Okay, so I’ve had too much reason to work with small flagpoles lately and I am completely mystified by one universal aspect.
So you gots your basic 5 or 6 foot wall-mount flagpole. It’s in two sections. On most of those, the upper section is on bearing so it turns, keeping the flag from tangling. If not, there’s an upper spinny ring with a clip hook on it.
As nearly as I can tell, these poles are designed mostly for flags with a pole pocket, and the clip is attached to an upper grommet or loop to keep the flag at the top. Flippity, flappity, fly.
If you want to hang a traditional two-grommet flag, you use the upper clip and another spinny ring positioned with a setscrew and having another clip dangling from it.
So why do these flagpoles come with two plastic rings with setscrews… and no clip, hook, hole or ring? Exactly how are these “blank rings” supposed to be used? So far, I’ve had to throw them away and buy a separate pack of the rings with the clip.
The plain rings seem to be completely useless, and I can’t find a picture, a diagram or an explanation anywhere. The closest I can figure is that you’re supposed to put the setscrew through the flag grommet, but it’s a cheap plastic screw that will break under even moderate load and will hold the flag at something of an angle against the pole. The screw heads are also just barely big enough not to pull through most grommets, and some are smaller.
[ul]
[li] Here’s the pole.[/li][li] Here’s the rings that would seem to be useful.[/li][li] Here’s the kind of rings that have come with every flagpole I’ve bought in recent months.[/li][/ul]
So are these the equivalent of the useless wall-mount hardware that comes with things meant to be mounted on walls? Or am I missing some subtle aspect of how to use them to attach a large flag to these poles?