Ron Wilson wrote:
On Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:27:17 +0000, IanM wrote:

If its not too badly bent, why not re-glaze the existing hatch?


The problem is 2 of the 3 arms protecting the glass were bent and then
broke in 2 when I tried straightening them out. If I can't find a
replacement I will reglaze and have 3 new arms machined from some
aluminum stock. The cost of machining greatly exceeds my anticipated
cost of the hatch. But thanks for the helpful suggestion.

Ron Wilson

Fair enough. You didn't mention they had broken ;-(

For further reference, copper (brass/bronze) and aluminium alloys are
nearly all 'hot short', i.e. if you try to bend them hot, they *will*
tend to break, but if you'd heated the bars first, dull red hot for
copper alloys and till a streak of ordinary soap blackens for aluminium
alloys, you might well have annealed them enough to straiten them
successfully. Any chance they might be brazed or welded successfully?

I'm still not quite clear if the frame is aluminium alloy or bronze. I'm
leaning towards aluminium at the moment due to your choice for possible
parts. If you are willing to settle for rectangular bars of an off the
shelf section, why not do it yourself? Shouldn't be more than an hour's
work with a hacksaw and a file to make a straight bar to fit nicely.
With care and some paraffin or even WD40 as a cutting oil, aluminium is
easy enough to tap by hand for the fixings so you might even be able to
do it all on board and save the hassle of removing the hatch.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
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