Illinois Railway Museum Blog

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The first order of business is to wish you and yours a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.  And to give all of you THANKS for your support and participation in ALL of the various IRM projects in 2012.  THANK YOU.

Yesterday at the IRM wood shop there was but a skeleton crew on hand.  I can assume many were making preparations for today's time with family and friends, or traveling to do the same.  That is entirely fitting and appropriate.

In the shop we used the time to work on more windows.  There was a time not too long ago when constructing and fabricating ONE new window from rough stock was a BIG EVENT.  Yet here we are well along the process for making ELEVEN new windows, in the space of a few short weeks.

Routed

Victor Humphreys and Dick Cubabge worked on eight new windows for the cupola cab of the CGW snowplow.  All these share the same profile and shape, but of course there are four different sizes, and each pair has both a right hand and left hand version.  Last week you saw the pile of prepared blanks, we referred to as 'window kits'.  Victor and Dick worked to rout a unique profile for the beading on that stock as you can see above.

Full Profile

The next steps were done on the table saw to slice two thin grooves and drop out  the remainder resulting in the rabbet, which will be used to place the glass in the finished window.  Here that is all done, three steps on each of 32 pieces of stock.  We made fabrication drawings on the computer for each type and are using those to set dimensions and sizes.  Four of the drawings lay before you in the above image, resting on three completed glue ups of windows.  Behind them are the stacks of window kits, now with each piece shaped and rabbeted as needed.  Maybe only barely visible but the pair of stiles facing the camera has had the layout lines added for plunging 3/8 inch slots on the mortising machine - the next steps.