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Berth porthole arms

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:46 am
by AMCarter3
Has anyone experimented with lubricating the twist grips used to hold the berth porthole window arms open? The grips on ours work but can be very hard to release whether open or closed if they are twisted too tightly.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2022 3:56 pm
by AlanH
Mac,

To answer your question directly, no.

One thing that may help though is there are adjustment screws on the arm of the open and closing levers. I only discovered them recently. There are little round balls on the window side of the lever. The end that touches the window. They adjust in and out with a small flat screwdriver on the inside. When I replaced the gaskets they became fairly hard to open and close. With the ball adjustment I was able to adjust them to be easier to turn while still being watertight.

Alan

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2022 4:41 pm
by AMCarter3
Good to know about that hinges screw and ball. We don’t have an issue with the hinges on either Porthole. We are just looking for a way to prevent the plastic-on-plastic twist-to-lock black handle from getting so tight that it becomes very difficult to loosen.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2022 5:04 pm
by AlanH
I may not have been clear in my explanation. On the window end of the three black twist handles, there is an adjustment screw.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 12:30 am
by AMCarter3
Alan, I think you were clear. However, the issue I'm experiencing is not related to the hinge attachment point where the "ball" and adjustment screw is located. I am only referring to the black twist handle that is used to tighten the grip on the arms when the window is opened. I'm wondering if anyone has tried to lubricate them to make them easier to manage. See pics. The first pic shows the handled completely unscrewed.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:05 am
by duetto
hi mac,

i wasn't following this until i saw you pics. i assume that you're trying to eliminate the "binding" or sticking in the screw sleeve that occurs when the hatches are loaded. the dilemma is to lube the twist thread without getting lube on the shaft which might lead to slippage.

we've never had a problem with the bunk hatches on duetto but we do have that exact problem on the deck hatches on our mainship. it's worst at low angles where the deck hatch is highly loaded.

i'll think about the lube.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:50 am
by AlanH
Mac,

My mistake entirely, I thought you were talking about the portlight windows on the side of the boat.

Alan

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:59 am
by AMCarter3
John, spot on... the challenge is... would any lube work and not compromise the binding on the window arm. The issue for us is that some charter guests get carried away and twist the handle so tight it becomes very difficult to release. Despite us adding a label above the window stating the direction to twist the handle to open or close the window, people seem to not understand.

(Alan, no worries.)

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 11:02 am
by duetto
mac,

on our mainship i've resorted to using a small pair of channel locks to undo when bound tight. we're on the mainship this week, i'll experiment with lube and report back.

btw, my initial confusion was the same as alan's.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:25 am
by duetto
hi all,

first, all in this post applies to the bomar hatches on our mainship, not our pdq but i think they are similar.

i unscrewed the barrel to lube the threads. i noticed that there is a rubber sleeve on the rod which gets compressed into the tube that the rod slides into. i lubed the threads and reassembled everything.

yesterday we had the hatch open at a low angle (open approx 8") all day long. normally this would require the channel locks to unscrew but i was able to unscrew by hand but not truly easy. i would say it helped.

btw, on duetto we never touch the barrel nut on our stern bunk hatches. we just open and close and they just stay open.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 8:43 am
by AMCarter3
John, what kind of LUBE did you use?

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:14 am
by duetto
hi mac,

i used wd-40 gel lube. nothing specific about it, i just had it on hand.

we had the hatch open again yesterday and it release again by hand, so it does seem to have made an improvement.

Re: Berth porthole arms

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:03 am
by AMCarter3
Nice. Thanks for testing it. I'll be lubing our window arms on Fri when the boat comes back from charter. I'll probably use "Super Lube" - it's a synthetic grease that seems to work really well on most everything.