I am trying to find plans/instructions on building my own replacement wood sash windows, can anyone help?
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The CMT router bit catalog has some info. I also was watching an episode of Hometime a couple of years ago and they where restoring some historic house and one of the guys built one. You might be able to find the episode as a repeat.
Troy
It's not exactly a tutorial on how to do it, but I've got a catalog from Andersen Windows that has detailed cross-sections on every window type. I'm betting that you could get the same from Pella, Hurd, or any big manufacturer. It'll give you at least a credible starting point to come up with your own solutions depending on the tooling you've got.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?lang=e&id=1
tj,
FWW #64 has a couple articles on making sash doors for furniture. While making sash windows for a house is slightly different primarily in the configuration of the meeting rails, reading the articles and looking at/measuring a piece of existing sash ought to enable you to design and build your own.
I believe one of the old audel series on woodworking and millwork has an explanation of sashmaking, if you can find it.
Ray
John Birchard has written a few books on building doors and windows. Check out Amazon. Also search Amazon for George Ellis who wrote a classic on building architectural millwork which of course includes windows.
There is also this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Historic-Millwork-Re-creating-Nineteenth-Mid-Twentieth/dp/0471416223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=booksqid=1251898338&sr=8-1
Fine Homebuilding has had a number of articles on the subject through the years.
The book “Make Your Own Handcrafted Doors and Windows” by John Birchard is very informative but it looks to be out of print.
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Handcrafted-Doors-Windows/dp/0806965444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251899035&sr=8-1
Just one bit of advice having built a few .If you live in a cold climate the weight boxes allow a lot of cold transference.Therefore you will have to find an alternative source of balance. Most of these are rather ugly ,spirals ,tape and thin nylon etc.The up side is that jamb liners resolve the draft but tend to look out of place in Victorian houses.However you pay your money and take your choice.One sees the horrible, out of proportion ,snap in, muntin bars everywhere. But do research the hardware and draftproofing seals carefully. Have fun anyway Jako
Last winter I built a replacement upper and lower for a customer who suffered some storm damage to one window. Fortunately I had most of the pieces to use as guides. The upper and lower meeting rails were not identical, nor the bottom rail of the lower window and the upper rail of the upper unit. You might consider looking for a scrapped window unit from another house to have as a guide. It took a lot of time to figure out exactly all the dimensions and make detailed drawings, but without that investment I don't think I would have been successful. My two cents.
I can provide a pdf via email of the instructions we include with our window sash bits. Just send me an email request and I'll happily forward it to you.
Freud America, Inc.
t ,
It depends if you are trying to match the existing windows as replacements or starting over . I have made them for several jobs . The cope cut as originally done will be a challenge as they were typically made with through tenons .
They used short steel pins through each joint to lock them in.
An end tenoner was used originally to make this deep cope and tenon .
The rails where they meet between the top and bottom are designed not to leak or drip and are called check rails .There are different styles of sash some had a little curly corbel ends on the bottom of the top stiles .
I made them with square detail around the frame , not a interlocking cope and stick joint , then added a small cove and stopped the detail before the corners.I created a 1/2" space for the thermal glass inserts.
There are many ways to build them , just depends on what you want when you are done.
regards dusty
Dusty,
I have an 1885 twin in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, PA. We replaced all of our windows 12 years ago with vinyl, out of neccessity. Now that I have gotten better at woodworking, and have the tools to do it, I would love to build windows similar to original but in a replacement style ( like a Pella, but without the cost ). A lot of the vinyl windows have broken or the seals have dry rotted and need to be replaced. So I thought it would be a good fall/ winter project.
Back In The Day, apprentices were taught to build wood double hung windows.
I was in class, in fact, when that requirement was changed from teaching us how to build double hung windows to teaching us how to install double hung windows. In those days, they were the ugly, "bronze" aluminum window that are now all fogged over and need to be replaced. There was celebration amongst those who had been evading the section on building windows, thinking that they "got over", and not realizing that someday, they'd want to be able to say "Back In The Day..."
In short, it was not something that was planned, it was not usually drawn, it was something a Carpenter was expected to know, like sixteen inch centers or how to hang a door.
The other comment I will make is this: it hasn't made any sense, either craft-wise or economic-wise, to build windows for about ten years.
The sealants, procedures, fit, finish, insulating properties, methods and glazing used on manufactured wood windows is so far superior to anything even I could build in my shop that I wouldn't consider it. And I was trained to do it.
Economically, you won't come close. A window is a lot more than a hole in a wall with glass in it.
If you build a window that performs at 70 or 80% of what a manufactured window, like a Pella does, you will easily spend 200% of what it would have cost you to buy it.
Pella, Anderson, or any name brand wood window manufacturers can match whatever you have. It's what they do.
The last job I had, I used Pella, simply because their sales staff here is so highly trained, and they always delivered on time, for the price they quoted, and their windows always did what they said they'd do.
Good luck!
Thanks for your advice. I know that these are all things that I need to take into consideration before I embark on this adventure. Thank you for bringing me back down to earth!
You're welcome.Good luck!
The thought of windows as the last latch on a hermetically sealed house leaves me cold. Build your windows and don't worry about all the bloody engineering.
Jam:Although I built my own double-hung sash windows and casings, I believe you are correct. I wanted to match the original and I believe mine do that in every respect, but they cannot match the sealing and insulation properties of a modern window by manufacturers such as Pella (and it would be very expensive to try!).If you accept the limitations, it was much more cost effective for me to build the windows myself.Regards,Hastings
I agree with most of what you have said about building ones own windows. Window companies have done a lot of research on weather sealing and their scales of economy make it hard to come out ahead economically when trying to duplicate similar products.
I think where building your own windows may be more advantageous is:1) where you have more time than money and working at a slower pace may not necessarily be an economic disadvantage.2) The window(s) are quite customized to the point where a manufacturer is not set up to readily produce such a window in limited quantities.3) You may want some species of material and a manufacturer would up charge too much for the inconvenience of producing in a particular wood.4) you may have some funky detail that isn't readily available in a manufacturers repertoire.Building your own windows is not rocket science. And with the wide range of weather sealing gaskets available from several online sources it's a lot less daunting than it may have been in the past.
Well, okay, if you say so.The features built into modern windows leave anything *I* could produce in the dust.There's all the research that covers everything from installation in a heating climate to installation in a cooling climate; the details vary, as do the construction of the windows. I don't understand why someone would spend the money without reaping the benefits, but that could be the ledger in me speaking. (Here in Washington, the installation details vary from one side of the Cascades to the other, because the climates vary so much.)There's the whole "toxic mold" issue, (god, I'm sick of that phrase, and any contractor who installed a window during the 90s is, as well) that needs to be dealt with in any semi-modern home. Fortunately, they have that problem pretty well nailed down, and know how to build and install windows that don't exacerbate the problem.(I have my own pet theory about that. Houses used to be built so the wind could whistle through, and there was no toxic mold issue. Then we sealed houses up like sandwich wrappers, pumped heated air into cold climates, people breathed in and expelled moisture from their breath, and lo! Behold! Toxic mold! But I digress. Besides, I'm not a scientist, and I rely on the college boys and girls to tell me about mold.)There's modern fire code issues. New construction (and some remodel) has to be built so a modern fire fighter wearing full, modern gear can climb through most windows. The exact specifications vary, but here in Seattle, when I remodeled our house, two of the windows had to be enlarged to meet this criteria.In my opinion, building codes, particularly fire codes are good things, and if you're not prepared to meet this bare minimum set of requirements, perhaps you should consider golf as a hobby. Therefore, I have no comment regarding remodel work done with no permit.And there's the gingerbread. Pella makes a line of windows that have a built in venetian blind, centered between the panes. They have faux leading, applied to match your old, wavy leaded windows. They have this trick little springie thingie (a professional, technical term) that means double hung windows never bind, regardless of the weather. (You've never had to fight an old window up half an inch on one side, then half an inch on the other, have you? I thought not. But if you have, why on earth would you pay money and invest labor and energy in carefully duplicating that set of problems when a solution exists?) They have this pivot point arrangement so double hung windows on the second floor pivot horizontally, allowing you to wash the outside from the inside. When you get to be my age, and vertigo makes you look askance at any ladder, you will be willing to pay for the window again every time you wash the outside of it without climbing a ladder or paying some young stud to do so.I understand, completely, the desire to build one's own windows. I spent years learning fine, finish carpentry, studying wedge and glue stairs, the math for three piece crown molding and how to adjust double french doors. Then I made a lot of my money digging ditches and waterproofing basements. So I get it. It's a real pleasure to actually be able to work wood from rough to functional beauty, that does what it's told to do.But I confine that drive to interior built-ins, and perfect installations of systems that others have taken upon themselves to engineer, test and perfect. I don't re-design brake systems, I make certain the rise, run and room are perfect on the stairs, that the handrail is exactly as it needs to be, and I don't mess with windows that firemen may have to come through in a hurry, in pitch black smoke.Your milage, of course, may vary, and I do wish the original poster the best of luck.
The good points I’ve heard so far are: 1- If you have the time you can make very good windows 2- You can choose the material you want (years ago my Marvin windows rotted because the guy who owned Marvin fished with the guy who ran PPG, who made the defective preservative for the rot-prone sugar pine Marvin used for their windows. I and many thousands of others got free replacement windows, including labor, for that fishing buddies handshake deal). I say, if you have the time, go for it. Do your research, buy good gaskets and the cutters for their grooves, and use good glass sealing material. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
tjmit:
I have built 12 pairs of double hung windows in spanish cedar. The lights are nine over 1 to match the existing ones in our house.
I relied heavily on the instructions supplied by Charles of Freud and I used the window I was replacing as a model.
The single light frame was pretty easy and I used domino loose tenons (4 at each end of the bottom rail. The nine light was a little more tricky because of the mullions and muntins. These had to be very thin to match the original. In the end I used one piece mullions and joined the muntins using a cope and a small domino tenon. This became easier with practice and I set up jigs for accurate placement of the plunge.
Gluing up the 9-light was difficult because the mullion would bow out under clamping pressure, so I needed to put cawls vertically and horizontally. Lot's of clamps! Fortunately my wife and I did this together and we got pretty good at it. You really need your windows to be flat!
I also built the casings to match the original with sash weights and chain. New weights are expensive but I managed to find old ones in a salvage yard (he usually sells them to fishermen to weigh down their pots!)
This was a very satisfying job and in the end not too difficult. I attach a picture of one pair before painting and then installed. Also the jigs I used for the loose tenon placement and some of the casing construction.
Hastings
Those are beautiful, Hastings!
very nice job - would you explain the jigs? their function is not obvious to me - thanks -
D"there's enough for everyone"
David:The jigs were designed to be used with the Festool Domino. The purpose was to accurately and repeatably place the "plunges" for the mortises where the mullions and muntins meet and where they both meet the rails and stiles of the window frame.The jig for Rails and stiles works with the mullions also; it holds the Domino machine in a fixed place while you move the work piece underneath. There are pencil lines that you have to line up, having marked the centerline of the plunge on the workpiece. Thereafter, I use a stop for the remaining pieces.In the photo you can see the plunges on the bottom rail.The jig for mullions and muntins allowed me to make a plunge into the end of the workpiece. The smallest Domino (#5) had to be placed exactly in the center of the material. Festool have just introduced a smaller domino (#4) that will be much better for this application.Once it was all glued up the mullions and muntins made for a strong and sturdy frame within the window and I do not have any concerns about strength with this approach.I used Dominos for all the joints, but next time I would cut the "V" notches and grooves so the muntins and mullions interlock with each other. There are special bits for this but it will be easier to for me to do on my CNC machine.Hope this helps.Hastings
Hastings, those windows are beautiful. But you didn't tell us you have a CNC machine. :)
Ah! A relatively recent acquisition. The windows preceded it!
We made a lot of these when I had a workshop in Cheltenham, England. The town has many fine 19th century houses and many of their windows were needing replacement - not because of any flaws in the original workmanship, but usually through neglect.
They are absolute buggers to make. The frame, with the cavities for the counterweights (we got the weights from scrapyards if we couldn't salvage the old ones) are straight forward enough but the sashes...
The coping was tricky - you really need a 3 head tenoner as well as a spindle moulder, so you can leave the latter set up to do the mouldings. You need to mould the sides, then cope the rails and glazing bars, then mould the rails and gbs, in order to avoid breakout.
What makes it even more difficult is that the glazing bars are not the same thickness as the rails and sides. Whereas the latter had a step then a lamb's tongue moulding, the former didn't have the step, so you a) had to cope the glazing bars to a point, and b) mould them to 'nothing' at the top.
Oh and the meeting rails were pretty tricky, too.
HI Tim I use two shapers and cut the tenons on a table saw.I do not through tenon. Almost through ,glue up with epoxy and draw bore the joints. With the muntins I cope a wide board ,cut to separate , then stick them using jigs to support and feed them.Opening, Georgian semi circular fanlights are unprintably evil and I have lost several shirts making them. All the best Jako
...cope a wide board, cut to separate...D'oh - bangs head against wall - why didn't I think of that
Tim,
Shoulda read my article first.
Ray
In my house I need to change wooden windows, but for us it is very expensive, and we do not want to change to plastic ones. Themselves were unable to repair and paint them. We are looking for specialists in casement windows. Tell me where you can qualitatively restore our windows at an affordable price, if possible.
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