Mike's Woodworking Projects

Window Lattices

Year built: 2020
Plan: Replicate Existing

Our windows have lattices on them that are pretty fragile. One in the living has been heavily damaged by Cutter, one in Jake's room was falling apart and the big picture window one in the living room had sun damage causing it to wrap.

I decided to be really cheap and make the 1/2" x 5/8" strips for the lattices from a couple of 2x4s. After fabricating all the parts, I went to staining and painting them. Well, I kind of forgot to sand them and since all surfaces had saw cuts on them, they looked like crap after staining. Additionally, some of the strips had significant warp in the and a couple with knots that were going to fail and crack the strip in two pieces. So, I just made some nice kindling for the fire pit.

Round two. I bought select pine boards. I wanted 1/2" nominal that I could rip to 5/8" but, can only get 1/2" up to 3' length. So, bought 1/2" for the DR (Dining Room) and JR(Jake room) lattices but bought longer 1" for the LR (living room lattice).

For the living room I ripped the 1" down to 1/2" and sanded the saw marks. Then I ripped all the pieces to 5/8" in the other dimension. Then, cross cut to oversize.

Next was the shaping on the router table to make the profiles for the periphery pieces and the internal lattice pieces. You can see the details in the pictures. Then, eased the edges on the periphery using a 1/4" round over and a tiny chamfer off the inside pieces (because the shaped profile did not allow use of the round over bit). I also used the chamfer bit to shape the profile for the LR periphery bits.

I cut the peripheries to size. Then, realized the LR periphery pieces were a tiny bit to short of the window. Arg, had to do with my chamfer profile vs. the original which was a little different. Not excited about doing a third run, I re-examined the original. With a little work and securing with some tiny screws to the window sash, I was able to fix the original lattice and abandon a third attempt on a new one.

The DR and JR lattices were sized perfectly for the windows so, I proceeded with those. To create a robust lattice I added metal L-brackets to the corners on the outside surface, you don't see them once they are attached to the windows.

Final milling was to create half lap joints for the intersections of the inside lattice pieces. Glued those in place. Stained and Painted, installed with new lattice pins. Done.