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Very OT - hole cutter for DIY

(36 posts)
  • Started 10 years ago by kaputnik
  • Latest reply from gembo
  • This topic is resolved

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  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I don't suppose anyone has a 32mm hole cutter I could borrow? (it's the size for re-cutting the recess in which the cord plug sits in a sash and case window)

    Posted 10 years ago #
  2. Instography
    Member

    Let me check. I'm on holiday but coming into town this afternoon. (Boy wants a BMX for his birthday).

    Posted 10 years ago #
  3. Instography
    Member

    Yup. 32mm. Where, how?

    Posted 10 years ago #
  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Actually I've not thought this through. It's an auger or very large flatheat bit I'll need, as I've no way to encourage the plug of wood out of the frame that the hole cutter would cut.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  5. Instography
    Member

    Hole cutter usually brings it out as it's stuck on the central bit. But let me check on the spade bit front.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Thanks.

    How much wood would a hole cutter remove from the hole, if a hole cutter could cut holes.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I have a 28mm spade bit if that's any use. (The ideal size for great tit nesting boxes.)

    Posted 10 years ago #
  8. Instography
    Member

    Nothing that size in a spade bit. 25mm is biggest I have. I think you should be OK with the hole cutter. My problem with them is usually getting the plug off the bit.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  9. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Insto - I'll drop you a PM.

    IWRATS - 28mm too small for the 31mm plug. Perfect for a great tit nesting box though, or so I'm told.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  10. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @kaputnik

    For bigger holes (even greater tit nesting boxes) I use the 28mm bit and then expand the hole with a curved wood carving gouge. You're welcome to that too.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  11. urchaidh
    Member

    I have a 30mm Forstner bits if that's any use - will sink a nice neat hole but 2mm too small. The next size up I have is 35mm.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  12. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Thanks for the offer, urchaidh. I have decided in retrospect it's probably a safer course of action to leave drilling out of this, and to dissaseble the sash case box to replace and lengthen the offending bit of cord, rather than moving the cord plug recess up to counter the shortened piece of cord.

    This is a lesson in why you shouldn't start dissasembling your windows because the paint's a bit ropey and you're bored.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  13. Roibeard
    Member

    If you change your mind, I can supply a 32mm flat bit, but probably better to replace the cord!

    Robert

    Posted 10 years ago #
  14. davidsonsdave
    Member

    I think I have some spare sash cord if you need any (for free). It was leftover from when I renovated the windows in my previous flat. It's now just taking up space in my garage.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  15. algo
    Member

    Although the offers for bits are now plentiful, I also have Forstner 30 and 35..

    When I redid my sashes, apart from the draft-proofing strips on the parting beads which are a must I think, I found the top sash often dropped a bit and needed a bit of extra weight to hold it up… most tenement lofts, or even running behind the shutter boxes have lead pipes - I found this particularly useful as a cheap way of adding a bit of weight and thus getting a good seal on the top sash…

    Posted 10 years ago #
  16. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Thankyou all for offers of tools, cord and advice. I will file these away for future window repair or hole cutting requirements.

    I did have extra cord I could use in the end - the issue was I had made a schoolboy error and measured once, cut twice. I had measured the right hand sash cord (the one for the plug) off of the left hand cord (the one tacked into the groove). Previous sash windows I had taken apart had the plug recess fairly high up the window, round about where you would tack on the other cord. This window, alas, had the recess right towards the bottom, meaning I was short about 8 inches of cord in my calculations and the bottom pane wouldn't close as a result.

    Anyway, lesson learned, I got back into the weight box (despite the access hole being designed in such a way as not to open with the parting beads in place) and put in a longer piece of cord.

    Another question to the learned though - the parting beads really are struggling to go back into their slot (it's not paint fouling, as I've not painted the slot and I've sanded the edges of the slot and the bead). I thought about planing off the edges of the bead to a slight taper. Is this the best way to achieve a fit? As it is they aren't sitting right and making the sashes very stiff to raise and lower. I don't think this is a job for WD40 and a mallet, which is my usual approach to things not fitting on a bike.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  17. chdot
    Admin

    "I found the top sash often dropped a bit and needed a bit of extra weight to hold it up"

    Come across that problem too (why?)

    Yours is a neat solution.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

    "WD40 and a mallet, which is my usual approach to things not fitting on a bike"

    You know that's not a good idea.

    (There are impressionable readers on here.)

    Posted 10 years ago #
  19. algo
    Member

    @k - is it possible the parting beads have got wet and expanded the wood? You should be able to tap the parting beads in and they shouldn't restrict the movement of the panes - I always put that brush strip draft proofing on the parting bead which means there is very slight resistance (indeed you can buy parting bead with this pre-applied). Unfortunately this means they won't be filming period dramas at my flat where they like to have scenes of people flinging sash windows up with gay abandon...

    Posted 10 years ago #
  20. algo
    Member

    "Come across that problem too (why?)"

    I think it's heavier glass replacement panels - at least that's the only quantifiable difference when the paint is stripped….

    "Yours is a neat solution."

    thanks :-)

    Posted 10 years ago #
  21. chdot
    Admin

    "I think it's heavier glass replacement panels"

    Presume so - though always assumed that older glass was thicker/heavier.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  22. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @Algo the only damp would have been from perhaps absorbing some of the water out of the primer? I'm now thinking that while I've got the thing in the semi-put-back-together state that I might order some replacement beading that comes pre-fitted with the brushes.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  23. algo
    Member

    @k - really stupid question just in case…. if both parting beads are off - have you put them back the right way round in both orientations?

    Posted 10 years ago #
  24. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @Algo yes I thought that might be wrong, but the location of the previous nail holes confirmed I have them round the right ways.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  25. Snowy
    Member

    I might order some replacement beading that comes pre-fitted with the brushes.

    We did this. Much faster and possibly longer lasting.

    Reminds me I have a rotten sill to extract and replace due to the drying out and subsequent falling out of my burnt sand mastic. The joys.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  26. algo
    Member

    @Snowy - thanks for reminding me to redo my burnt sand mastic… quick plug for a good local company that has the right materials for working with Edinburgh tenements…. (it might be relevant to you kaputnik?)

    http://www.masonsmortar.co.uk/knowledge/page/burnt-sand-mastic

    Posted 10 years ago #
  27. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Relevant of course, because the mastic indeed was falling our so has been removed. It was unpainted, which according to the googling means it is more likely to dry out and become ineffective.

    I need to get the pointing around the front bay window done which is too big / inaccessible a job for me, so thanks for the tip.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  28. kaputnik
    Moderator

    The new parting beads, pile carriers and weatherpile (5.5mm) arrived today.

    Thought I was buying 10m given the price. Turned out I bought 100m!

    I now have 90m of weatherpile going spare, if anyone ever needs some. It fits in a special self-adhesive carrier which costs about 90p for a 2.2m section (http://www.draftfix.co.uk/ecom-catshow/pile_carriers_self_adhesive.html). Of course you need a parting bead with a channel in it to take the carrier.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  29. Tulyar
    Member

    Windows generally need maintenance (renewal if facing serious weather) every 50 years in line with most other building maintenance.

    Modern glass tends to be 6mm when 4mm was acceptable for large late Victorian/Edwardian panes. Early Victorian stuck with Georgian standards with general purpose windows mostly 6 over 6 and larger ones 8 over 8. I have some original 1849 windows with <2mm barrel glass which makes sash very light, compared to what it would be with single pane top & bottom. Main dining room windows are big but originals were 4 over 4 with panes roughly 12" square. Mine have been modified to 2 over 2.

    BIG mistake is that people often think about double glazing and this really adds to sash weight.

    Often useful to date last repairs by newspapers in sash box....

    Posted 10 years ago #
  30. gembo
    Member

    Did a really bad piece of DIY yesterday as better half down south (her building standards would not have accepted it). The brass key hole plate on the front door had lost a screw of a very small size that seems not to be reproduced metrically? Anyway the hole the screw was in had lost all grip. I took out the wood filler which had a match stuck in the hole in the tube in lieu of a lid but split the tube trying to get the match out. I then stuck another match in the hole in the door and swapped the new and old screws around.

    Is fine just now but the plate is slightly lower than it was so I imagine the kids will dislodge when opening the door. Still got one match left though so might do the trick again but swap the screws back, the other hole had very little grip now too.

    Not sure how I would have inserted the wood filler into the small holes in point of fact.

    Posted 10 years ago #

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