How to: Make your own brass fittings

Having built her own screens from scratch, Lotte on s/v Lunde now makes the brass fittings for mounting them. Nicely done!

I know that many of you are choking with all this do-it-yourself (if you even still bother reading it). It was never originally thought that this blog would be a DIY / nerd blog, but at times it really is that which fills most of my life and ergo also what is most natural to blog about. And I would like to share some of the best tips and tricks that I have been fortunate to be enriched during the boat projects. Many of them I have not been able to google - it's about the tradition of craftsmen and other good people out in the physical world. [Ed: The best kind!]

But hang on, it will not always be this way. For there are covers on hold.

However, I promised yesterday that I wanted to show how our mosquito nets are mounted. The criteria for mounting were:

Simplicity

fast service

discreet

and so it matches the interior

In my father's rich stock hid some fine old fasteners. This was half of the suspension ready. But there were not enough fasteners to put on all four sides, and the screen would really like to be firmly seated regardless of whether it is removable or not. So we had to devise some sort of hardware that could meet those criteria.

You will need a few strips of brass.
Cutting or trimming possibly out of a piece of old sheet or the like. It is obvious to recycle here.

Put the strip firmly in the vise so that it forms an angle at the end of the jaw (the part of the vise which clamps) of 45 degrees

Fold both ends of the strip over the vise using a sledge hammer or a large hammer

The bracket after the first bend. Next, scribe a line such that the distance between the line and the first bend corresponds to the thickness of what you want to hang up. The frame of the screens is 10mm and then the distance must be the same. Be sure to get stroke and bend to be parallel, otherwise it will mount crooked.

Tighten firmly so that the line is flush with the edge of the vise.

Fold against vise the jaws. Here I used an old cooper tool that can best be compared with a chisel which is flat at the end. But a piece of flat iron can also easily be used - or whatever you have.

After the second bending. Repeat on the other side of the bracket.

Drill holes for screws. Cut and sand the ends. Round off all edges with a file.
Eventually polish the brackets and they are ready for installation.

The bracket in place

Mosquito net in operation. The two fasteners for easy and quick installation and removal.

I've done a similar set of brackets, so the screens may be stored elsewhere (in this case on the underside of one of the top cabinets in forecastle) when not in use.