On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 09:28:12 +0100, Nick Brooks
wrote:

Peter Taylor wrote:
N. Thornton wrote

Arent I silly, Peter just said he had. Why dont more of us do it?


And to follow my previous post, I've discovered that Travis Perkins still sell
all the mouldings needed for making new softwood sash and casement windows, but
they only keep them in stock at certain branches and will order it in for you.
They also do simple softwood cill sections, but in my case I needed to match the
original 6 x 3 Oak cills, so I had to have that machined specially.

You're right, it doesn't need any special skills to make new windows but like
always, I made few mistakes before I sussed it. But it's a lot more fun than
plastering ). I started out using an old hand moulding plane but soon bought
my first router and Ovolo cutter. I also invested in a bench pillar drill with
a morticer attachment and a pair of long sash cramps. The belt sander was
pretty vital too.

I would not know where to get suitable timber. I certainly don't think
you could use the kind of warped stuff that B&Q and the other sheds
stock. I replaced the wooden frames of two of my Crittalls windows.
However, I went to a Crittalls dealer (Lightfoot Windows) and bought
the frame sections there. These were incredibly straight pieces of
timber, accurately precut and morticed to size. Until recently I still
had a couple of residual cills for a larger window that I eventually
ended up reparing, not replacing, and these pieces were still as
straight and true as the day I brought them back from the supplier.
Where are you going to find timber like that? Oh, the new frames cost
me roughly £32 each! (1 cill, 2 sides, and 1 header with drip groove
per frame)

MM