The Historic District

My temporary fix was to add a 3/8" piece cut to size onto the end of the sash to widen the sash in the opening. This seems to be a temporary kind of fix but it has solved the problem. Unfortunately the bottom sash seems to have suffered some pretty significant rot that's making me consider having so...

Howdy all. I'm revisiting some double hung windows that I restored approx 15 years ago. These were one of the first windows I restored in my home. I had some issues with the size of the sashes as the fit in the opening. Now that I'm refreshing the work I did previously I'm scratching my head how to ...

'for artists' only is one way of getting away with selling a product some people think is unhealthy.... What you find on the shelf now here is "Painters Solvent" and "Artist Solvent". I'm guessing that it's a VOC compliant alternative to the stuff that they had taken off the mar...

I was down at my local Woodcraft store picking up some stain and lo and behold there were two pints of Turpentine on the shelf. Needless to say I grabbed both pints. I forgot to ask them what the current situation is but I have enough to get me through the next few projects. Unfortunately it doesn't...

Mick_VT wrote:Did you hear this in a big box store?

No, this was from my local HW store that's been around for almost 75 years. I verified this at a couple other stores and online.

Thanks for the suggestions. I may try a mix of BLO, mineral spirits and Penetrol and see how that works. I saw that Penetrol is going off the the market as well. I assumed that is was a California thing again but I didn't drill down into the details. I may have to do a trip to Reno for fun and to lo...

Unbeknownst to me, the state of Calif has banned the sale of turpentine. I'm working on my sashes I needed to make up a new batch of bloturp and am out of turpentine. I found out at the HW store that they can't sell it anymore. D'oh! I still have Boiled Linseed oil and Penetrol but no access to turp...

After I heat-gun and apply the chemical stripper, I wash it down with lacquer thinner. I'm ecstatic about the results, but a friend (and the PO) mentioned that rather than using lacquer thinner, I could use plain old water. He used to work for a dip 'n strip type of place back in the '80s and said ...

I installed my curtains as shown in Sow's sketch. I stripped and restored the trim including replacing the cap molding that was removed. The previous owners had some hideous 70's drapes and they removed the cap molding to install them. I didn't want to install the brackets on the new trim so the dri...

You can also use baking soda instead of TSP. I throw a couple of big handfuls into the boiling water and the paint comes right off. I heard of people using dishwasher soap and other surfactants but I've always had the best result with baking soda.