Trevor's solar screens

My name is Trevor and I am writing this post for my neighbor Rod. I call him Rod for short. I built some solar screens over the weekend for my Mom's house and I wanted to show you all how it went. That is my Mom's left kneecap and elbow on the
left of the photo. Rod is quite the photographer.

I had to"persuade" Rod to let me post this on his blog.(Had to smack him around a little but he finally saw things my way.)

I also had Mansfield SWAT standing by for crowd control because I'm famous. Thanks, guys!   We celebrities can't be too careful these days. Hey Paris! Don't be a stranger, girl!

First I carefully measured the windows to be screened.
(Rod let me use his shop to make my cuts, glue the frames up, paint and then screen them. He is not as bad as the TV people say.)
Next I ripped some 2x6 that I had salvaged from cast-off material from a deck on the South Side.

Skip and Debbie Stemple's place.( Model T mechanic extraordaire and friends even more extraordinaire. ) They had put in a new deck on their house and stacked the old wood on the curb. I had Rod bring it back to the neighborhood so as not to waste. We have put a lot of it to good use.  Skip keeps Rod's clunkers on the road. ( I'm sure
EPA is thrilled but not much.) Kudos with hugs to Skip and Debbie!!!


I cut everything to fit and set up to make dowel joints.
I drilled holes for dowels with a 3/8" drill bit. I crimped dowels with pliers to crush the wood fibers. I applied glue to crimped end and hammered dowels into the holes. The water-based glue causes the wood to swell slightly and makes for a tight, strong joint when the glue is dry. I like Titebond III. I can use it for interior and exterior
 applications. Then I flush cut the extra dowel
 material for a smooth surface. I let my Mom
 help me seal and paint the frames.

Once the paint was dry I rolled out the solar screen, stapled it in place, wrapped the extra screen material around the frame and stapled the
material in place on the back.

(If it looks like Rod doesn't know how to do a blog then that is because Rod doesn't know how
to do a blog. But he's getting there.)

Lastly, a little tap-tap with a mallet and block of
wood and the windows are in place.

Well, here they are. If you look closely you can actually see the solar radiation bouncing off the screen material. Pretty amazing-not just me but the screens also. See you next time! I love
you, Mom and Gigi!!