We’ve said all along that we need a plan for what we are going to do in the woods. We have rough ideas but need to firm them out and work out how different aspect will interact.

I have lots of ideas about the forestry and silvaculture aspects, timber sales will come in to this eventually so I need a long term management plan. This has to take into account what will happen to habitats and other plant species. So a good starting point will be know what we have in there.

So far I’ve drawn up a map, what I intend is for this to be marked up, in multiple layers with every thing we have in there. Ranging from the trees, bushes, shrubs, ground cover, plants, mosses, lichens and fungie, topography, ground conditions, mammals, birds, reptiles and insects.

First part of surveying. Showing the group of pine at the top left

It’s quite a project but I have started, so far I’ve measured and counted and plotted the scotts pine. Next on the list is larch and I must admit it’s quite a daunting prospect. It needs to be done though as I know the most of larches have served their nursary purpose. Now they need extracting so the hardwoods have got more space to thicken up.

To speed the process up, I could do with more bodies and brains on the job. So can I get the kids interested in helping out. Rather than just casual observing, is some methodical recording going to be possible?

The woodland is long term thing it will be fascinating to see how things change over time. This starting survey will eventually become a grand  historical reference. I’m hoping our children and grandchildren will view it this way, that’s what I mean by long term.

I’ll go into the construction of this in more detail on the web site so here I’ll just mention a few of my thoughts about it.

 First why a gate?

Well we want to indicate that the woods are private. It’ll not stop people getting in but hopefully they might think twice before coming in and disturbing anything. We are thinking carefully about the wildlife and habitats, and hope any visitors invited or univited will do the same.

 We also have a responsibility for maintaining a stockproof fence along that boundary. The current owner of the adjoining field however doesn’t have current plans for keeping stock in there so I feel I can take my time over resurrecting the fence.

Green woodworking gate from bridge to field

 Why Green Woodworking?

Green Woodworking is all about using timber fresh from the tree, unseasoned. I’ve reading about it as a child and been fasinated by what can made using simple hand tools ever since. Building the gate has been my first real forray into building up these skills.

Being self taught and experimenting I can’t claim that the gate is perfectly traditional. I know that using cleft timber is more common, however I’ve not got a froe yet. So that particular skill will to wait, it’s on the list.   

Green Woodworking 5 Bar Gate

 So it’s might not be totally traditional but my goal was to make a gate in the woods from the woods, stick to principle of not bringing to the wood anything that isn’t necessary. The gate itself has no screws, bolts or nails holding it together, just four pegged mortice and tenon joints.

pegged mortice and tenon joint in Green woodworking gate

 It’s now ready for hanging and I will cheat at this point as I’ve not figured out how to make wooden hinges. I might also leave it a bit to dry out, at the moment it is very heavy and might put a bit too much stress on the gate posts.

Rustic bridge timber construction to the woodland

The tape measure says it will, but the dog leg require will be an interesting manouver.

It’s certainly a rustic construction. Rough but hopefully extremely practical. It’s made from either dead or leaning larch cut down for safety reasons. The boards are logs sawn in half.

It’s been a good learning exercise. Felling, using the chain saw, sharpening the chainsaw, notching with axes, moving heavy timbers through the woods. So there’s some to write about!

After completing the actual timber part it needed ramps at either end. For this I gathered some stone from around the woods. I didn’t want to pinch stone from any of the dry stone walls as a some point I want try some rebuilding. So I searched around and found a couple outcrops sticking out the escarpment. I gathered what I needed from the loose stones that had fallen away. Next time I need any, I might have to start quarrying and I have a notion I might not be the first. I think a wheel borrow might also be a good idea.

With the stones I built a small wall so the timber away from the earth and can ventilate any damp. The main trusses are also on pad stones to avoid any premature rotting.

The ramps are built up with clay dug from the bottom of the ditch next to the bridge. Digging down we came across the water table that has since dropped but hopefully the pit will provide another habitat of standing water over the winter and early spring.

It also provided a popular habitat for some extremely mucky children. They had a great time digging and modeling with the clay.

 Well I have been neglecting my blogging and updates to the idostuff website for a long time. It’s not that I haven’t been doing stuff, quite the contrary. I’ve been doing loads and always had plenty of excuses not to write anything up.

Excuses are always close at hand, excuses are easy, excuses are what we use as justification for not doing what we know we should. I could write down all the excuses and then go through them one at a time, arguing with myself. I’m sure if I did with a rational, detached head I could mark them all down as being LAME. There can only be one real reason, I HAVE NOT SET MY MIND TO THE TASK.

I have recognised the trap I had fallen in to. So here’s me decapitated, being rational for a change and making a start a start. It’s nice day and I’ve sat out side with the lap top, out of my office for a change of environment. I’m away from my diary with the it’s lists of things I could be filling my time with. This is going to be cathartic, my mind is on the task

There’s plenty for me to write up, I might be a bit sketchy for know and fill in the detail if I think it needs it. What can I cover?

• In the woods – Bridge building, Green woodworking making a gate, Surveying, Formulating a plan.
• Windows – Yes there is progress, How are the plans are coming along?
• Trike – My escape to the Garage, Overview. 
• Little jobs – I bet someone will be interested in how to make an oversized enter key! Or how to fix a troublesome combi boiler! Or or or or
• The front door – with it’s stained glass
• How the Idostuff site is doing

That should keep me going for while, even if I am resisting the temptation to add all the detail.

The main Article is the iDoStuff site  – Cutting Weight Pockets for Sliding Sash Windows, Double Hung Windows. So have a gander over there .

I’m really interested to hear what you think about Sash pocket cutting with a chisel?

or – How do you go about it?  Hand saw, Power saw, Cut out and make the cover from a new piece?

or – If you have different designs.  Is there a better design out there

Leave me your comments below. Thanks

P.S. If your wondering where I’m up to with the plans…..

I’m getting closer – 5 now ready for painting

It’s a while since I wrote about our experience with our wood burning stove.  It seems topical at the moment as our normally moderate winter has taken an unexpected arctic turn.  Last night we went below minus 10 and for the first time in ages we got ice on the inside of our windows.

However during the day the 8kw wood burning stove is keeping us warm enough and stopping the gas central heating from switching on.  First thing in the morning the heating does come on but that’s down to us not wanting to get up early in a cold house.

So it’s doing what we want but it’s taking a lot of fuel. It won’t help that at moment most of what we are burning is larch, hardwoods would be more efficient.  Having said that it is “free” wood if I don’t count the felling, cutting and splitting, transporting and stacking that I have to do.

With the two feet of snow we’ve had, It was quite job refilling the stack by the back door from the big stock in my storage area.

digging through to the log pile, stove fuel

We’re still of the opinion “it’s worth it” . Hard work but effective and satisfying especially in this weather when I can sit in front of it, toasting my toes and sipping a JD.

It certainly is a cold snap we’re having at the moment, this morning the kitchen sink would not drain.  This freezing problem could happen to bath drain pipes, basin waste pipes, shower waste pipes, washing machine drain pipes and in extreme circumstances toilet soil pipes and stacks.

This trick also works for condensate drain pipes from combi boilers, white or grey 20mm plastic pipe that comes through the wall behind the boiler and leads to a drain.

The freezing occurs where the pipe is outside as it runs to the soil stack or drain.

Sink/ bath/ basin waste pipe where it enters the soil stack

It took some thinking about to come up with a quick fix, this is it

Wrap some towels around the pipe, the thicker, most layers the better. Then pour very hot water water over the towels so they are soaked.  BE CAREFUL OF SPLASHES AND SPILLS.

Pipe wrapped in towels with hot water pored over

When the towels have cooled, apply another soaking.  This was enough to open up our 32mm waste pipe so the sink drained.

Then run hot water from the tap for 10 mins to melt out any ice that’s left.

As a preventative measure I could now lag the pipe but I think the most important thing will be to make sure that no  taps are dripping.

DONT turn your computer of just yet. Try the solution and let me know how you get on. (Comments and Replies below)

Let everyone know. Please feel free to drop a link to this article via facebook, twitter etc.

And thanks to The Cheaterfield Post for suggesting I add this to my blog.

I’ve cut glass before but only ever in straight lines. So cutting curves accuratelyhas been quite a learning process.

Just for practicing I’ve used green house glass. Using the self oiling glass cutter, it’s quite easy to score an even line. The difficulty is following the pattern.

Sighting through the glass to printed pattern below means I have to look straight down. If  I look at an angle it’s easy to cut too small or too big.  The line I’m trying to follow is just to the side of the Line representing the core of the came. With the came covering just over 3mm of the glass I can drift away from this slightly If I go too far (more than 1.5mm ) away from this all the way round then it’s possible that the glass will sit in the came at one side but be out of the came at the other.

After the glass is scored it need splitting or a crack chasing through. The special pliers makes this easy on external curves or straights as long as enough glass is left either side of the line.  Internal curves however are a different matter.  If its short and gentle then OK. A sharper curve presents problem as the brake wants to carry on in a straight line and can crack through the piece I want to keep. 

The procedure for cutting internal curves that works for me is:

1. Scoring the curve
2. Turning it over on a flat piece board
3. Taping over the curve with a small metal tool (I used the end of some thin nosed pliers)
4. The taping causes the crack to form up from the score.
5. When the crack has gone all the way through the pieces can be gently wiggled apart.

With those skills being mastered I soon had all the piece cut. Getting more accurate as a went along.

Practicing cutting glass, pieces laid out on the template

Leading The Glass

This proved to more time consuming than I had originally thought. But then it is a complex design and the joints are supposed to pretty tight.

First stage is to fix batons to the board then cut 16mm came for the bottom and left hand edge. I did the corner miter but apparently a butt joint is fine.  Then working from the left hand bottom corner slowly building up the design.  Not forgetting first to stretch the came.   

The difficulties I found were: Forming tight curves, getting the angles for joints just right and choosing the best /easiest  order of assembly and where to cut some of the curves.

I slowly worked my way through, again improving in speed and accuracy as a went.

Leading the practice window, removable nails holding everything in place.

Practice how to Solder a Leaded Glass Window

I had thought this would be easy, after all I’ve been soldering for years. But it’s quite a bit different from electrical of plumbing soldering.  The trick is not to apply so much heat that the came melts away whilst applying enough for the lead to flow. 

First I  rubbed the joint over with the tallow candle for flux. Then a good blob of solder needs to touch down on to the joint. Then move across the joint whilst feeding additional solder in to the blob.  Its quite an art that I’ve not fully mastered but I was improving and some joints look really smooth and neat.  I might do a bit more research in to this particular skill.

Lead came soldered up, more practice required

So that’s it for me on the this project for now. When we’ve got it fully sussed I’ll write up a “how to” on the website.

In the mean time, if you’ve got any comments or suggestions please let me know.

Back to the design post

Time to bite the bullet and get my wallet out. If we’ve got all the stuff we need, the windows stand a much better chance of getting made. Being totally new to this craft we hadn’t got much of a clue where to start.

O.H. hit the web and surfed around. First site worth a good look at was one she’d found whilst looking at stained glass designs – “free patterns for stained glass” . It’s got some tutorials and descriptions of tools etc.  This and other sites gave us a starting point.

When it comes to buying the actual glass we were both a bit concerned about choosing and buying on-line. There are quite a few on-line stained glass shops but as the texture and real life colours are important we choose to find a REAL shop. Finding one local to us wasn’t easy, it took a few phone calls and O.H. was eventually put on to KANSA.  They are based not too many miles away so we went for an afternoon out.

We spent a good couple of hours searching through the stocks a glass, looking at tools and taking advice from the staff.  Yes, we could have bought cheaper but I don’t mind paying the price when it comes with comes with the confidence we’ve got the right stuff.  After helping us load up the car, the parting words from the man in the shop were “Any problems, just give us a call”. 

We had spent just over £200 this got us the tools we need to pursue an interesting hobby and the materials for this first project.

These are the tools:

The tools we bought for our Stained / Leaded Glass work

The main tools are:

• Glass cutter, self oiling
• Cut Running Pliers
• Lead Knife
• Hammer- you can never have too many hammers
• Soldering iron

Also in the picture are some other bits and bobs

• Lead solder
• Tallow, for flux
• Cement

We had to take a Guess at how much lead came we would need. In 2m lengths it worked out as 6m of 16mm flat and 30m of 8mm rounded.  Enough spare for practice pieces, I hope!

All the lead came on a purpose built shelf

I chucked up a shelf to keep the came nice and safe and out of the way.

Lastly there’s the glass:

Clear obscure glass with a vintage look to it

The glass we bought has the mix of obscurity and flaws that we liked.

The coloured glass has the same texture:

Five colours, dark green, light green, red, pink and amber

We again estimated what we needed and added a couple of extra sheets. At £2 -3  for approx 8 10″ sheets we didn’t skimp too much.

Next is where I butted in and had a  go at cutting and leading.   I know, I should have stepped back but in my defence, i couldn’t resist. It’s a craft skill I’ve not tried before, I only wanted to see how it works in real life.

Next – First test piece

Back to the leaded glass design stage

You might have seen the work I’ve done making our new front door. I might have mentioned that the next step was to make the two leaded glass panels. Well it’s been a while but we’ve made some progress.

I say “we” because it a project / hobby that the wife has fancied taking on. So this is a job I can hand over, although that’s a difficult thing for me to do when it actually comes down to it. I’ve got to learn to keep my nose out.  Only assist when asked. (Slap on wrist duly given, lesson painfully learn’t, read what Wendy has to say)

The first “assistance” has been interpreting the design. Other Half  ( referred to as OH) has been seeking out the kind of designs she likes, in books , on line and in real life (For some reason pub doors often got a mention).  Taking the ideas and bring the elements of various designs together has been the only Ask so far. So after a few quick sketches and scribbles, I got to work on the computer.

Line Drawing for Leaded Glass Windows

Fortunately I’m OK working with program called “Adobe Illustrator” . This allows me to draw lines with vectors, defining the end points and how the line curves.  The Line can be edited just by moving the end points and how they curve so its good for playing around with designs.

The other good point with this software is the line doesn’t have to be a single solid line. So I can define a line to represent the lead came, the centre of the lead and outer edges. After a few hours playing about this is a part of what we ended up with:

Detail of the window bottom Lead Work

When this is printed full scale it will be the template to cut the glass and the lead pieces.

Having the design in this format means it’s easy for me to colour it in and get a good idea of what it will look like.  Seeing it like this led to a few more tweaks until we where happy with the design. This what we have decided to go for. I know it’s not easy for first piece but it’s a good challenge.

Final design for the glazed door panels

 All that needs doing is getting hold of the leaded glass materials and tools and learning the  craft skills to make them.   No Problem..

Next the leaded glass materials and tools we found and bought.