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29-08-2014, 00:37
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#31
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Up the mast, looking for clean wind.
Boat: Currently Shopping, & Heavily in LUST!
Posts: 5,629
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Re: Which Boat Window Materials?
I don't have it handy right now, but there's a GR8 article in an older issue of Professional Boatbuilder on the different grades of tempered glass. The how it's made part, what types are how strong, & appropriate for what application etc.
If one's really that interested, odds are all it'd take would be a phone call to them to find out which issue it's in, and then order a copy. Or do said process online.
As to polishing things other than glass, you can buff, rub, small scratches out of Acrylic, not so much with Polycarbonate. As the latter's so soft that unless there are some new wonder compounds out there, if you try & get the scratches out of Polycarb, you just wind up adding more. While with Acrylic, I know guys who've done the "toothpaste" fix on small scratches in it.
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31-08-2014, 16:50
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#33
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Up the mast, looking for clean wind.
Boat: Currently Shopping, & Heavily in LUST!
Posts: 5,629
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Re: Which Boat Window Materials?
I forgot to mention it, likely due to the gigantic prices which accompany the following option, and they're kinda' exotic (tough to find). However, it's possible to get laminates which are layered tempered glass & Acrylic or Polycarbonate bonded together.
They're incredibly tough, & you get the best of both worlds - scratch resistance & optical clarity, plus VERY high strength & impact resistance.
Just a thought.
__________________
The Uncommon Thing, The Hard Thing, The Important Thing (in Life): Making Promises to Yourself, And Keeping Them.
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01-09-2014, 07:09
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#34
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Southwestern Yacht Club, San Diego, CA
Boat: Searunner 40 trimaran, WILDERNESS
Posts: 3,175
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Re: Which Boat Window Materials?
Actually, isn't that the worst option? The cost and availability of a unique material, plus the weight and structural issues of a laminate with tempered glass. And the thickness of either of the laminate materials would be quite thin, wouldn't it? I don't know. It just seems more rational to pick your individual choice and live with it being costly and heavy with great optical clarity and the possibility of breaking. Or to carry a precut sheet of acryic or polycarbonate to replace it if it breaks. Or, to just install the plastic options and deal with the optical issues every ten (or so) years. I chose simple, cheap, lightweight, available and with a fixed life cycle (and a relatively quick transplant design). But everybody is apparently different.
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03-09-2014, 06:04
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#35
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Boat: Columbia, 8.3 and 8.7 (1977)
Posts: 209
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Re: Which Boat Window Materials?
Does anyone have any experience with using 3M double faced tape to hold the port lights in place vs bolting or screwing them in.
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03-09-2014, 11:40
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#36
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֍֎֍֎֍֎֍֎֍֎
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 15,136
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Re: Which Boat Window Materials?
"3M double faced tape"
3M makes many tapes. The VHB tapes are pretty much impossible to find locally but easily ordered on the web. AFAIK That's the only industrial grade they make for installing glazing. And if it will hold the windows on skyscrapers, it will hold your portlights. Assuming a proper installation, with clean flat surfaces.
Like contact cement, this is a one-shot process. If you misalign the piece, you'll need to pull it off and install new tape, not just flatten it out, for a proper installation.
I've had a couple of pieces of lexan (excuse me, Makrolon) installed with VHB to reinforce a couple of large windows, and haven't seen any degradation or shift in over a year.
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03-09-2014, 16:12
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#37
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Jacksonville/ out cruising
Boat: Island Packet 38
Posts: 31,351
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Re: Which Boat Window Materials?
The windshield in your car is of course a laminate of plastic and two sheets of glass. I think this mixture was derived at purely by accident, a chemist who was experimenting with a plastic compound of some kind dropped a beaker that had a thin layer or hardened plastic covering the inside, when the glass beaker broke but all the pieces were held intact, safety glass was born.
Or maybe that is all fiction, but it sounds good anyway
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