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Cutting the joinery for the new sash sill

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  With the profile of the new sill complete , work could start on its joinery. Namely, the housings for the stiles, and the recess for the outer faces. The first housing was measured in from the end and the edges sawn down to depth. The housing was then chiselled out to a flat bottom The sill was offered into position With the remaining pulley stile seated in the first housing, the location for the second housing was marked from the remaining rear section of the sill. Finally the recess for the outer faces were cut, and the housings were opened up to allow the stiles to be wedged in place from the outside. Dowels were used to help align the sill during gluing, holes were first drilled into the new piece, and then dowel centre points were used to mark the location on the remaining old section of the sill. Polyurethane glue was used again for both the dowels and the main glue surface between the two sections of sill. Wedges were placed underneath to prevent the outer edge dipping, an...
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Profiling a new sill for the sash window

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With the  rotten parts of the sill cut out , the most interesting part of the project could begin: making a new sill. Sketching the target state, even not to scale, was helpful for visualising the process of various cuts that were needed. The drip groove at the bottom stops the capillary effect taking water all the way back. The length measurement was taken between the bricks behind the outer stone face. The measurements for the profile of the new sill piece were taken from the rotten piece that was removed. A few years back I bought a "hobby pack" of oak from British Hardwoods . I used this over pine as I wanted it to be as resilient as possible. Two pieces needed laminating together to get a blank of the required depth. I used polyurethane glue (Gorilla Glue) as it's more waterproof than standard wood glue. To determine the best way to layout the profile of the sill, the dimensioned sketch was used to create a cardboard template of the profile. While the first orientati...
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Cutting away the rotten frame and sill

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Having removed the sashes , the frame and sill were assessed for rot. The lower sections of both pulley stiles and outer faces were soft and crumbly and in need of repair. There are two approaches that I've found mentioned online: epoxy filler formed into the right shape, or splicing in new sections of wood. I didn't find either approach covered in much detail. Ultimately the most complete resource for the repairs is this publication from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).  I opted for the traditional splicing approach due to the extent of the rot. Rotten pulley stile and face cut away For the splicing approach, the rotten sections are first cut out. It's important to make the cut at an angle such that any water running along the cut line would not end up somewhere that it could pool and cause further rot. For this window it meant the cuts on the stiles had to slope towards the outside, and the cuts on the outer face had to slope towards the centre...
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Preparing sash window for restoration

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The red room has a smaller second sliding sash window of traditional wooden construction. Its ropes have been removed, it's painted shut, and an additional stained glass pane has been added to the lower sash by the previous owner. Once the many layers of paint were removed, it became apparent that the sill, frame, and the lower sash had rotted a fair amount around the lower joints. Overconfidence set in and the decision was made to repair and restore, rather than simply gloss over it all. The first step was to remove the two sashes - the sliding parts of the window that hold the glass - from the window frame. Jim Sear has shared a wealth of information on sash window renovation on his YouTube channel . And the below video covers dismantling them quite comprehensively. There are two sashes, named for their position when the window is closed. The upper sash is outermost and the lower sash is innermost; both sashes run vertically with beading holding them in place. The disassembly pro...
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Fixing a cordless Einhell strimmer

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Having bought into the Einhell battery system for various tools, we stuck with it when it came to gardening tools too. Whilst they are affordable, they're also far from the highest quality, as demonstrated by the need for this repair  The strimmer worked intermittently with the motor cutting out seemingly arbitrarily. There are only a handful of screws holding it together and so it comes apart very easily. Inside the handle, the battery connector and switch all seemed to have sound connections. To get into the motor housing there are a couple of extra things to remove. First the spindle plate must be removed, it's held on with just the one central machine screw. The safety guard is slid off the back after fiddling with the tab that holds it on The screws in the motor housing can then be removed, only those in the red part need to be removed to get to the motor. Removing the black part allows access to the coiled up cable inside the extending handle. Care must be taken when sepa...
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