Storm Window Sash - Prairie Style

[PeteJr]

Here's the motivation and this is what I'm building.

         

Six storm windows in all for the front of our home.  They will be in pairs and will be placed over cottage style double hung windows.  The windows will be approximately 66" tall with four at 36" wide and two at 28" wide.  Each window will have 12 individual lites with authentic muntins.  For me the divided lite window with muntins offers the challenge of learning new skills, acquiring some new tooling, working with and learning from others and producing something both useful and architecturally pleasing.

    

[Ronn W]

A great project. Never done storm windows myself but should be a very satisfying project.  I will follow your journal.

[PeteJr]

Material preparation.

The wood I selected was Poplar.  My experience with poplar has taught me it's easy to machine and takes paint very well.  I'll use an exterior oil based paint to finish these and hopefully they will last a long time.

I selected 6/4 rough sawn poplar from Bristol Valley Hardwoods in Bristol, NY.  I borrowed my son in laws new F150 King Cab and hauled 100 bd ft about 70 miles back to my workshop.  It was a beautiful Autumn day for a drive and at $2.60 a bd ft it was a very good deal.

Here's the steps I followed to prep the 8 foot lengths:

1. rough cut the poplar for the stiles and rails on the miter saw
   • 68" for the stiles
   • 35" & 27" for the rails since two of the windows are narrower
2. used an 8" jointer to surface one face side and one edge square to the face
3. ripped the 5" to 6" wide pieces in half and jointed the one sawn edge of each piece
4. let the pieces sit for a few days in the shop and double checked for movement - everything stayed straight
5. planed each piece to 1 1/4" thick
6. ripped each piece to 2 1/2" wide - the Freud LM72R010 rip blade resulted in a very fine surface so I did not joint the sawn edge afterwards
7. trimmed one end of each piece to 90 degrees and marked that end with some chalk

Here's a few pictures of the process:

 

1. 

 

 

[PeteJr]

Rail & Stile Dimensioning:

All six windows will be 66" tall and making the stiles is the same process for all six windows.  The Window width (four at 36" wide and two at 28" wide) however requires appropriately sized rails.  In this next section I'll show how to determined the finished length for the rails taking into account the tenons and the edge profile.  The router bit set I'm using is the Window Sash Jr. #55-802 from Infinity Tools and it's the proper set for making thinner (up to 1 1/4") sash.  Here's a look at the tooling.  These pics are from the Infinity Tools website. 

 

The rails for the 36" wide windows are 33 1/2" wide and those for the 28" wide windows are 25 1/2" wide.  Here's how I arrived at these.

Width of the window is 36”

1. Subtract 5” for the two side stiles (2 x 2 ½”)  - 
2. Equals 31”
3. Add ½” back - the width of the two side profiles (2 x ¼”)
4. Equals 31 ½”
5. Add 2” back – the width of the two tenons ( 2 x 1”)
6. Equals 33 ½”

 

Width of the window is 28”

1. Subtract 5” for the two side stiles (2 x 2 ½”)
2. Equals 23”
3. Add ½” back - the width of the two side profiles (2 x ¼”)
4. Equals 23 ½”
5. Add 2” back – the width of the tenons ( 2 x 1”)
6. Equals 25 ½

 

These dimensions are specific to the router bits I'm using.

 

 

[wdwerker]

I'm having fun following your project !

I learned to make test cuts and verify dimensions then double check my math before cutting parts to an exact final length.

 

[PeteJr]

I plan to resume working on this project by mid-summer 2017.

[bushwacked]

oh very cool looking windows ... why are they called storm windows?

[wdwerker]

They usually mount outside a single glazed window, sometimes in place of a screen.

[prov163]

This is a cool project. Thanks for sharing. 

[Coop]

Pete, glad you bumped this. Why the set back in completion?