Re: Window Work


"Phred" <phred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fn52h3tas22ikf0jedrnah6g00hkmnkhun@xxxxxxxxxx
5. Re-Glazing the bloody thing.

Ok, now we get to the nitty-gritty. After quite a few hours and a
messy job, I'm thinking great, just got to re-glaze all the panes.
Mind you I tried this on a 12 pane, (lite) window so.

I got a tub of Glazing Putty at the local Home Despot. (about $6.00).
The directions are firm. Roll in your hands like a golf ball, make
spaghetti like strips, press in and mold. Sounds easy yes?

Sure. Easy. NOT.

The stuff is pretty greasy, and sticks to anything except the window
panes you are "supposed" to be putting it on to. It now has covered my
shoes, coat and cover-alls. I'm wearing a coat as it's freezing in
here from taking the window out! Where does it end!

Now I figured out the roll in hand, heat-up and press routine, I
figure I got it down... Pane one done, pane two done, pane three...
oh, gotta go back to pane one now as it's shifted a bit, oops! Geeze,
pane two has shifted as well... There goes pane three...

This *** sticks to everything except the dang window!

Go back and read the directions on the other side of the tub , (with a
microscope), and in Espanol. Not a simple thing...

"The glaze will harden in 7-14 days, and be ready for painting.

MotherF##ker !!! Two friggin weeks to get the fruition of my labors
and no immediate satisfaction!


Get some linseed oil and treat the inside of the wood sash. this helps keep
the wood from sucking the life out of the putty.

Next roll out a thin (1/16") "snake" of putty all around the sash and then
carefullu press the glass into the bed of putty.

Now use glazers points to secure the glass into the sash. With the glass
secured into the sash, now you apply a larger "snake" of putty into the
corner. You can now use the putty knife to press the "snake" into the
corner. It takes me a while to get the right combination of pressure and
angle, but once you get the hang of it you can strike a dead straight angle
with two fine curls of waste putty.

Your task reminds me of the time I moved into an old apartment that had the
windows painted shut. I disassembled them and was working in the evenings
prior to moving in.

The place had 12 foot ceilings and about 10 feet of double hung window. The
upper sash was radiused at the top. I was re-glazing these on the drain
board of the kitchen sink one night and I had a couple of the sashes propped
against the window frame and the wind picked up and they fell and the one
with the radius broke.

Damn, damn, damn. The next day I shopped around for the glass and was
suffering from sticker shock. The best price I could get was about 3 times
the price of a square cut chunk of glass so I figured that this would give
me three chances of breaking even by learning how to cut the curve myself.

My first dilemma was how to define the radius. This I did by trial and
error by cutting a piece of wood that would snugly fit in the window channel
and then used a set of trammel points to find the correct radius.

I then took a small chunk of plastic and placed a center punch mark, and
attached it to the glass with some double stick tape. I took a stick of
wood and cut a notch that I fit the glass cutter into and held it with a
small C clamp. I drove a nail and my radius cutter was complete.

It worked like a charm and when I went to set the sashes back into the
window, it was then that I realized that the double strength glass weighed
more than the original single strength glass so the old cast iron sash
weights would allow the sash to descend.

I added additional weight (fishing sinkers) with bailing wire, and the
window then worked flawlessly.

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.


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