How to Make a Wood Screen Window Frame With a Kerf Saw
One way to add flair and pizzazz to a regular screen window is to design the look of the screen area yourself. This is something you can easily do and if you are a do-it-yourself type person, you will be proud of the result when it is completed.
Items you will need:
- Pencil
- Measuring tape
- Staple gun
- Clamps
- Wood glue
- Sandpaper
- Hammer and finishing nails
- Kerf saw
- Eight wood slats 2 inches X 1 inch X 36 inches
- Screen material
- Measure the wood slats to fit each side and top and bottom of the window. You will have to do this with all eight slats for top and bottom of the frame.
- Make a 45-degree line on each of the slats with your pencil. It would be a good idea to use a miter for this cutting process for exact replication with all the slats.
- Use your clamps and holding down each slat cut the 45-degree angle with your saw. Just in case you do not know, a kerf saw just refers to the width of the cut a saw makes, nothing more. In most cases it is about 1/8 of an inch.
- Place the slats together to form the frame and see how they match up. If they should need any adjustments try to do so with your sandpaper. There should only be minor adjustments if any using a miter box.
- Put glue on the area where the corners match up and clamp them together to hold in place. Repeat this process for each of the two frame parts. Allow them to dry for at least two hours. You should now have two completed frames that will form the top and bottom of your screen frame.
- Lay the screen material across the first frame and cut so it is about as big as the entire frame. Beginning at the top staple the screen to the frame. Keeping the screen tight and straight proceed down the outer edge of the frame stapling as you go. It will be easier is you work from side to side as you go down the frame stretching as you work your way down.
- Cut off the excess screen when you are done so that none extends past the edge of the slats.
- Put a healthy amount on glue on the screen you just stapled to the slats. Now place the other half of the frame on top and line it up with the part with the screen on it.
- Use the hammer and nails and secure to two together. Let the glue dry for at least another two hours and secure the new screen window to the door with the hammer and nails and you are done.