REBUILT Hatches for $120.00/ea

[High Cotton]

QUOTE:
The primer that we use cannot be purchased unless you have a specific licence to carry, buy and sell it. There are many types of primers that are used, many may be sufficient, most are not. This is why we use an industrial grade material that is strictly controlled (at least in North America).

Would you be kind enough to tell us the product name of the primer?

[Benjamaphone]

I don't know the products name off hand. I'll be in the office later this week and I can check. In any case, the only way that we can get it is the 1 pint quantity, way too much for one or even twenty hatches. The only time that we can sell the stuff is if people actually come into the shop and pick it up in small vials that we have. There is no possible way for us to ship it, especially after Sept. 11, 2001.

[DeepFrz]

Ben, I don't see any hostility here. Don't be so sensitive and defensive.

[Benjamaphone]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

I would just point out to Benjamaphone that there are other very well respected commercial vendors on this forum that actually try to help other members of the forum with their expertise. These vendors get business because of their helpful, professional attitudes, not by trying to dissuade people from doing work themselves.

Well, I must have misread what you posted there.

[cjjcmg]

IMHO, the hours spent fixing the boat, no matter how much my time is worth, are valuable and enjoyable moments that make the hours of work pass more quickly, efficiently, and with greater reward.

[MidLandOne]

I try to keep a balance between what I can do either sensibly easily and what a yard or equipment manufacturer can do either with the assurance that the correct materials are used or because it is so much easier for them.

An example of the "so much easier for them" is I do not antifoul my own boat - given that one is stuck with the significant costs of the materials, the lift out and yard space and stands (both of which may be given free if the yard is given the work), and with all the gear the yard has gets the preparation and application done in so few man hours that there is little additional cost over what would be faced anyway, I just can't be bothered.

An example of the quality assurance case would indeed be the reglazing of my hatches (when the time comes). I would tend to rely on the manufacturer's recent experience with the perfomance of sealants, grade of lens material, etc - those that get any old lump of material for that from their local signwriter, for example, are taking shortcuts I never would take myself. Again, the labour time to remove an old lens and seal in another is small so a cost not worth avoiding just for the sake of having a go oneself and risking only a short term fix.

[hellosailor]

"There is no possible way for us to ship it, especially after Sept. 11, 2001. "
Ah, Ben? If you can't ship it, do you mean that your conmpany chooses not to ship it? Or that no commercial carrier isallowed to carry it? Because pretty much every solvent CAN BE SHIPPED even if that means hazmat and ground shipping with special precautions are required.
If you've literally got something that can't be shipped, that would mean it wasn't shipped TO YOU either, and you make it up in plant. Is that correct?

Considering that even hydroflouric acid can be shipped by common carrier...and pretty much all the corrosives in any high school and college chem lab are shipped by common carrier...I'd really suspect that what you've got, CAN be shipped the same way. Or purchased directly from whoever ships it to you in the first place.

[High Cotton]

QUOTE:
An example of the quality assurance case would indeed be the reglazing of my hatches (when the time comes). I would tend to rely on the manufacturer's recent experience with the perfomance of sealants, grade of lens material, etc - those that get any old lump of material for that from their local signwriter, for example, are taking shortcuts I never would take myself. Again, the labour time to remove an old lens and seal in another is small so a cost not worth avoiding just for the sake of having a go oneself and risking only a short term fix.
UNQUOTE

I agree with you that one should not use just any sealant or silicone from the local sign-master, but I consulted with my brother-in-law (it's always a brother-in-law, isn't it?) who works for a large yacht builder in Florida.

He said they use SIKAFLEX for sealing the lens to the hatch and then a good grade MARINE silicone to seal the hatch to the deck... remember, this is just for keeping water out because the hatch is screwed down to to the deck.....

And as far as the quality of lens, it's PLEXIGLAS, same material thats been on my boat for 25 years that can be bought for $85.00 locally, not $260.00 from the mfr.
So if somebody feels more secure about sending their hatch to the manufacturer and pay $550.00 to let them do it, I think that's a great plan......

I just see too much money left on the table to let somebody else do it, especially when I'm actually enjoying this job.

If you don't have time to do this, or some reason unable to do it yourself, I completely understand and I would probably send it off also,,,,,,,,,,
but then you're looking at huge shipping costs, also.

but for me, $120.00 was better spent and the satisfaction knowing that I did an equally good job.

I just want to assure you DIY'rs that this job can be done by anybody, and you can seal this hatch up just as good as anybody with the same materials, and feel good about a job "well done"!

[hellosailor]

Cotton-
"And as far as the quality of lens, it's PLEXIGLAS,"
What you just said, is like discussing fine woodworking and when the cabinetmaker tells you "It was fine brazilian rosewood" you counter with "It's WOOD, WOOD IS ALL THE SAME".

You see the point? Any glazing supplier can provide you with at least one dozen, often two dozen, VERY DIFFERENT gradesof material. Plexiglass, even with that trademark, isn't all the same. Yes, you could easily double or triple the price by changing brands or grrades. So, unless you guys are both talking about the same grade of glazing material, from the same maker, or at least comparable grades from different makers...You're not comparing anything at all.

If you don't know whether you've got brazilian rosewood, or farmed fir, or matched tiger burls, or scrap shipping pallets...

[MidLandOne]

I support what hellosailor says about plexiglass.

But High Cotton please don't interpret my post as being any criticism of what you did. If appropriate advice is taken, the correct materials used, the manual part is done properly and one is prepared to put the labour into sorting all that out and doing the work then good on yer , no problem with me at all.

It would also seem that I perhaps do not get price abused as much as some of you seem to when it comes to getting parts and getting work done and that, of course, takes my decision making in a different direction.

[High Cotton]

hellosailer & MidLandOne.......
I agree with you both because both of you have a whole lot more experience at these kinds of things than I do....... I'm just a novice when it comes to DIY stuff.....
I was never really a DIY'r until I retired and now find enjoyment and the time to get involved.

I should have known, like most products in the market, that there would be a number different grades of PLEXIGLAS........... I learn something on this board from you guys everyday!

[SV Someday Came]

Originally Posted by S/V Elusive

You'll never recover the $$$ that you put into a boat, but you CAN recover the time you spend on the boat ... it's called sailing.

I am quite sure you meant "sanding" instead of "sailing".

[Benjamaphone]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

do you mean that your conmpany chooses not to ship it?

Yes, that's what I mean. You can ship uranium if you have the right papers. Papers, however, cost money. In a bid to keep my overhead down and continue to be able to stay in business with my current prices, specialized shipping for hazardous materials is not an option. When we order it, it does get shipped to us. The company that produces the hazardous materials has the papers to ship their hazardous materials. However, we pay more than the price of the product itself in shipping.

As far as purchasing it direct, of course you can. It's not like I'm their exclusive customer, it’s just that it only comes in 1 pint bottles. Enough for between 30 and 40 hatches, maybe more.

Just to conclude this; when I go to the grocery store and buy apples, I buy 4 or 5, not the 1000 that the store had to minimum order from their supplier. I pay more per apple but have the advantage of walking away with the quantity I want and not being left with 950 rotting apples. Could you buy your own minimum order of 1000 apples? Of course. Could you even grow the apples yourself? Yes. But I choose to give the grocery store a cut for going out on a limb and buying those 1000 apples up front. This is how business and commerce work.

[High Cotton]

So were you able to come up with the product name of this stuff we're talking about?

[hellosailor]

Odds are that same solvent is available at my local plexi/glazing supplier, or another industrial source. Paperwork for it? Well, let's see...the shipper and recipient information is already "in the computer", as should be the MSDS and the HazMat shipping form. That just leaves donkeywork, the computer can process it as it kicks out the shipping label. Shouldn't be much of an issue, if the donkey has been trained. (The computer has been set up.)

Of course, for the first year that UPS offered "print labels from your computer" to business customers, that meant "from ONE COMPUTER" and they had no ability to let more than one employee, at more than one workstation, generate the shipping information. AFAIK to this day nearly ten years later they still haven't figured out how to make their labels line up properly on their label stock, either.

Sometimes, the donkey never gets a chance.[g]