, the upper tang will be pulled against of the lower tang locking the strap in place. A picture is shown [here.](http://www.smsstrapping.com/sms-qwb12.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857/4 "2003-12-31T00:27:05Z")

</div>

[Here](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gurman/buckle.jpg) is how it is done - pulling hard on the loose ends causes the whole thing to pinch tight against itself.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-use-a-banding-buckle/221857/5 "2003-12-31T00:39:02Z")

</div>

Thanks again, I was almost doing it right.