Accoya windows

[HOJ]

Well time has gone by, I mentioned in January( doubt anyone remembered or particularly interested!) I had been asked to make some Gothic arch windows, well they are and aren't, they are rectangular frames with an arch set within the overall frame, picture for ref:


Had to wait for PP as its in a conservation area, which has now come in, so on to making the first 2 of 10, smallest first as a chance to "prove" the design (not mine)

Accoya delivery:


Quick chop up up and plane/machine to size:

Still looks like driftwood, cut the M & T's:


Profiling next, I'll report back.

 

[StevieB]

Wow - that looks like some beefy windows. And these are the smallest?!

 

[Cabinetman]

Expensive stuff, I hope you don’t make any mistakes, not saying it isn’t Accoya, but it is much darker than the stuff I used (once) which looked more like Ash. Are there different makes?

 

[Windows]

I’m very interested in this topic. Thanks for posting.

 

[AndyT]

I'm watching with interest too. Especially when you get to the intersections of the mouldings and rebates.

 

[HOJ]

I'm watching with interest too. Especially when you get to the intersections of the mouldings and rebates.

So am I, that's the bit I am struggling with at the moment all looks simple on a 2d plan, I have been working on them but getting the arcs, curves and intersections worked out, cut and moulded is being a bit of a nightmare, still once I sort these two out I only have 8 more to do, but bigger, as in:

 

[Trevanion]

Bit of a head-scratcher, but not as dreadful as when you've got a wide arch in the centre and two narrower ones each side, or a tall arch in the centre and two shorter ones each side and working out the intersections between those, curved mitres!

 

[HOJ]

Bit of a head-scratcher, but not as dreadful as when you've got a wide arch in the centre and two narrower ones each side, or a tall arch in the centre and two shorter ones each side and working out the intersections between those, curved mitres!

That would be interesting to see how its done, I'm struggling with these!

Quick update, making slow progress down to me making it up as I go along:

Frame with arches roughed in:



Snapshot of elements to contend with, chamfers:



Next challenge is to apply a chamfer to the arches to replicate the frame moulding, and how they will intersect, I'm going to try to router them with a guide running on the inside face to cut the outer, if that makes sense, as I need the chamfer to feather off as it comes down to meet the transom joins to the jambs.

 

[Cabinetman]

Makes me very glad I didn’t get into that sort of work. But from what I’ve seen it does pay well compared to furniture making, actually nearly anything does lol.

 

[HOJ]

But from what I’ve seen it does pay well compared to furniture making, actually nearly anything does lol.

I doubt I have any money left in this part of the job but hopefully as I do the rest of them the prep will have been done and forgotten! it didn't take long though to knock out the frames, and I have done the casements as well, not shown them yet, so up untill I needed to make the arch pieces I had made good progress.

So just to add some evidence of my process, firstly I needed a couple of simple things, 1 was a big compass, duly made out of random bits, 2nd was a means to cut the curve templates, so made I a trammel for the router, again out of bits and bobs:



On to making and shaping, with the template cut, I stuck that on the Accoya and band sawed the waste off using my newly made guide fence follower to save having to eyeball to a line, keeps an equal margin of waste all around the blank.


Then on to my spindle moulder for finishing which annoyingly didn't have enough adjustment to use the bearing on the top of the block so I used the ply guide ring fence I made recently, I have a bigger spindle moulder but I wanted to keep this one specifically for doing curved work with this block, rather than keep swapping out blocks on my other one.


So all in all to make these curved sections actually absorbed a lot of time, but £0 cost, just to get to this point, there is then the mouldings and trim cuts cut to do next which i will update on soon.

 

[HOJ]

Another long overdue update, finally putting the finishing touches to these and trial fitting the most expensive glass in world!





I'm not necessarily slow, just had too many jobs on the go at once, with thankfully, very patient and understanding clients.

 

[Malc2098]

Proper job, as they say down here.

 

[Cabinetman]

Well you’re all over the place with really good work at the mo! Nice work.

 

[Mike G]

They look grand.

Am I seeing it right: they've got an internal rebate, fixed glazing, and a big chamfer to look like a putty line?

 

[AJB Temple]

You're a skilled bloke. Excellent work. I've never used Accoya but would like to try it.

 

[HOJ]

Thank you all.

Mike, they are rebated externally, with the beads shaped to look like a "putty" line.

Adrian, I personally don't like working with the stuff, limited suppliers, and to be honest don't get why people buy into it, I hear the points that it is stable etc, but its price is ridiculously extortionate for a what grows pretty much as a weed!.

 

[Mike G]

I think it's the pickling process which allows them to charge the prices they do. I don't know what the patent/ trade name situation is, but it could be that prices start getting sensible when the process is done all over the world.

 

[Trevanion]

I think it's the pickling process which allows them to charge the prices they do. I don't know what the patent/ trade name situation is, but it could be that prices start getting sensible when the process is done all over the world.

Accoya has been producing the timber since around 2007 and does have a patent on their process, but acetylating timber has been studied for the better part of a century now. From what I understand it's only in the last couple of years that Accoya (or rather the parent company, Accsys) have been able to produce a profit from the timber, likely because at one point during that time they were charging around £4000cu/M for it. Fortunately, the price has come down a fair bit since then as they've invested in extra capacity in the Netherlands to produce it by installing a new autoclave. Someone who had visited and had a tour of the facility in the Netherlands told me that they were very surprised with how primitive the operation there is considering the price of the stuff and how well-marketed it is, apparently it's just a handful of people stacking timber into these autoclaves by hand, nothing particularly high-tech.

There are competitor timbers such as Abodo or Saplen that are thermally treated, but they do not offer the same guarantees as Accoya does. There was a competitor that was based in Barry that was working on producing a Phenol Urea Formaldehyde resin-injected timber called "Lignia" that was to be significantly cheaper as well as a consistent brown colour throughout, but Accoya bought out the whole company and scrapped the process, and now use the plant to produce "Accoya Colour" cladding and decking boards. It did make you wonder whether Accoya were terrified that Lignia was going to kill their business so acted preemptively to buy out the business and patent before that could happen.

 

[Jonathan]

A few years back I used one of the new super woods..... thermowood.
Used it on a couple of projects, as I was told by the local importer it wouldn't rot. One project was for movable fence/barriers for a school the other was for balustrading around a patio. In both cases the timber failed and needed replacing within 5 years.
I guess regular pine would have lasted longer.

Not used Acoya, would like to try it but it's not available locally.



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