Slow But Sure

Still working on the skylight.

The planer is still hanging in there and the timber for the shuts has been cut and planed up. One good thing about planning your own timber is that if you buy 1”  planed timber you get 7/8” but rough cut timber is usually just over 1” so with care you can get a full 1” thickness.

To make the frames as strong as possible I decided on a stile and rail joint which was to incorporate dowels as well ( I know, it’s all very make it up as you go along.) the problem being that you cannot accurately drill into a routed edge and you cannot use a bearing guided router over previously drilled holes. After playing about with some off cuts the final plan of action was as follows.

Drill the dowel holes 5mm deeper than required in the cross piece and use a snug fitting jig

to align the pieces to exactly mark where the matching holes were to be drilled again 5mm deeper than required. Insert dowels and cut off flush, then rout out the faces to be joined and remove old dowels. Insert new dowels

and push together.

Even before gluing it makes a good solid joint.

The shuts are all made and I’m in the process of routing out a drip stop channel and a rebate to sit over the lip on the undersides.

The shut rests on the lip and so there is still a 3mm gap underneath to allow any water to run off rather than be trapped, possibly rotting the timber.

With the timber being a full 1” thick they can take a rebate deep enough to take a double glazed panel so that is the latest plan. Lee Glass in Nottingham state they can be made just 14mm thick so that will be the next shopping expedition.

Everything is slow and steady now because there is so much time and effort involved so far the last thing I need is to cock it up with some silly mistake.

Still got to add a lip on the three outside edges of each shut so all being well this skylight will keep out both wind and rain.

Just the odd visit to T-A to check all well and empty the dehumidifier,

Soon be planting season and the garden rotavator hasn’t been serviced yet. Also signed up for a beekeeping course so I may have to take a break from boats in due course apart from a few work parties with the GCS.

Blimey talk about chasing yer tail!

Retired and loving itJ