Mirrored cabinet doors in heads (42I)
Mar 22, 2012 4:28:19 GMT
Post by rhb on Mar 22, 2012 4:28:19 GMT
On late model 42I's (and possibly other models), the cabinet door over the sinks in the heads is attached by small hinges with tiny wood screws. The door has retaining 'strings' that keep it from opening too far.
The problem is that the 'strings' stretch over time and allow the door to drop open too far. This causes a lot of load on the hinges, which eventually fail by the screws pulling out of the wood.
If this hasn't happened yet, you can prevent it by making sure that the 'strings' are the correct length. They should be long enough to allow the door to open a sufficient amount, but not so long that they allow any flexing of the fiberglass where the hinges mount to the boat. If they are too long the simplest fix is just to shorten them by putting a figure 8 knot in the string after removing one end.
Once the problem occurs (you'll know because you go into the head and find the door hanging by the strings), one way to fix it is:
In my opinion, the tiny screws are strong enough as long as the strings are the correct length to prevent over-opening.
The problem is that the 'strings' stretch over time and allow the door to drop open too far. This causes a lot of load on the hinges, which eventually fail by the screws pulling out of the wood.
If this hasn't happened yet, you can prevent it by making sure that the 'strings' are the correct length. They should be long enough to allow the door to open a sufficient amount, but not so long that they allow any flexing of the fiberglass where the hinges mount to the boat. If they are too long the simplest fix is just to shorten them by putting a figure 8 knot in the string after removing one end.
Once the problem occurs (you'll know because you go into the head and find the door hanging by the strings), one way to fix it is:
- Remove the door
- Remove the hinges from the door
- Cover the entire area for 10mm or so around the place where the hinges were mounted with masking tape
- carefully mark the location of the existing mounting holes on the tape - make the marks on 4 sides of the hole at least 15mm away from the old hold centre
- Measure the depth of the wood (not including the mirror).
- wrap some tape around a big drill bit so that you can see when you have drilled to the maximum depth (I used a 3/8 inch or 9mm bit).
- Carefully drill the old holes out with the bigger drill bit, being very careful not to go too far so you don't crack the mirror
- Fill the holes with epoxy. Be careful not to overfill or underfill the holes. Any extra epoxy above the wood will need to be removed before you remount the hinges. I didn't use any fibre filler in the epoxy mix because I want maximum strength for the screw holes.
- After the epoxy has set, drill very small pilot holes in the exact old location - again, make sure you don't drill them too deep
- remount the hinges and then the door.
In my opinion, the tiny screws are strong enough as long as the strings are the correct length to prevent over-opening.
