Screened 3 season room with add on plexiglass options

Hey all!

We recently bought a house that has a screened 3 season room. The screens also have add on plexiglass windows that the previous owner apparently removed in the summer and replaced in the winter. These panels are held in place by thin maybe 1x1 pieces of wood.

Basically the setup is - frame...screen...1x1 wood trim to hold it in place... Plexiglass window...1x1 to hold that in place.

ITs all pretty straightforward but I don't want to have to keep "unscrewing" the outer 1x1 wood trims in order to add and remove the windows over and over (easy but takes a little bit of extra effort, not to mention over time the holes in the wood will become unusable).

Any suggests for how to make the plexiglass portion of this setup quick an easy so there is no more retentive screwing/unscrewing of the wood??

Easy and cheap permanent solution is what I'm after.

I was thinking... I can get nylon spacers. Stick them in the main construction. Add nylon spacers into the 1x1 wood... And then use steel dowel pins in between?? That way I can just attach/detach the 1x1 wood edges anytime I want to make change. No tools needed.

​​​​​​BUT. Maybe there's a better solution? I can't imagine Im the only one with this conundrum but couldn't even figure out what to search for.




Thanks!

 

Not sure if its a "better" solution or not, but the hardware that is made for this sort of thing is called a sash spring bolt.

Example

Or if you are just concerned about the holes wallowing out you could use some threaded inserts like these to make running fasteners in and out a non-issue.

 

That sash thing is brilliant but I think for what I want to accomplish maybe prohibitively expensive. I'll try to check and see if there is anything similar and significantly cheaper.

The inserts you provided is already on my back up plan list. I am "hoping" to eliminate future tool use as much as possible (like a sort of pop it in, pop it out) though.

Seems we're on the same path in terms of available options. Thanks sleeper. If you think of anything else clever please let me know!

 

The long term solution is to install actual windows. Not cheap, I know, but there are several different construction types for rooms like this in my neighborhood and everyone who doesn't have actual windows has decided at some point they will.

 

Yep agreed. Planning on a future expansion to add on an outdoor patio etc. I'll add real windows then.

But we just bought this house and bigger expenses are still a few years away.

I think I'll try the nylon spacer route with a smaller size. If that doesn't work I should be able to expand the hole and use the aforementioned threaded inserts instead. Thanks all!