First go at an operating arch topped window

[Keith Mathewson]

This is my first attempt at making an operating arched window. I did almost everything by hand and made many mistakes along the way. Hand sticking the profiles led to variations in the moulding and aggravating chip out on the short grain sections. The curved pieces are steam bent and profiled. If I had a router bit with a matching profile about half way through I most likely would have used it. Working small curved pieces by hand is a challenge. It gives me a greater respect to the guys who did it in the past. Chip out was a MAJOR problem. Climb cutting on a shaper with a feeder is almost foolproof. Shaping by hand and one begins to feel the fool. At a certain point I resolved to fill some of the chipped out bits.

Another thing I would do differently would be to simply cope all of the meeting members instead of half lapping. Trying to half lap two meeting curved parts was interesting. Still have the screen to make before it can be installed. It has been a lot of time invested in a bathroom window.

[Tom M King]

Looks great! I've worked on many old, handmade sash, including a couple of giant arched ones. There is always a lot of "chip out" on them-even the ones with all straight parts. Not many people, but us, look at them that closely.

[Mel Fulks]

Looks real good! I've made them two or three times, you don't get a lot of orders but they seem to always be large
orders like 16 or so. Never heard of half lapping the bars but I'm sure it makes a good job ! I used glue and small brads.
Today I would use the PL Polyurethane adhesive. My favorite wood for them is North Eastern white pine used " bark side to weather"

[Jim Koepke]

Looks great from here.

Did you take any build pics? They would likely be of interest others beside myself.

jtk

[Keith Mathewson]

Nice to know that chip out was a challenge for others as well.

pics of steam bending the bars.

Jim,
I didn't take a pics of this but I have some of other projects which use the same techniques.

[Keith Mathewson]

Fitting the bars

[Keith Mathewson]

The inspiration and the reality. Your milage may vary

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the pics Keith.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

Tremendous!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom M King]

I'm not understanding your terminology with "half-lap", and "coping". That looks like a typical coped joint to me, with a stub tenon. That's close to exactly the way all the old ones I've worked on was done, and almost exactly (down to the type of dividers) the way I do it. How did you cut the cope?

[Mel Fulks]

Keith, I did them using a spring hold down. Cut the rabbets first raising the knives several times,since square cuts are
the grabiest. Then I flip them over and do the "sticking" in one pass. On most things I like to cut every set up with same
side on the table, but by getting all material dressed at one time any variation is pretty small. And ,of course, the bedding putty
helps in evening out small variations .

[Keith Mathewson]

Mel,
when I used to do this for a customer I’d run them on a shaper. Fast, consistent and you could produce a hundred yards in short order. Now I make one offs for myself and do as much by hand as possible. I enjoy doing it and it keeps me at the shop and out from under my wife’s feet.

[Keith Mathewson]

Tom,
the red sections are half lapped in order to have the bar run full length. The blue pieces are coped as are the green ones. I’m not sure I really needed to have them run full length however the window hinges in and will be stopped by a chain. This is going into a rental house so I may not relieve the gentlest of care.

[Tom M King]

That's similar to the old ones I've seen. They'd pick one set to run full length. The others were tenoned into mortises in the long glazing bars, but where they ran into the longevity problem was by taking all the wood in the mortises. I've seen those broken in multiple different buildings, and are almost always the ones that need to be replaced. I started making the mortises not the full width of the "shoulder" (I call it-say 1/4", and not the full 3/8" of the typical house muntins), and leaving a 1/16" of wood in the bottom of the mortises from each side.

I probably have a full set of bits for that Ovolo pattern, if the muntins are 3/4" wide.

[Mel Fulks]

When I asked about mortising the bars....many years ago, I was told that they had tried that and rejected it because
they rotted faster. I don't believe that now and didn't believe it then. But they stayed together just fine without mortises. Not too many
years ago a guy brought in a half circle transom that was obviously made by hand. Real close grained heart cypress and
there was nothing wrong with it ! Had a couple of open cracks that could be easily filled. He wanted us to replace it !
I'm proud to say I told him it was a nice old piece of work, and refused to take the order.