Well not so. It depends on your wallet and/or your propensity to follow your own misconceptions to the (bitter?) end. I'm a self taught amateur so don't trust everything (anything?) I write!
So, let's check what I (you?) need to make a mullioned window.
1) search on the web for "table saw"
2) search on the web for "tool router"
3) search on the web for "cordless brushless drill/driver"
4) angle hook, 45 and 90 degrees, and calipers
5) Waterproof polyurethane glue (comparatively expensive but very good)
Now, this is not the only and final solution. If you have some extra space in your garage, you can replace "cheap" hand tools with old used tools, weighing hundreds of pounds, manufactured of cast iron, worthy of old gentlemen with seemingly inbred carpenter knowledge of how to make joints and other strange and complicated things.
Well, that's up to you. I don't have the space, I commute between two properties with different needs, I need to move tools from one place to another together with other day to day baggage in our car so things have to be small and movable. So my (not necessarily yours!) choices were:
NOTE: Links are not guranteed to last, if not, search for the model names of the components)
These are the main tools. needed are also router bits from Cobolt™ (VERY good catalog!),
60/80 teeth saw blade for the table saw, spiral drills etc.
The approximate sum is $1600. If you're making a single window it's an eyewatering cost. But, it may be that you're the owner of a house with more than one window. Also, if you learn how to make a window, there's not many other things you can't fix. Chairs, tables, hard to close/open doors, stairs etc. won't be impossible projects. Then you can spread the cost over many more items fixed.
I know a woodworking teacher. He told me he had pupils that didn't have the ability to imagine objects in 3D. It's a real problem when creating 3D objects, by hand or by a 3D printer. I am a typical case of this disability and I think that I've made every possible mistake, feeling like an idiot every time.
I do not think this will stop me. Mistakes are the founding of experience. Taking notes during the process will enable me to avoid these stupidities again.
In this case the windows consist of two parts, one inner and one outer window. The outer windows are split into four glasses separated by mullions. I had to take in account the construction of the inner windows when making the outer windows. Normally the outer windows are affected by weather, mould and rot.
The problems I had to master are the corners of the window frame and the mullion joints to the frame and the look of things compared to what design is already was present.
Mullions facing indoors is routed like this (Thanks: the Cobolt™ catalog):
Just eye candy. There are contra profile router bits (One make a "he" profile,the other the "she one. $70 for the pair!) approximately this pattern but the mullions are 32mm thick and the shafts of the router bits for my overhand router (the Makita) are so short that this is no option (using my router table) due to the fact that the contra profile to the one in the image is too high above the router table surface. Otherwise the contra profile would have been used making one cut at the end of the mullion, precisely matching the one on the frame, saving a lot of work.
Now, to overcome this, you can make a jig and with the right ball bearing on the tool you ought to be able to crate the contra profile routing holding the router in your hands. (This is an afterthought, didn't hit me until much later when a friend asked my I didn't do it that way. Sometimes, I'm that stupid.)
I had to machine the mullions like the image and then cut the ends to a V-shape (the "he"-part) and make a cut in the window frame with a corresponding V-shape (the "she" part) to join them. Both were made by hand on my table saw (the Bosch GTS-10-XC). This is a tricky operation and took a lot of time to be able to make acceptable joints. Joints of the same type was made where the mullions crossed.
Under my conditions, I had to train before I attempted 'production'.
This example show the first window I made. I was more successful doing the next one. Training takes tries!
To countersink the hinges into the window frame. I made a template of 5 mm aluminium.
It was a scrap bit I got from a metal workshop.
The owner asked me if I wanted it cut to a certain dimension. I said "no,
the present dimension is perfect, I just found in in a heap in the shop".
"gimme (the equivalent of) a $" he said.
"Sorry I have no less than twice that amount in my pocket. Is that OK with you?". It was, I
left, both were happy :0).
That piece is now my store of aluminium, I take a piece from it now and then, when I need to.
Not everything will cost you a fortune.
You can see it in the image below together with my router and a set of brass template adapters from Banggood in India for a couple of bucks. The router was modified somewhat to accommodate the round sliding plate (I't forgot the right router adapter at the other house, 750 km from this site. Arrrgh!).
Routing by hand with the template, the result is displayed in the next image.
I made the windows corners the simplest way possible, sawed each part to half the original thickness and then laid one on top of the other with polyurethane glue in between. That glue is water resistant but not for use under water for long periods of time. It's very effective, you smear it on wet (sprinkle a little water on surfaces) wood, align the pieces and clamp them together. You have fifteen minutes to do it.
When it starts to harden, it swells and fills every crevice and leaks out of the joint.
The excess is later removed with a knife. The glue is extremely effective, fast, waterproof but poisonous both for you and the environment so use it in ventilated areas and dispose of it responsibly.
The next image shows the clamping setup. Note the band clamp around the whole window frame.
Nice tool! Just google for "band clamp" and you will find it. The orange bottle is the glue used,
this one made by Casco. Around $14, but worth it!
Choosing tools, buying them, learning to use them, deciding how to make the window and finally doing it took me two years of spare time. I did only metal work before, welding etc. To suddenly work with an imprecise material like wood (ugh! :) took a lot of time and I did many other things during this period. Still from the time I decided I just had to learn the window business till the moment when I had one I made myself, took two years. I'm a little surprised at my own stubbornness, in fact.
Well, I had a lot of fun and having the tools, I made a lot of quick fixes in other places because it was so much easier than before.
