Loctite
www.loctite.com
Vibration and movement are always present on a boat at
sea and can easily loosen screws. To avert the
substantial problems that even a single backed-out screw
can cause, we use Loctite thread lock fluid. Use Blue if
you want to undo it easily, Red if you want to work at
it and Green if you want to have to use explosives.
Plexus
www.itwplexus.com
It used to be that when we wanted to attach something to
our aluminum hull we had it welded. This requires
special equipment and a skilled operator, not to speak
of all the attendant mess and paint damage. Not anymore,
we now use Plexus.
Plexus will stick to just about anything, and without
much, or in most cases, any surface preparation. Hard to
believe I know, but we have used it and it works. It
even adheres aluminum to itself and to other materials.
(A primer is recommended for aluminum, but not
required.) We have used it to install a
depth
sounder transducer into an aluminum hull.
But Plexus is not just for big projects. Our latest use
was to glue stainless steel nuts and washers to the soon
to be inaccessible back of some wood cabinetry to take
the machine screws that hold grab rails. Sure, we could
have used epoxy and the nuts might even have stayed
stuck if we cleaned everything perfectly. With Plexus we
just gooped up some nuts and washers, stuck them on and
an hour later they were a permanent part of the
cabinetry. We did not even make sure that the nuts and
washers were a good fit to the wood since Plexus has
great gap filling. We treated the machine screw threads
with Tef-gel (see below).
There is just one drawback with Plexus: It is highly
toxic and the fumes are particularly noxious. Don’t even
think about working around this stuff without a well
fitted respirator with new organic cartridges, eye
protection, and gloves.
Plexus comes in many different formulations with kick
times that range from a few minutes to several hours.
Plexus is a two part product with a 1:1 mix ratio and
the manufacturer provides several automatic mixing
dispensers.
Tef-gel
www.tefgel.com.au,
www.tef-gel.se
and www.wolfwire.com
Maintaining an aluminum boat has made us especially
paranoid
about making sure we use an anti-corrosive agent
whenever we screw anything to anything else. We have found
that Tef-gel,
a teflon product, does the best job. Stainless steel
screws back easily out of aluminum even after several
years if they've been
applied with a liberal coating of Tef-gel. We don't
order one tube, we order a boxful!
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