Loose cabin door hinges

[chucko]

I am re tightening my door hinges every so often, and wondering what's a good thread locker solution to use. Anybody use lock tite product or something similar.this is not the door itself,but the bulkhead. Thx

[Will-C]

I used to on other boats get some of those old round tooth picks and put them in the screw holes then break them off flush. Then gave the screw a coating bath tub caulk or silicone seal. Reinstall the screw. It always seemed work for me.
D.D.

[thataway]

I would use a dab of 4200--even consider 5200, if the door is in great shape, and you don't think you will have to remove the door. Also increases security to some extent.

[chucko]

I gave the toothpick trick and will see how it works, the other screws are not stripped, I just want them to stay tight.

[rogerbum]

Of course the other option is to through bolt them. If you use a locking cap head nut on the other side, it works out well.

[journey on]

OK, if the screw holes are enlarged, try all of the above. If that fails, fill the holes with JB Weld and redrill. JB Weld is an aluminum filled epoxy which is used to fix broken metal and glass-fibre parts and does it well.

However, if the screws just back out of the holes, you're talking to an expert in the use of Loctite. And I'm not being humble; used it since the '60s on desert bikes. If it can stop a British single from shaking apart, it'll hold anything.

A few comments. There's a trade name Loctite and there are thread locking solutions called thread lockers. Locktite is the only locking fluid that has worked for me. Every other locker is sold as "as good as" or "this is their new name." That's BS. Locktite 262 is the only good stuff. That's the red stuff and not the weaker blue locker. The red is used to give it a great grip but if you have to remove it, use a little heat and force.

I use Loctite wherever I can't use a locking nut and it works like a champ.

3M 5200, 4200 and 4000 will creep under load. Feel free to disagree with me, but I don't use those sealers to bond parts together or hold screws.

Boris

[Sunbeam]

I had the lower hinge screws on the door to my 22 come loose a couple of years ago. At first I figured I would just through-bolt them, but as it turns out it's not quite that simple as (at least on my 22) where the fasteners would come into the cabin would just happen to land on a totally un-flat molded/ridged area. So I would have had to do a fair bit of modding to make a place for the washers/nuts to land. Hence I decided to tackle it a different way.

What I did was to remove the hinge, and overdrill slightly (but not so much it would show beyond the hinge), dig a bit of core out, refill with neat then thickened epoxy, and then put the screw in while the epoxy was still soft (green stage). I may have waxed the screw for future removal, but I can't remember at the moment. Another way to remove (so I might have done this instead) is to just put the screw in to the green epoxy, and then if you need to remove it later on, just touch something like the tip of a soldering iron to the screw head -- the resulting heat with soften the epoxy enough so you can remove the screw. Thinking about it, I probably did the latter so as to give the screw the best grip.

I also bedded the hinge with a bit of butyl.

Has been sturdy ever since then.

Sunbeam

PS: The core wasn't wet at all, but just that balsa doesn't really give much grip to a pointy screw, and the hinges C-Dory used are kind of "cabinet hinges" that get some strain on them if you open the door fully. So between those two things, it wasn't surprising the screws let go.

[Sea Wolf]

The advantage to through-bolting the hinges on both the door and cabin side of the hinges is that someone can't simply come along with a screw driver and back the screws out and enter your cabin, which they can do, if only pointed wood/sheet metal-multipurpose screws are used. (!)

Of course, you can't stop a determined thief with a crow bar, but .........!

Joe.

[Sunbeam]

That's a good point and I should have mentioned that, ultimately, I have some different hinges that I want to install (door hinges vs. cabinet style hinges). So my fix was something to get me through satisfactorily until such time as I do another/better improvement (which would include through-bolts on the new hinges).

Through bolting with the existing hinges was going to be enough of a pain (at least on my cabin, due to the irregular inside surface they would have landed on) that to me it made sense to wait on that until I do the later mod. Also, I was on my way to my maiden voyage trip, so wanted to do something reasonably expedient (yes, it's possible ).

It also bears mentioning that I have the pre-full-glass style door (mine is made a Starboard like material with a half window). Looks like the full door has a completely different design with different hinges. I think that started around 2006 or 2007.

[Bill K]

Chucko,

Thank You for starting this thread.

It made me look at the bottom hinge screws today and yes they were loose.

Bill Kelleher

[Steven Dore]

I haven't had a problem with the cabin door, but I had problems with the cabinet doors in the galley. After several repairs using wood inserts and different glues, I still had problems keeping the screws in the hinges, I finally through bolted them about four years ago and they have never given me any problems since.

[Jack in Alaska]

I just noticed my cabin door hinges were loose yesterday while locking up for a 5 days trip to town. I will address the problem when I return to the boat.
I went to thru bolting on my previous 22' but do not know if that is a viable option on this boat.

[Jack in Alaska]

Got to the door hinge bolting thing today.
I through bolted the one single hole on the hinge with a no. 6 bolt with a friction nut and washer. THe other two holes in the hinge I took out the screws and did the toothpick trick.
It is all nice and tight now.