Window saga continues
- Thread starter Juice6576
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- leaking ports mh-37 mh-40
I assume from your title, this has happened before?
Seems like there must be some unusual stress on the window.
I assume it is plexiglass?
I wonder if making it out of Lexan would work better.
I tested a piece of Lexan vs Plexiglass and the Lexan was very ”breakproof” compared to plexiglass. I think it has other issues (scratches easily and gets cloudy with UV exposure maybe), but tough stuff.
Greg
Seems like there must be some unusual stress on the window.
I assume it is plexiglass?
I wonder if making it out of Lexan would work better.
I tested a piece of Lexan vs Plexiglass and the Lexan was very ”breakproof” compared to plexiglass. I think it has other issues (scratches easily and gets cloudy with UV exposure maybe), but tough stuff.
Greg
I'm going to say the plexiglass is too solidly affixed to the boat cabin whereas it should be floating. There is a large difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the FG and acrylic and don't ask me which is bigger as I'm too lazy to look it up. This induces large stresses as mentioned by @Tally Ho above.
Couple of questions:
1. What is the length of the window (longer the window, greater the stress) ?
2. What is the age of the portlight and was it recently replaced ?
3. Can you get a shot of the entire window from further back ?
A new one will fail at the same age if the cause is not addressed.
We had that happen on our last O'day, the originals were fixed to the cabin top with adhesive and screws, and it cracked where one of the screws was. We replaced them all with new cast acrylic adhered to the cabin top with no screws.
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