I would like to know whether eight toggle bolts (such as the one from
FASCO Fastener) are strong enough for bolting down a seat (like a
seat/cooler combo unit). Currently, the seat is only screwed into the
core material of my deck and the core material is totally rottened. I
will add epoxy bedding to strengthen the fasteners area of the deck,
and I want to use bolts instead of screws to secure the seat. The
problem is that there is no access to the underside of the deck where
the seat is (the boat is a small 18-ft power boat). And I cannot get
my hand into that area through a nearby inspection hole because there
is a structure frame blocking my way. I am wondering if the
toggle-bolts are a good way to secure the seat in my situation.

But I normally don't use toggle bolts for anything other than hanging
pictures, towel bars that sort of things. I am not sure if toggle
bolts are strong enough to secure a seat. I saw someone used toggle
bars in a boating TV show; but that was for securing a battery, not
anything too heavy. I am wondering if this is a good choice...

Thanks in advance for any info.

Jay Chan

wrote:
I would like to know whether eight toggle bolts (such as the one from
FASCO Fastener) are strong enough for bolting down a seat (like a
seat/cooler combo unit).

Not even in my house, much less, a boat.

Lew

wrote in message
oups.com...
I would like to know whether eight toggle bolts (such as the one from
FASCO Fastener) are strong enough for bolting down a seat (like a
seat/cooler combo unit). Currently, the seat is only screwed into the
core material of my deck and the core material is totally rottened. I
will add epoxy bedding to strengthen the fasteners area of the deck,
and I want to use bolts instead of screws to secure the seat. The
problem is that there is no access to the underside of the deck where
the seat is (the boat is a small 18-ft power boat). And I cannot get
my hand into that area through a nearby inspection hole because there
is a structure frame blocking my way. I am wondering if the
toggle-bolts are a good way to secure the seat in my situation.

But I normally don't use toggle bolts for anything other than hanging
pictures, towel bars that sort of things. I am not sure if toggle
bolts are strong enough to secure a seat. I saw someone used toggle
bars in a boating TV show; but that was for securing a battery, not
anything too heavy. I am wondering if this is a good choice...

Thanks in advance for any info.

Toggle bolts are designed for sheetrock not marine use. You want to cut a
proper access hole, repair any damage, use stainless fender washers (or
better yet a stainless sheetmetal plate) and bolt through into the seat
mount. Your primary concern on a boat is 'doing it right the first time' and
a toggle bolt is not even worth considering!

"frOg" wrote in message
newsAjhg.13035$523.5422@trnddc07...

wrote in message
oups.com...
I would like to know whether eight toggle bolts (such as the one from
FASCO Fastener) are strong enough for bolting down a seat (like a
seat/cooler combo unit). Currently, the seat is only screwed into the
core material of my deck and the core material is totally rottened. I
will add epoxy bedding to strengthen the fasteners area of the deck,
and I want to use bolts instead of screws to secure the seat. The
problem is that there is no access to the underside of the deck where
the seat is (the boat is a small 18-ft power boat). And I cannot get
my hand into that area through a nearby inspection hole because there
is a structure frame blocking my way. I am wondering if the
toggle-bolts are a good way to secure the seat in my situation.

But I normally don't use toggle bolts for anything other than hanging
pictures, towel bars that sort of things. I am not sure if toggle
bolts are strong enough to secure a seat. I saw someone used toggle
bars in a boating TV show; but that was for securing a battery, not
anything too heavy. I am wondering if this is a good choice...

Thanks in advance for any info.

I went onto the FASCO web site and they don't have any pictures of their
stainless steel marine toggle bolts. I've used toggle bolts in concrete
with limited success - what I've found is that it really depends on how the
bolt will grab on under and into the surface you are attaching to, and how
strong it is. I don't know if the un-reinforced layer of fiberglass would
be solid enough.

--
Andrew Butchart

Andrew Butchart wrote:
"frOg" wrote in message
newsAjhg.13035$523.5422@trnddc07...

wrote in message
oups.com...
I would like to know whether eight toggle bolts (such as the one from
FASCO Fastener) are strong enough for bolting down a seat (like a
seat/cooler combo unit). Currently, the seat is only screwed into the
core material of my deck and the core material is totally rottened. I
will add epoxy bedding to strengthen the fasteners area of the deck,
and I want to use bolts instead of screws to secure the seat. The
problem is that there is no access to the underside of the deck where
the seat is (the boat is a small 18-ft power boat). And I cannot get
my hand into that area through a nearby inspection hole because there
is a structure frame blocking my way. I am wondering if the
toggle-bolts are a good way to secure the seat in my situation.

But I normally don't use toggle bolts for anything other than hanging
pictures, towel bars that sort of things. I am not sure if toggle
bolts are strong enough to secure a seat. I saw someone used toggle
bars in a boating TV show; but that was for securing a battery, not
anything too heavy. I am wondering if this is a good choice...

Thanks in advance for any info.

I went onto the FASCO web site and they don't have any pictures of their
stainless steel marine toggle bolts. I've used toggle bolts in concrete
with limited success - what I've found is that it really depends on how the
bolt will grab on under and into the surface you are attaching to, and how
strong it is. I don't know if the un-reinforced layer of fiberglass would
be solid enough.

--
Andrew Butchart


Seem like I have left out too much info about the toggle bolts that I
was talking about. Sorry about this.

Despite the fact that both the manufacturer and the mail order place
call these "togglers", these togglers look quite different from the
conventional toggle bolts that we use for securing a towel bar onto dry
wall. This type of togglers has a metal plate with a threaded hole at
the center (this serves as both a backing-plate and a nut), and there
is a plastic strip connecting to the metal plate, as shown he

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...allpartial/0/0

(You can reach the same page by searching for "fasco togglers" in West
Marine web site).

The idea is to drill a hole on the deck just big enough to insert the
metal plate through the hole, and we hold on with the plastic strip.
By pulling the plastic strip tight, the metal plate is pressed against
the underside of the deck, and the threaded hole will be aligned with
the hole on the deck, and we can insert a bolt through the deck hole
into the threaded hole of the metal plate. This way we can connect the
bolt to the metal plate (that is under the deck), and then we can cut
the plastic strip away (it has served its purpose). This is the idea.

Yes, I have checked FASCO web site. But they don't have any picture,
nor any specification as of how much strength their togglers can
provide. This is the reason why I want to ask around here to see if
anyone has personal experience about this type of togglers.

I intend to put a layer of thick solid fiberglass with epoxy to replace
the core material in the area where I will bolt the seat onto.
Hopefully, this will be strong enough.

If the idea of using togglers doesn't work, I will have to permanently
mount a backing plate (with nuts welded on it) onto the underside of
the deck; I will have to open up the deck to replace the rottened core
material anyway, and I can cut open the inner skin of the deck and
repair it later. But aligning the holes of the buts with the mounting
holes on the seat can be a big challenge, and I am not looking forward
to this.

Jay Chan

The real problem I see with the toggle bolts you show is they appear to
spread the load out onto the two edges of the plate that ends up under
the deck. This is not a flat bearing surface, and concentrates the load
on two relatively thin edges. This is not a good idea on a laminate
surface, as it will easily crush the laminate, even if you've
reinforced it with thickened, high-density filler, epoxy.

The load really needs to be spread out over a large surface area when
working with laminates. The toggle bolts can't do thisÑthe concentrate
the loading stresses onto an area smaller than that of a proper backing
washer...

Oh boy, just when I thought I can safely use the toggle bolt to secure
the bench on my boat...

Seem like I will have to somehow mount a metal plate underneath the
deck with a pre-drilled hole for each toggle bolt in order to spread
the load. This will mean that I need to cut open the inner skin of the
cored deck in order to insert that metal plate.

The other alternative was to weld the nuts on the metal plate before I
put the metal plate under the deck. But this would be very tricky to
line up the welded nuts if the metal plate with the mounting holes of
the bench seat. I guess I am better off using the toggle bolts but
with metal-plate and epoxy re-inforcement.

Oh well... This is getting more tricky than I thought.

Jay Chan


dog wrote:
The real problem I see with the toggle bolts you show is they appear to
spread the load out onto the two edges of the plate that ends up under
the deck. This is not a flat bearing surface, and concentrates the load
on two relatively thin edges. This is not a good idea on a laminate
surface, as it will easily crush the laminate, even if you've
reinforced it with thickened, high-density filler, epoxy.

The load really needs to be spread out over a large surface area when
working with laminates. The toggle bolts can't do thisÑthe concentrate
the loading stresses onto an area smaller than that of a proper backing
washer...

I find an easy way out. I can simply place the metal plate above the
inner skin of the cored deck, add two layers of fiberglass cloth over
the metal plate, and then place the thickened epoxy and the outer skin
over it -- kind of encapsulating the metal plate inside the deck. Then
I don't need to cut open the inner skin.

Jay Chan

wrote:
Oh boy, just when I thought I can safely use the toggle bolt to secure
the bench on my boat...

Seem like I will have to somehow mount a metal plate underneath the
deck with a pre-drilled hole for each toggle bolt in order to spread
the load. This will mean that I need to cut open the inner skin of the
cored deck in order to insert that metal plate.

The other alternative was to weld the nuts on the metal plate before I
put the metal plate under the deck. But this would be very tricky to
line up the welded nuts if the metal plate with the mounting holes of
the bench seat. I guess I am better off using the toggle bolts but
with metal-plate and epoxy re-inforcement.

Oh well... This is getting more tricky than I thought.

Jay Chan


dog wrote:
The real problem I see with the toggle bolts you show is they appear to
spread the load out onto the two edges of the plate that ends up under
the deck. This is not a flat bearing surface, and concentrates the load
on two relatively thin edges. This is not a good idea on a laminate
surface, as it will easily crush the laminate, even if you've
reinforced it with thickened, high-density filler, epoxy.

The load really needs to be spread out over a large surface area when
working with laminates. The toggle bolts can't do thisÑthe concentrate
the loading stresses onto an area smaller than that of a proper backing
washer...

This is probably a really bad idea for several reasons.

1) The thermal expansion coefficient of metal is far greater than that
of foam, wood or fiberglass. The heating and cooling cycles will cause
stress cracks and delamination.
2) The metal plate will cause hard edges along the laminate, which
will be natural stress points and probably fracture the laminate along
them.
3) Prepping the metal to accept the epoxy can be a pain, and it may
not bond well enough to prevent a void.
4) installing the plate, and having the holes in the proper position
is difficult to do without introducing additional voids into the area
of laminate directly under the high load area.
5) If it fails, it will likely tear a section of deck away that is the
size of the metal plate or slightly larger. Fun Fun Fun.

But it is your choice.

On 2006-06-26 12:32:42 -0400, said:

I find an easy way out. I can simply place the metal plate above the
inner skin of the cored deck, add two layers of fiberglass cloth over
the metal plate, and then place the thickened epoxy and the outer skin
over it -- kind of encapsulating the metal plate inside the deck. Then
I don't need to cut open the inner skin.

Jay Chan\

Good point about the metal will expand/contract more than the epoxy
will. I didn't think of that. But I can easily avoid this problem by
leaving the metal plate kind of free floating by only sticking the
middle section of the metal plate with epoxy, and leaving the rest of
the metal plate free floating -- similarly to the way woodworker takes
care of wood expansion not to crack the joint.

As of epoxy doesn't bond well to the metal plate, this may not be a
problem if I intend the metal plate to be free floating anyway. Please
note that metal plate will be pressed against a new layer of fiberglass
not directly against the foam core. Basically, I use the metal plate
as somekind of a washer to distribute the load; therefore, it being
free floating should not be a problem.

As of the metal plate will have a hard edge against the laminate, I
think we can round the edge to minimize the problem. Thanks for
pointing this out. But this should not be a major issue considering
the fact that the metal plate is there to distribute the load;
therefore, the load gets to the edge of the metal plate should be
minimum (at least that is what I think).

As of this will tear a large part of the deck out, I really don't think
there is any mounting method can get around this if the force is so
great that it can tear out the deck. I don't worry about this.

Thanks for your reply though.

Jay Chan

dog wrote:
This is probably a really bad idea for several reasons.

1) The thermal expansion coefficient of metal is far greater than that
of foam, wood or fiberglass. The heating and cooling cycles will cause
stress cracks and delamination.
2) The metal plate will cause hard edges along the laminate, which
will be natural stress points and probably fracture the laminate along
them.
3) Prepping the metal to accept the epoxy can be a pain, and it may
not bond well enough to prevent a void.
4) installing the plate, and having the holes in the proper position
is difficult to do without introducing additional voids into the area
of laminate directly under the high load area.
5) If it fails, it will likely tear a section of deck away that is the
size of the metal plate or slightly larger. Fun Fun Fun.

But it is your choice.

On 2006-06-26 12:32:42 -0400, said:

I find an easy way out. I can simply place the metal plate above the
inner skin of the cored deck, add two layers of fiberglass cloth over
the metal plate, and then place the thickened epoxy and the outer skin
over it -- kind of encapsulating the metal plate inside the deck. Then
I don't need to cut open the inner skin.

Jay Chan\