I originally titled this "Got A Window Finished", but I still have to deal with glass and paint so it's not really FINISHED finished. But the window frame is built, at least that part of the operation is done. Why am I building windows for the basement, a totally utilitarian space, or why am I not just buying windows? The answer to the first part is that, ultimately, I want to build windows to replace the originals on the main floor of the house and the basement is a pretty solid place to get some practice. The answer to the second part is that it would take a stupid amount of money to pay somebody else to make (9) 7' x 3' wood-framed windows for the main floor, and there's no good reason to pay somebody else to do what I already have the tools to do. All the basement windows, most of which have already been replaced once, look about like this: The sash joints are coming apart: The glazing is falling apart: And even where things sort of appear to not be terrible, there are signs of deterioration; those little tiny holes are where nails were driven to keep the rail (the top, curved piece) attached to the stile (the vertical piece it connects to), and the glazing is no longer really doing its job. I'm using douglas fir as the lumber for the new window sashes; it's historically accurate and holds up to weather about as well as any readily available species of lumber. There's approximately 700 steps involved in building these things, but the short version starts with cutting big boards into smaller pieces that will become the sash rails and stiles: Then it gets complicated, and the order of operations becomes wildly critical (I was reminded of this, painfully, during the first window-building effort that I ultimately scrapped). From this point forward, there really isn't any room for error. After a little bandsawing and a WHOLE lot of router work with this bit set: It's on to the hollow chisel mortiser to cut the mortises in the stiles. That's followed by some table sawing to cut the tenons in the rails, which results in this: The tenons fit into the mortises and give the sashes some strength and rigidity. I wish I could have made the tenons a hair longer but with the tools I have and the sash geometry I couldn't really make the mortises any deeper. I felt pretty good after dry-fitting everything together (back/exterior side shown, that's the recess where the glass will go): The trickiest cut of them all is getting that top arch cut just right. If the bottoms or sides are off, wood can be added and shaved. It's not desirable to have to go that route, but it's easy enough to do. That top curve...cutting an incorrect radius would be a disaster, which is never a good spot to be in at the tail end of a build. At this point I glued everything together, let the glue dry for 24 hours, shaved about a 1/2 inch off the bottoms of the sashes to get that lower rail the exact right height, rough cut the top arch on the bandsaw, literally spent about 2 hours (I really need a better jig for this) getting the router table setup dialed in for the final arch cut, crossed my fingers, held my breath, made the final cut, then tested the fit in the window jamb: She was a little snug, but I knew that was going to be the case. In spite of that, I was super happy with how things fit; I don't know that I could have measured, marked, and made that top arch cut any better of a fit. After some shaving on the sides and a little hinge pocket work, I got the sashes hung: So far, so good. The glass has been ordered and I've got the glazing stuff ready to go, but I need to paint the sashes first. I'd like to get another one built before I start spraying paint, but the next one has an added wrinkle -- the arched jamb piece that I kept as-is from the original jamb, it's kinda off center and I'll have to figure out how to navigate the measuring and cutting that'll need to happen to match it. After that...still a long ways to go. I need to figure out how to make the brick mould that goes on the exterior side of the jamb, and then paint and caulk everything...but I think I'm off to a good start. I always feel like I haven't gotten much done since the last time I wrote anything, and then I go back through the pics to look for things to include in the current post and...maybe I've gotten more done than I realize. Most of it, like the post title, involves lumber (sticks) and rocks (stones). Last time we chatted, I had finished up a couple storm window mockups and was starting on repointing 3 basement windows. The goal was to spot repoint -- hit what's necessary, leave any existing, decent mortar as is. Unfortunately, most of it wasn't decent and I decided to repoint the entire wall sections, down to about a foot below grade. This was the starting point... ...and I quickly wound up here: Somebody had repointed the wall previously but it was kind of a superficial repointing and the majority of the original mortar behind it was garbage, particularly around the window, so I decided to repoint the whole wall. I had good weather, I enjoy the work (in small batches), and if done correctly, I won't have to do it again in my lifetime, so it was an easy decision. The OSB in the above pic is covering a small hole, where I started digging down below grade. I only dug far enough to run into the home's original "waterproofing", which seems to be a simple parge coat (google it). I try not to pick at it too much once I hit it -- it's best to let that sleeping dog lie -- but I repoint down to it. As always happens, if enough mortar is removed, stones start to come out of the wall as well, especially the smaller stones. I save all of them -- piled on the sill and placed on the ground -- and do my best to put them back in the wall...somewhere. After being able to see clear into the basement, through the wall, about as much as I wanted to, I started stuffing new mortar into the joints. It's usually best to work from the bottom up but in this case the bottom was below grade and zero fun to deal with, so I worked top down instead. You might notice the mortar color on the left side is a little different than the lower portion of the wall, that's due to executing the work over a couple afternoons and the mortar had been curing for different amounts of time. Once it's all a few weeks old, it all looks uniform. There's a spigot just right of the window and I hadn't yet bought a new one, so I stopped with the repointing and decided to start poking around the window jamb. Like the stone, I had hoped to reuse it, and maybe just patch any small rotten sections. But it was all in pretty rough shape -- that'll happen when you butt wood up to masonry for about a century and a half -- so I decided to remove all of it but the arched piece at the top. One of the helpers heard the commotion and wanted to watch, but there wasn't much to see -- the sawzalling and temporary bracing went quickly -- and before long I had the left side and bottom stripped out. I knew the mortar in the stone around the window was in terrible shape, that became obvious back when I gutted the "finished" basement and saw the condition things were in. I had to work from both the inside and outside of the wall, which made for a lot of walking back and forth, in and out of the basement, but the whole thing turned out pretty well. I boarded 'er up -- not yet ready to build jambs and windows -- and moved around the corner on the left to start tackling the next wall section. Repointing the next wall section was pretty identical to the one I'd just completed, with one small difference: I discovered that I could get the paint off the stone pretty easily. I got the wall repointed and the old jamb and window out but quit taking pics of things, so let's pick up back at the first window. I built a new window jamb, which is this: The jamb took some work due to the stone sill being a little out of level, but otherwise it was pretty straightforward. She fits snug, the sides of the wood touching or near stone and mortar were all flashed, I made sure to carve out window hinge pockets, everything is sloped the right direction, and most importantly (to me, anyhow), I achieved this: Again, the second window jamb went pretty much like the first one did, and the results were about the same: That was early June, and I would have been a little farther along in the window replacement project but some time had to be spent, occasionally, away from the tools and mortar dust and long hours sitting still, chiseling away at limestone... The best thing that happened over the past few months hasn't been the house progress -- it was seeing Farley (the bigger dog, who's all of 9 months old) finally not be timid around water. Freckles loves water and swims like a fish but it took Farley a few outings to follow big sister's lead, so that was pretty cool. Aside from the window work, I also tackled a bunch of other ancillary projects, like replacing the dishwasher. This thing came with the house and might be about as old as I am; the amount of mouse poop I removed from under and on top of this thing was staggering. I also built a new miter saw station. Even though the miter saw should almost never be used to make any consequential cuts when doing high-level-of-detail-woodworking, I didn't want to start building windows without having a better miter saw setup. And, I have a bit of a storage problem in the basement; I know all too well, from experience, that building stuff is zero fun when you're constantly having to rearrange the shop or dig things out of piles or can't find a tool, so the miter saw station was just as much about storage as anything else. This was the old setup: And this is the new one: Then I started building windows. I scrapped the first effort due to too many careless mistakes, mainly me dropping window pieces and putting big dents in them. The second effort is almost ready for glue and clamps, but I'll tell y'all about that in the next post... |
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