Wood for windows

[Heath Robinson]

Hello all.
I'd like a bit of advice and any thoughts on the design of windows, and which wood to use.
I'm building 5 windows to fit in the box body of a friend's 40's army truck. The interior of the box is beautiful, all wide boards of elm and yew.
The window apertures are all in the region of 615mm x 535mm, and the walls are about 65mm thick (there's about 7mm variance as standard, due to precision American manufacturing techniques). They all need to open, and I'll be using double glazed units for the glass. I'm thinking that a combination of plugged screws and tiger seal should hold the frames into the metal frame of the truck.
Any thoughts/hints/ideas on wood/jointing/sealing would be greatly appreciated, as I've never done anything like this before.

Thanks,
Jake

 

[Phil Pascoe]

One of my neighbours, who owned his own joinery for years and now lectures in wood machining recons one of the best hardwoods for windows is idigbo.

 

[the_g_ster]

What finish are you aiming for?

Painted, many would say Douglas Fir if that's the case.

 

[Heath Robinson]

Definitely not painted! His tastes in wood are better than his taste in paint... The truck is currently black and purple, and before that, bright orange!
There's no colour of paint the would work with that outside, and the natural elm of the walls inside!
Idigibo is definitely a strong contender. I wish it was a little more figured, but you can't have everything...
I'll have a sketch, see what you guys think of my planned method of jointing the frames.
Thanks.

 

[SBJ]

Idigbo has decent properties for windows but it has a couple of issues that you should be aware of. First, it's very soft and marks easily. Secondly, its very light. probably lighter than redwood and it doesn't "feel" like hardwood as you would expect. I personally avoid using it if I can.

What about elm or oak?

 

[Heath Robinson]

Hi.
Elm, in my experience, moves like a toddler with sand in it's nappy... The cupboard doors in my camper won't even vaguely close at the moment, as they've swollen so much. Also, the floor of this truck is elm, and as that settled in it bowed, and ripped all the machine screws out of the thick steel floor underneath!
He uses the truck year-round, and due to his exorbitant choice of wood burner, it regularly goes from freezing cold to literally 35degrees c! It won't do to have windows that stick completely in winter, and I know that all wood will move, but it does need to be as stable as possible.
Oak is a definite possibility, as is meranti, although I'd prefer something a little more in keeping with everything else.
He's asked about cherry, chestnut, or maybe some kind of cedar, although I seem to remember cedar being a bit mobile too.

At the moment, oak is looking most likely, but I think we'd both like as pretty a wood as possible, and one that doesn't grey out too much over time.

 

[imageel]

How about Sapele? - I used this on my Cedar shingled workshop and it look ok. Even from the inside before I painted it white it complimented the bare ply quite nicely so my well do the same for your Elm.
It will like Oak go silver/grey over time but this can be arrested by using a UV blocking oil or stain.
Cheers Ed

 

[Steve Maskery]

I made a set of French windows and associated windows using Idigbo. It was ghastly to work with, very woolly and brittle, too. I dropped one piece of 3x2 and it simply snapped, leaving me with a very long scarf joint. It was also very difficult to finish. Ordinary paints just slide around on the surface and a special (for which read expensive) primer was necessary. Yes, I did read that they were not going to be painted, I'm just making the point that it is not easy or nice to work with.

As to going grey. I believe that all wood will turn grey in the elements if left untreated. Oak, cedar and iroko certainly do. Any treatment to slow this will have to be applied reasonably regularly, just like any other finish.

 

[Ollie78]

Meranti is very good for machining and durability I use it a lot, it wont look amazing stained though. Sapele is nice but a bit expensive. Oak is always nice.

Ollie

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

How about pitch pine, it is a traditional window making wood and it has a lovely colour and figure. You could probably pick up an old church pew for about £50 which will give you plenty of timber to make the windows from and it will be nicely seasoned too. I made a table and benches from pews a few years ago, it was very nice timber to work with, made the workshop smell lovely and then made my chicken coop smell nice when I used the shavings under the roost.

" like a toddler with sand in it's nappy" I will have to remember this one