La Chica has a lot of lockers because each locker is just one shelf. The reasoning behind this is that when at sea you only have to deal with one shelf at the time and any sudden or unexpected lurch cannot result in the contents of more than one shelf being dumped. This is important for me as in my next voyage we (La Chica and I) will be spending around 5 months in the Southern Ocean and the last part of it will be in autumn and winter. This being the case, everything is being built to withstand knock downs and the lockers have to retain their contents under all conditions.
This brought me to the issue of locker catches. The common finger pull type are not suitable as they can be opened by the locker contents hitting them. Also if the boat lurches at the wrong moment it is very easy to break a finger (which could be a nuisance). Any halfway decent catch costs a fortune here in New Zealand. I was looking at around NZ$40.00 plus the tax (15%) for each catch (push button type) and that was simply unaffordable as I need 58 of them. So I looked at turnbuckles and even they were NZ$19.00 plus the tax. Better but still much to expensive and the ones on offer were ugly and the crossbars could not be relied upon to stay engaged when interesting things happened.
So I decided to make my own turnbuckles. Turnbuckle catches because they are easy to make, can be operated without risk to your fingers and by adjusting the friction can be set up so that they will not open on their own accord. As I wanted a reasonably attractive unit that also did not damage the locker lids the easy'est and cheapest option of a plywood disk or a suitably cut piece of stainless flat bar did not suite me.
In the end, I made drawings (
you can find them here) and had the pieces laser cut from stainless steel (304, good enough for use inside the boat). Cost per turnbuckle came to NZ$4.60 including the button head machine screw to mount the cross bar. Plus three days to counter sink the holes for the screws and polish (brushed finish). I used 2mm sheet for the base and striker plate and 6mm for the cross bar. An M5 button head socket screw acts as the pivot and also transfers the load to the structure. At the back (inside the locker) is an M5 Nyloc nut that enables one to adjust the friction so as to make the cross bar stay in any position that you may want. There is a thin washer between the base and the cross bar so that the cross bar does not scratch the base or striker plate.
Complete Turnbuckle
Some of the lockers