Popular Post Tom King Posted August 12, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted August 12, 2019 The owners of the 1850 house, that we put the Cypress Shingle roof on, have had on their to-do list for me to make two pairs of window sash. They are to replace some made in 1982, that don't come close to matching the rest of the originals left in the house. We completely redid all the old ones. For several years, they have asked when I was going to get to it, but other stuff kept coming up. We had taken some of the unused (now that we have new trusses holding the sagging roof back up to a flat plane) brace posts that were in the attic, as part of a poorly designed structure, to get wood out of for the two pairs of sash I need to build. Some of those posts are seen in the first picture. It's all Heart Pine that has been drying in that attic for 169 years. It's not only dry, but Very heavy. I didn't weigh it, but it weighs more than Oak does for pieces the same size. Milling it showed that every piece was also completely stable, and no cut moved the slightest bit. Mike spent his time cleaning them, before I ran them on the jointer to get them ready to go through the table saw for rough sizing. I put an old set of knives in the jointer, because even with Mike's best effort with a wire brush, they had 169 years of dirt on them. I used a set of knives that I had decided to toss anyway, but kept them just for this job. I knew we wouldn't have enough of the Heart Pine, but I had kept some pieces of Heart Cypress from making handrails for this house. I just rough cut the stiles, top and bottom rails, meeting rails, glazing bars, and muntins today. Any sapwood you see on the Cypress parts will be cut off. Everything in the picture is cut oversize. I'll sharpen a new set of knives for that jointer tomorrow, and we'll run them to finish size. Since it's just four of them, I'm going to see how it goes to just run the molding profiles by hand. They're not exactly like any I've seen before, so if we put $1800 in a set of custom router bits, they may never be used again. If I can break even on the cost of the bits, in hand labor, both the owners, and I will be happy. I've made single sash before by hand, but these are large, nine lights, so have a fair number of feet of molding profile, and a lot of tenons to cope. I ended up running a number of extra pieces of the Cypress because I wanted to only use the heart, and cut off any sap wood. We were running close, and the top rails may end up with a small bit of sapwood, but they will be in a protected spot up in the jamb, and the windows will be painted inside, and out with Sherwin-Williams Emerald exterior paint. More pictures, and update the next day we work on them. I'm not sure if that will be tomorrow, or not. They should look just like this one when we get finished. We already have the hand blown cylinder glass cut to the right size 12x14 inch panes. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted August 12, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2019 Here's where those Heart Pine 3x's came from. They were "supports" for 20 foot long 3x3 rafters. The supports were sitting vertically under the rafters, but the rafters weren't lined up above the floor joists, so they set the posts on top of old 1x used flooring boards spanning between the joists. That's the reason we were building the trusses up there to wedge the noodle rafters back into a flat plane. It was nice for them to leave us some good, straight grained 3x3's though. There was a 12 x 14" access door into the attic, but fortunately it lined up nicely with the outside steps so we could pull those 2x12x16's up there with the back doors to the house open. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tom King Posted August 14, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted August 14, 2019 Today, we ran all the parts to their final size, and I spent a while finding the right molding plane. For running parts like this to final size, I finish two sides on the jointer. The glazing bars and muntins have their last two sides finished at the table saw with an old Forrest Mr. Sawdust blade that never gets used for anything but running small parts to final size. Stiles, and rails, being wider than the 5/8" thick muntins, get finished in a planer. For finishing parts on the jointer, I sharpen up a new set of knives. They don't come as sharp as I like, so I hone them on my sharpening stones as sharp as I can get them. It only takes a few minutes with my installation method-maybe 20 seconds per knife once I have the guard off, and tools needed at hand. For planing to finished surface, I keep a set of super sharp knives in my Grizzly 12" planer/molder. It has rubber feed rollers, and will take off the slightest little thickness with sharp knives. I've been meaning to make a video of my jointer knife installation method, but am always thinking about producing work, so haven't slowed up enough to set up the video equipment. We did take some pictures this morning. We organized the parts in different stacks with tags, to simplify not getting them mixed up, and no worry about remembering what is what. I thought I took a picture after we finished sizing, but the only one I have in my phone is after the two sides were finished on the jointer. After installing the sharp knives, only the slightest bit is run off of any side, just to smooth it up. The picture of the piece of Cypress is light reflecting off of it after running it against the grain, on purpose, just to show the quality of surface. Going with the grain leaves it a little slicker. That's just morning light from the North wall window. I'll post the knife setting method in another thread, but here are the pictures. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted August 14, 2019 Report Share Posted August 14, 2019 I'd say you have that dialed in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted August 14, 2019 Report Share Posted August 14, 2019 2 hours ago, pkinneb said: I'd say you have that dialed in Yep. Machines AND process! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted August 16, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2019 This morning, I modified a sash molding plane to match the molding profile I'm copying. The one we need is an odd ogee (all curves). I think whatever plane they used for them had worn down to its own particular shape. I had made a mold from one of the windows, and sent that to Whiteside to see about making a set of custom router bits, like I've used before. I only wanted one of each. Whiteside used to do that, but have updated their production equipment since the last time I bought some, and they now only make orders in multiples of six each, so they sent my mold down the road to another place. I never got around to ordering the bits, and now I'm glad I didn't. They had sent back drawings, for my approval, that looked like they were okay, but all the curved shapes were constant radius-es. I modified an ovolo (sharp inside corners) sash plane that I already have a set of bits to match, because I wouldn't need it again, since I have the bits. I got a test piece to the point that it matched the drawing exactly, but still didn't look right to me. We decided to go back to the 1850 house, and make another mold. In the process, I thought of how to simply make the mold so I could use it to mark the copes by. I didn't think to take one of the sized muntins with me, but the mold was still pliable enough when we got back, that I clamped it around one of the muntin blanks, and will let it set up over the weekend. Oatey plumbers epoxy putty is about the ideal stuff to make such molds from. I had one of the girls where we ate lunch to give me a piece of the really thin plastic wrap they use to for a release film on the old window sash. I hope the pictures tell the story. I used some of my small hollow planes, but the one most useful was a nice little 1/4" skew rabbet plane. Still needed to follow them was a high-tech shaper of sandpaper on a hand split waxing applicator. I think it was the first time I ever used the rounded corners on my CBN wheel, but they turned out to be just the thing for the job on the iron. The molding plane will get a little more modification on Monday. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted August 16, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2019 It's hard to have too many molding planes. I bought most of mine from the UK, back when "small packets" could be shipped for 6 to 8 dollars. I have them stored in waterproof boxes, cleaned before being stored, and desiccant canisters in the boxes. I don't need to look at them, or have them sitting out to collect dust. I just want them to only need sharpening to use. There aren't many that I paid over $15 for. IT seems like they stored them in houses over there, whereas most of the ones in this country have been stored in barns. I never felt like I had time to recondition them. This box has my hollows and rounds. I'm not a collector. It doesn't matter to me who made them, how old they are, or if a set is any kind of match. I just want to be able to use one that I need. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted August 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2019 These are what we're replacing. The original sash have 5/8" wide muntins, and one of the reasons for the importance of this house is the transition in architectural details from the early 19th Century to the mid 19th Century. This is one of the last things we're changing that was done to this house in the 1980's. Two windows had been replaced on the back of the house. The sash have large, over inch and a quarter wide, ugly muntins in the replacement sash. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tom King Posted August 19, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted August 19, 2019 The molds with the Plumbers epoxy putty came out pretty good. The reason you see the plastic wrap in a mass around it on the old sash, was so I could take those gloves off, and knead it into good contact with my fingers, before it set up. More tuning on the molding plane today, since I now have a good pattern from the mold. Used a couple of round molding planes, and a sharp chisel. More grinding on the iron, sharpened it, and ran a test piece. A couple of small tweaks on the iron, and we'll be ready to run the profile. I thought I got lucky on this first go. We stopped here for the day, at lunch time. I can see where they liked this European Beech for molding planes. I've never worked any wood that would be better suited, or works as easily, and still seems plenty durable. We'll make multiple setups on the table saw to take some of the bulk away first, and this molding plane will just finish up the profiles. We have air conditioning in this old house that I use, but I left the table saw work for another day. Will be cutting grass until dark tonight, starting after the Sun goes down some. More another day on this. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted August 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2019 I didn't work on this today, with too much other stuff to do, but I did think about it. I need to round off the little corners that are digging the squarish corners don't in those hollows, and I think it will be there. This is the first thing I've run into where I feel like the 180 grit CBN wheel is too coarse. I'm afraid it would take those tiny corners off too easily to be able to control. In a bunch of other tools that I was left by a friend, there is a Harbor Freight wet grinder. I tried it once, but it's so slow, and over heats so easily that it's not much good for anything normal, but I think it might be just the tool to round over those too sharp tiny corners. I didn't notice who made this molding plane, as I never pay attention to that sort of thing, but they did a really good job of hardening this low carbon steel. I couldn't hardly cut it with my oil stones, but my water stones did a fine job with it. I have it plenty sharp enough already, so don't want to have to reshape the whole profile-just those little corners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted August 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2019 Mike said we had thrown out that Harbor Freight wet grinder years ago, so we didn't waste any time this morning looking for it. Just as well though, as my diamond paddle files were in the top of the Sharpen toolbox, and I was able to round those corners right off with them. I also found an xx-fine diamond rat tailed file, and that did a good job on the inside the the curves. With the molding plane ready to go, we started in on running multiple setups on the tablesaw to waste most of the material on the outside of the molding profile. I didn't leave much work for the molding plane to do, but didn't start in on that today. I just indicated where the corners of the shoulders were with the first cuts, so there shouldn't be any tearout there when the grain goes the wrong way. Cutting rabbets where the blade exits a side is messy without the overarm DC, but this is one of those jobs that it gets in the way. The originals have a lot of tearout on some pieces, but it's not something anyone notices. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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