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17

Had a real fight with a stuck hatch on a sunken barge near Galveston

The hinge was seized solid from years of salt water and silt. It took me and my partner over four hours of chipping, brushing, and using a small hydraulic ram to get it to budge. We tried every trick in the book before it finally gave. What's your go-to method for freeing up a really stuck underwater hatch?
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3 Comments
terryrobinson
Man, four hours is brutal. When you say you tried every trick, did that include heat? I've had luck on steel hatches with a small torch on the hinge barrel itself, just to expand it a fraction. The salt and crap inside can act like a glue once it dries out between dives.
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mila395
mila3952d ago
Try a mix of vinegar and baking soda paste on the hinge for a day before you dive.
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charles_wilson
That just makes a fizzy mess, not a cleaner.
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