DIY Storm Windows Part 1

[My4t2de]

How do you get free glass?

[Danno]

How do you get free glass?

convince your neighbors to buy vinyls. No wait, that would be bad for your neighborhood. Go across town and convince someone to buy vinyl windows, yeah, that's it.

Seriously, though. I had an idea and I thought I'd try it out. I saw your post and I just called the local pella installation guys. it went like this

Me: Hey, what do you do with the windows you pull out?
Them: well, we throw them out for you
Me: well what if I want to keep them?
Them: Not a problem, people do that all the time.
Me: Ok, are you doing any jobs right now on an old house with big windows?
Them: Why?
Me: So I can see your work, just kidding. I actually am just curious about getting ahold of glass you pull out of the windows.
Them: Well we often brake a bunch of it, but If you come get it from the site we can arrange something.
Me: I'll let you know. Not sure if I have room for the windows/glass right now.
Them: Do you have broken windows or something? We are offering a deal on full window system replacements. They are radon (i can't remember) filled and you can get a rebate from taxes if you install them....
Me: No thanks, I just have some storm windows I need to get working on.
Them: Ok, well just let us know about that glass soon or it'll be thrown in a dumpster.

See, I knew it! that's gotta be the way to go. Remember I live in a small community. Bigger towns may not be as receptive to people just wandering onto a work site even if they called first.

[Danno]

harborfreight rocks. I just pulled out my summer catalog...
heat gun 9.99
reciprocating saw 19.99

I wish this was cheaper:
biscuit joiner kit 59.99

[My4t2de]

Well this town can't get any smaller or it'll disappear, so I guess I should try the same thing!

Thanks Danno!

[NYAlhambra]

Sorry Danno - Mine must've been on special that week...

[HB]

Howdy folks! With regard to the bhiscuit issue, I've always thought that the biscuits were mostly for aligning a joint rather than for providing structural support.

I would bet that if you tried to split a biscuit in half along it's length, it would be easier to do than trying to snap two dowels in half.

If you want the best of both worlds, Festool has a new tool on the market that is a Biscuit joiner on steroids. It's an automatic way of making a mortise and tennon joint.

http://www.festoolusa.com/Web_files/PW_Domino_Review.pdf

Here's some interesting reading on the topic:

http://www.rockler.com/blog/index.cfm?commentID=198

And here's some video:

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/1158959100390.xml

I'd stick with the dowels.

HB

[angolito]

danno. i think that you should perhaps make the bottom (is it stile or rail? i can never recall?) of your storms a bit thicker(higher, wider?) anyway! so it more closely reflects your lower sash. also, i think i read somewhere here that the storm windows have to have a little breathing room at the bottom, to prevent moisture.

those are darn good looking storm windows.

[Danno]

danno. i think that you should perhaps make the bottom (is it stile or rail? i can never recall?) of your storms a bit thicker(higher, wider?) anyway! so it more closely reflects your lower sash. also, i think i read somewhere here that the storm windows have to have a little breathing room at the bottom, to prevent moisture.

those are darn good looking storm windows.

Yes, I agree. I thought that's what I was doing when I bought the materials. The sides are 1x3 and the top and bottom are 1x4. I thought it would be weird if it was even more, but after I put it up and I could still see the lower portion of the actual window from behind my storms, I started thinking I could beef it up. Live and learn. also, I hear the same things about drainage. I'll deal with that when I get there.

[BrooklynRowHouse]

Howdy folks! With regard to the bhiscuit issue, I've always thought that the biscuits were mostly for aligning a joint rather than for providing structural support.

Biscuits have very little shear strength. After all, they're basically a thick piece of beechwood cardboard. They're good for aligning joints but I also like them for their holding strength. There's more glue surface area with a biscuit than with even a couple of dowels so laminations hold tighter.

The Festool is a cool tool. It's just way, way overpriced (like all of their power tools. I mean, really, $260 for an orbital sander?!)

[BrooklynRowHouse]

Howdy folks! With regard to the bhiscuit issue, I've always thought that the biscuits were mostly for aligning a joint rather than for providing structural support.

Biscuits have very little shear strength. After all, they're basically a thick piece of beechwood cardboard. They're good for aligning joints but I also like them for their holding strength. There's more glue surface area with a biscuit than with even a couple of dowels so laminations hold tighter.

The Festool is a cool tool. It's just way, way overpriced (like all of their power tools. I mean, really, $260 for an orbital sander?!)

Wow, that video proved me wrong! Dowels is it! But it also depends on how long the dowels are. The video doesn't say but a #0 biscuit only has about 5/8" of depth to the cut. I'd like to see the same test with dowels and biscuits cut to the same depth because a lot of my biscuiting is adding 1" skirts to plywood blanks.

Another super-expensive power doweler which I like even better than the Festool because it uses garden variety dowels is the Mafell:

http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/ezine/archive/48/toolpreview.cfm