Cast iron fan light window- advice

[Jacob]

Make an exact copy out of timber, it'll be easy enough to do.

Structural integrity could be a prob.
I wondered about making each radial glazing bar and the semicircular bit in one piece, like a walking stick, and then putting them together, but it's a sharp angle.
Some years ago I had to remove some vandalised ornate windows from a Paxton building (Matlock Bath Station) and replace and glaze them with cast aluminium copies which were provided by the contractor so I had no part in the copying, but was impressed with the copies. Interestingly the originals weren't cast iron as expected but were folded sheet zinc, cut and soldered at each join. Patent glazing - you could make any pattern you liked by joining the straight glazing bars. I wondered if they made curved sections too, kept meaning to research it. The patents were probably Paxton's office's.

 

[niall Y]

An alternative is to revert to an older way of making these , which was to use a wooden frame, with cast lead mouldings . There are firms who still make them this way, such as Sambrook & Temperton.

 

[Adam W.]

Structural integrity could be a prob.
I wondered about making each radial glazing bar and the semicircular bit in one piece, like a walking stick, and then putting them together, but it's a sharp angle.
Some years ago I had to remove some vandalised ornate windows from a Paxton building (Matlock Bath Station) and replace and glaze them with cast aluminium copies which were provided by the contractor so I had no part in the copying, but was impressed with the copies. Interestingly the originals weren't cast iron as expected but were folded sheet zinc, cut and soldered at each join. Patent glazing - you could make any pattern you liked by joining the straight glazing bars. I wondered if they made curved sections too, kept meaning to research it. The patents were probably Paxton's office's.

The voussoirs are doing the structural bit, so I wonder if you mean stiffness instead?

 

[Jacob]

The voussoirs are doing the structural bit, so I wonder if you mean stiffness instead?

I was thinking how you'd do the 3 way join where the straight bar meets the two curved.
No prob if cast or soldered but not easy in wood on external joinery

 

[Adam W.]

I was thinking how you'd do the 3 way join where the straight bar meets the two curved.
No prob if cast or soldered but not easy in wood on external joinery

That's the tricky part for sure.

I worked on a 10' tall timber window in Oregon which had a fan at the top and it was very flexy indeed, quite worrying really as we had to work off the ladder propped against it at the time.

 

[HOJ]

My little brain has an idea! could they not be made as individual elements in timber and then glued together/laminated, and planted on, for example:

Rough idea.

 

[Jacob]

My little brain has an idea! could they not be made as individual elements in timber and then glued together/laminated, and planted on, for example:
View attachment 146150
Rough idea.

Could be the way to make a pattern for a mould, even if not viable in itself?

 

[Silfi]

This company a short distance from Edinburgh would be worth a look--
https://www.rathobyresforge.co.uk/Their work is absolutely stunnning.

 

[rogxwhit]

I'm seeing it as a foundry job rather than a forge job. Not only will there be a rebate but very likely a moulding too on the reverse.

 

[Jacob]

I'm seeing it as a foundry job rather than a forge job. Not only will there be a rebate but very likely a moulding too on the reverse.

Yes. But just putty rebate on the other side, no mouldings.

 

[Jones]

Try Ballantines castings in Boness just outside Edinburgh, they probably did the original one and have likely still got the pattern. For a cheaper option get some masking tape and paint it on.

 

[Limey Lurker]

Having priced, many years ago, the replacement of a very much smaller and very much simpler iron casting, I would examine every other source before deciding on a new casting of this complexity! And if a new casting was inevitable, I'd have it cast in Aluminium, because there would be less likelyhood of cracking whilst cooling.