58, Joinery, part one.

Back in about 1997 I was fortunate to procure a number of Lebanese Cedar logs. They were surplus to the previous owners requirements and set me back the princely sum of $50.00, to cover the loading costs.
A photograph of me sawing the largest of these, which was approaching 6 feet in diameter, eludes me at this stage.
The milling of these logs produced more than 5 cubic meters of good timber, enough to make all my doors, most external door frames and all the window sashes and sills. Unfortunatly, material for the window frames was still wanting.

As soon as the timber had dried sufficiently, I machined and profiled all the window material and stacked it away, ready to be used when required.
The flat plywood panels on the doors were going to need a cedar veneer facing and for this I kept aside a couple of thick slabs for conversion. In May 1999, with Tasmania being the destination for the family holiday, they were loaded into the van and taken over Bass Strait. Britton Brothers in Smithton were engaged for the slicing of the sheets and I was more than impressed with the results. The size of my job seemed rather insignificant given the size of their operation.

 

During 2003, in order to weatherproof the rear section of the house, I constructed two sets of French doors including the frames. The arched highlights were installed with temporary panels and will later be fitted with leadlights, the making of those is not being considered until all major structural work is completed.

Fast forward to mid 2011 and my attention was back on the windows. A supply of durable timber was required for the frames. As luck would have it, a friend from work came to the party with his leftovers of Celery Top Pine, an extremely durable timber from the southern forests of Tasmania.. This was the remnants of a supply of craftwood he had been selling following his procurement, milling and seasoning of several logs. The van load I returned home with set me back $800.00 and looked quite impressive but unfortunatly it included quite a lot of rotten sapwood.

Following the machining of this lot I had enough material on hand for all the window pulley stiles and about 2/3rd's of the heads and outside linings. The rippings provided me with all the parting beads and a small quantity left over for some of the outside cover mouldings.
For the balance of the heads I dipped into my supply of Cypress Pine, which I have been milling for my floor boards. For the missing 85mm wide outer linings, however, I was in need of more Celery Top as I wanted to maintain uniformity in the more exposed surfaces. A little bit of research led me to a local supplier, Barwon Timber, who had a quantity of 90mm decking boards. These proved to be relatively expensive, at about $5.60 per meter, but I got what I needed for about $200.00.

...To be continued....