Thread: Lockdown project - Work shed window

I'm new here, so thought I'd share one of my recent projects.

My woodworking space is under the house. There has been a boarded up window for far too long making this a dark room, so during lockdown I designed a window that would serve the purpose of light, ventilation, a new shelf, security and aesthetics.


The entire project (except for the glass and louvre hardware) is recycled. I picked up a number of discarded beams and bearers in a chuck out pile some time ago. The discarder obviously saw rubbish, whilst I saw great opportunity. After putting them through a thicknesser, I found stunning spotted gum and blackbutt lengths hidden beneath the black weathered exterior - really pretty. (Note: I ran a small hand held metal detector over all lengths first and extracted any old nails etc before they entered the thicknesser).


I cut out 1mm stainless steel mesh from an old security door to use for my gauze. The window is at foot height, so extra security it key.


The dimensions of the window are about 1260(L) x 600(h) x 260(w). All timbers are 40mm thick. It’s very heavy.


I made about 2/3’s the width 10.42mm laminated glass with a deep recessed shelf behind it. The other third is a large lockable timber louvre that rotates 360 degrees, giving me complete control over ventilation, noise reduction and extra light as required. The louvre has a drop bolt in the centre at top and bottom and it sits on a sinker (I didn’t have a steel ball bearing and a sinker works fine) so it swivels around with ease. There’s a lockable security dropbolt on an outer edge of the louvre to lock it off when not in use.


I used a Festool Domino to join the lengths, and a table router for most rebates. I oiled the frame in Osmo Exterior oil. I used very strong adhesive two sided tape to stick the glass in which turned out to be great.


I had beads from a previous window I’d done in the house and they fit perfectly.


I designed, built and installed it and am really happy to tick that off the list of to do’s.

Dave

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