Restoring the almost hundred-year-old casement windows means vanquishing the old glazing putty, removing the glass, stripping the paint down to bare wood, sanding the wood smooth, repairing any defects, cleaning the glass then putting it all back together with new materials. It’s a tedious, time-consuming operation that most people tell me is noble. At least that’s what politely they say in front of me.
There’s a reason they don’t make them like this anymore. Simply put there isn’t enough old growth wood. A properly restored and maintained window will last another hundred years.
For softening old paint my preference is to use an infrared heater. I have two of them. For broad acre removal such as siding a Speedheater 1100s. For smaller, more focused tasks a Speedheater Cobra (pictured below). They’re made in Sweden. They heat paint quickly to a temperature that doesn’t release the toxic lead fumes. That doesn’t necessarily mean one needn’t wear a lead-certified respirator! Anyway, one of these IR gadgets and the right pull scraper makes for quick work.
My backup is a Wagner variable speed, variable temp heat gun (pictured above). The variability is a game changer for heat guns. I still count on it for the trickier situations. The low fan speed means less debris flying around.
Cleaning decades of old glazing putty and paint takes a good, long playlist. Or in my case, catalogs. Pink Floyd, Supertramp and The Waterboys got me through all 42 panes of glass; front and back. And lots of single edge razor blades. T’was about ten fun-loving hours over several days to get this part done.
Far from finished. Stay tuned for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment