Here's the new riser installed on one of the small hatches. You can see the stack of hatches in the background.
The hatches were stripped to the bare frame and sandblasted to fresh metal then powdercoated a polished aluminum color. I replaced the 1/8 inch acrylic with 1/4 inch and used the same bedding material that Bomar sells (GE Ultraglaze) but got it at a fraction of their price by shopping the Web. One caulk tube was enough for 5 hatches.
I used the protective paper that came on the acrylic to protect it from the bedding compound squeeze-out and used painter's tape to do the same for the frames. After laying a good coat of the compound on the frame I pressed and weighted the lens and then filled the remaining gap. Good as new.
After looking at the replacement part prices for the pot-metal crap that bomar uses in their risers I decided to make my own assembling parts available from McMaster-Carr. I think the small tubes are 1/8 and the large tube is 1/4 inch stainless pipe. The end is a pipe cap and the other piece that holds the hatch in various positions is a "hand retractable spring plunger" that locks into holes drilled in the small tube to lock the hatch into any of several opening positions.
This just shows the tubing at various stages of polish. I used the 3M pads on the die grinder to do the initial smoothing then went to a sissal wheel and finally to a cotton wheel on the polisher.
Mickey84H34

Here's the new riser installed on one of the small hatches. You can see the stack of hatches in the background.

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Bomar never made them this good
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