Hard to Turn Portlight knobs?

[John Stone]

I'm working my way down the list of small tasks to get accomplished before we head out for the next voyage.

While we love our bronze portlights the threads on the tightening bolts develop verdigris which makes tightening them difficult.

Every couple years I turn a die on the threads to clean them out. I then apply a small amount of grease. Afterwards they turn very easily. It's simple and effective. All you need is a 3/8-16 die. One tip though is to invert the die so the wide taper end of the die is away from direction of travel to allow the tightest part of the die to get all the way to the portlight flange.

[Steve Laume]

Good tip, John.

When I first took over Raven some of the knobs were rather tight. In taking them all the way off to clean the threads and grease them, I snapped one of the studs off. I was happy to discover that Spartan could sell me replacements. Since then I regularly remove the knobs and grease the studs. I will now add a trip down the threads with a die to help keep them turning smoothly.

Although it is comforting to know the parts are available, they are not cheap and we should not need them if the knobs are well kept.

Thanks again for the tip, Steve.