Leaking window

[Dave Bebb]

Hi all just joined your group, me and the wife have been boating for 10 years now and we are on or second boat . Just wounded if any one knows where i can get some window screws from, brass if possible as we have a leak on one of them i have stooped the leak with some sealant tape temporary until spring. PS i will take the widow out and reseal and all new screws i have looked on the net but no look Thanks Dave & Jean

[dor]

Depends what you mean by window screws. Have you tried Kings Lock in Middlewich, just up the road from Winsford?

Or else you can get them on the net - try looking for brass set screws, assuming you want brass screws that go into a threaded hole in the side panel. Make sure you match thread size, some older boats (and not so old!) were fitted with BA screw sizes rather than metric used now.

[Tony Brooks]

Could be brass wood screws screwed into the wooden framing between window and cabin lining. I would take one out to see.

[Neil Smith]

As said take one out as they might be threaded into cabin side or screwed into battens around window on the inside, then take to a fixings firm to match up.

 

Neil

[alan_fincher]

Nobody has yet mentioned that if this is an alloy framed window the last thing it should be secured with is brass screws.

 

The reason is galvanic corrosion - brass is higher up the index than the aluminium alloy, and the alloy will over time give up metal to the brass, causing the mounting holes to be eaten away, and, if bad enough to become useless by becoming bigger than the screw heads.

 

I struggled to get a good answer in the past on how you resolve this, and although opinions differed, they seemed to settle that if you used A4 stainless steel fastenings any galvanic action would be far less, and unlikely to ever be bad enough to cause problems.

 

However I'm no expert, so if someone can give a solid opinion on this whole topic, it would be helpful. I'm pretty confident though that "brass fixings are bad news", as I have witnessed personally the damage it can cause to alloy windows.

[Bee]

Brass screws will shear if you tighten them too much, woodscrews into battens will probably not be brilliant, if it is only a temporary fix I would be tempted to use pop rivets then see what you need when you do it properly, could be self tappers, machine screws, woodscrews or anything really.

[Dave Bebb]

Nobody has yet mentioned that if this is an alloy framed window the last thing it should be secured with is brass screws.

 

The reason is galvanic corrosion - brass is higher up the index than the aluminium alloy, and the alloy will over time give up metal to the brass, causing the mounting holes to be eaten away, and, if bad enough to become useless by becoming bigger than the screw heads.

 

I struggled to get a good answer in the past on how you resolve this, and although opinions differed, they seemed to settle that if you used A4 stainless steel fastenings any galvanic action would be far less, and unlikely to ever be bad enough to cause problems.

 

However I'm no expert, so if someone can give a solid opinion on this whole topic, it would be helpful. I'm pretty confident though that "brass fixings are bad news", as I have witnessed personally the damage it can cause to alloy windows.

Thanks for all your info i will go with A4 stainless sounds right not took the window out yet, yes it is a alloy window screwing into steel side of our boat thanks again Dave