Removing handrails

[mregan]

I pulled the handrails last weekend to re-finish.  I was able to unbolt all the bolts from the inside except on three of them.  The bolts were spinning so I had to remove the bung and use a screwdriver.  When re-installing, should I put a small amount of epoxy on the bolts to keep them from spinning when tightening?  I was planning on installing new bungs on the ones I had to remove, apply the cetol.  Then when re-installing, I could tighten the nuts from below without having to get at the top of the bolts and install the bungs later.

[lazybone]

Go ahead and fill with epoxy but also  cut a screwdriver slot in the male end of the bolt.
With a dremil or hacksaw.

Edit:  I remove 95% of my teak every winter and do it at my leisure at home.
         It takes about an hour to remove and reinstall.

[Jim Hardesty]

One other "trick" is to double nut.  Need enough length to put on 2 more nuts with some space between the tight nut and the 2 nuts.  A good hardware store will have thin nuts.  Put one nut on leaving 2 threads showing at the bolt end, hand tighten the second nut, hold the second nut and tighten the first nut aginst the second nut.  Now a wrench can be used on the second (bottom) nut to hold the bolt when loosening the original nut.  It's a lot simpler to do than the story.   On my previous boat I used longer screws to hold the hand rails (so I could double nut) then used the extra threads for stainless steel loops to hang stuff.
Jim

[Ron Hill]

mre : Cut a slot in the end of the bolt - is the way to go. 
The screwdriver in the slot will hold the bolt steady as you tighten the nut.  Then use an acorn nut so it looks good. 

A few thoughts

[Stu Jackson]

Paragraph 1 here: 

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,7457.msg50941.html#msg50941