Replacement window frames

                                       Replacement bottom window frame aft and forward

The bottom part which rests on the teak deck of the forward cabin window and the aft cabin window were rotten away and cracked.

These window frames needed to be replaced as well.

The first one which was done was the aft window frame since it had the less roundness onto the deck and a less round curve as the front window. More or less this was a practice frame for the more difficult frame of the front cabin window frame.

 

The window frame is made from 2 pieces of 12 mm thick mahogany planks which are roughly shaped and glued together with colored epoxy and placed on a jig which had a larger curve than the actual window frame required.

 

                                                    

After the glue had cured and the clamps were loosened it showed that the new made plank had a curve which was less than when the plank was clamped onto the jig.

The next step was to shape the plank in the form of the aft deck and with an angle to make a good contact with the teak deck.

For checking the new plank/frame it was clamped onto the top frame with supports.

One can than check if the angle of the bottom is correct as well as that the new frame follows the actual curve of the deck. Next picture is taken during the shaping of the frame.

This shaping is timely since the deck is curved and the frame needs to rest completely on the deck in the correct angle. When preparing and gluing together the bottom frame it is made over-sized due to the fact that during the shaping the frame increasingly gets smaller and when the old frame is exactly copied one will end up with a to small bottom frame to fit the windows.

When the bottom frame was shaped to the deck curve and with the correct angle it was time to start with the renewal of the sides and the center part of the window frame to complete window frame renewal, except of the top part which is still in a good condition.

The above picture also shows the over sized bottom frame while test fitting the actual window in position. This extra wood is in a later stage removed after the window frames were glued in place.

When all was dry fitted correctly the side, center piece and the bottom part of the window frame were glued together with colored epoxy glue.

The next step was to glue the window frame with sides and center piece into place.

The complete unit was screwed onto the deck as well as onto the sides of the ship. The center piece was installed as original with a pin into the hole of the top window frame.

The bottom window frame was also screwed from the inside onto the deck.

The bottom frame was not glued with epoxy onto the deck but with double sided marine flexible tape.

Deck was degreased to remove the natural oil of the teak deck.

To hold the complete frame in place and fix it straight onto the old still in place window top frame clamps were used with blocks which were covered with duct tape, Epoxy will not stick to duct tape.

Left over epoxy glue was used to insert the wooden plugs at the same time.

When all was dry the whole area was sanded and the sides shaped in round corners as original.

The actual glass windows were fitted in the top window frame and the bottom window frame and the sides were shaped to the correct seize. After that the actual groove where the window is placed into the frame was made with a router.

The next project was to renew the bottom window frame of the front cabin.

                 

First attempt failed since the curve used for this window frame was not enough, the glued planks when the clamps were removed and the tension was taken off them came back to almost a straight plank. I used a curve of +/- 3 cm in the middle and this was not enough.

The second attempt I made was with a curve of +/- 6 cm in the middle deeper than the original  removed bottom frame and the new bottom frame came out almost perfect. The jig used is not that professional but it served its purpose.

 

The next step was as described for the aft window frame to shape the frame to perfection and to follow the curve of the deck and the correct angle between the window frame and the deck.

When that was done also here  the sides and center piece of the window frames needed to be replaced.

 

Than the following step was dry fitting the window frame parts together on the top of the teak deck,and against the sides of the deck house this was done with the bottom piece center piece and side pieces.

The bottom fame was screwed against a small support which by itself was screwed and glued onto the teak deck like original. You can see this support on below picture which was made of two pieces of mahogany glued together and shaped in the roundness of the window fame and shaped into the same angle as the window frame is placed onto the deck.

When all was shaped to acceptance all was glued together in place, bear in mind that during the dry fitting screws were installed to make sure that when all would be glued in place it was done correctly,

The same double sided tape was used between the bottom frame and the teak deck.

After installing the plugs the whole area was shaped, actual windows were  fitted in the window frame and all was sanded.

During the sanding I noticed that I minor mistake was made with inserting the screws between the side frames and the side of the deck housing, a few of the screw heads showed through the wood. Most likely this is a result off drilling to close to the edge of the wood and not deep enough into the wood.

Since I was not happy with this fact the wooden plugs were removed again and the screw removed, although this sounds simple it was not the case.

The screw was inserted when the two parts were glued together with epoxy resulting that the screw was fitted in the wood with epoxy and could not be removed easily.

So what I did was to drill a small hole in the center of the screw, making sure that most of the groove of the screw head remained in place and then removed the screw.

By drilling a hole in the bronze screw the screw gets hot/warm resulting in that the epoxy “melts” one can than remove the screw reasonably easy.

New hole was drilled new screw inserted and the whole was plugged and sanded again