December was taken up with fitting firedoors at 29Nmkt Rd, delayed because of the loss of the additional helper. I managed to spend a few days working on designs for Abbey house and the window construction, and spoke to technical experts on how to bond using Polymer Silicone. I ordered tools for the workshop and timber milled from Travis. I also helped with other jobs like moving a fridge with Samamati. About a week with the fitting of MDF STG in 19N.
I had some time off over Christmas and on the 10th January I started clearing out and setting up the workshop at Jane’s place and adjusted the old style windows at 19NMKT RD, this ‘German’ design I decided not to use again and I learnt a few things about how to build the windows. Due partly to the stress of starting the new business and an intense health training programme, I was off sick with stress for three days mid January then spent 8 days on Solitary retreat at Guhyavajra’s hut, which was also an intense time. After the NOWE I dropped the whole ‘Clements’ Diet and training programme but maintained my daily Qigong. I spent between one and two weeks in January working on the project.
The first half of February I was able to finish setting up the workshop and built two STG (Secondary Triple Glazing) prototypes for Abbey house, we needed to know if using a single full casement would work with the weight (30+ KG) and it worked. We could now go ahead with the Conservation Submission. I spent several days researching this new application of thermal insulation to windows consulting BRE and the CAT centre among others for explanations, there seemed to be no one authority on this new field and it took me some time to piece things together. This was necessary partly for maximizing energy savings payback for Windhorse Trust and also in the long term for the new STG business – I would have to know my stuff before I could promote it properly. Likewise I spent time researching the dozens of aspects of the window design and materials sourcing for example where I could buy Double Glazed Units for £27m2 instead of £40m2, and what laws would apply – some would have to be toughened. At the end of February my double sided foam tape arrived and I made the first batch of STG for 19Nmkt Rd. Turning the front ground floor secondary glazing into quadruple glazing onsite was more fiddly than I had expected taking nearly two days. I was in the house for more than four days with the whole job, I realized that I would have to finish as much of the work as possible in the workshop to avoid this disruption to the occupants, and maximize efficiency - all the going up and down stairs with tools added to the length of the job. I spent a day or two correcting mistakes which showed up on this third prototype. I changed the design so as not to paint after glazing to leave a tidier finish.
In February and March I spent about six weeks working on the project, for two weeks I was off helping with the Derby takedown with Vidhysiddhi, was off sick again for two days, worked on the Warehouse door closers for two days and helped Dridhkarin with a few jobs like raking the gravel. I appreciated a bit of team work after getting a bit lonely working by myself.
In April I fitted the second batch of STG in 17Nmkt Rd and the finish was much better, with reduced disruption for the occupants (helped by having a spare room to keep the tools/frames while fitting). Fitting to awkward inwardly sloping recesses took many times longer than the straight forward fix to window frame face, one window even taking two hours, whereas others took under 30 minutes. I was still getting the hang of how to fix the frames whilst keeping the frame square and established my technique of how to do this with help from the insightful Bernie.
Conclusion
In total that’s about 11 full weeks spent to date, over a period of 3 ½ months – starting in January, with 23 STG windows fitted (counting the 6 insitu windows in Guhyaraja’s front bay) and excluding direct Secondary Glazing to two front doors (which was quite quick); About two per week. Perhaps only half or two thirds of this time was spent actually building the STG, which isn’t too bad since my German friends who first started the Timber Secondary Glazing craze could spend a week building and painting one window having to charge several hundred pounds for it. However I feel I’m now over the main hump of the product development and with the systems in place production should be quicker.
Design and Implementation Phases
I’m not sure if I’ve used the full day a fortnight to do new business development, needing instead mainly to work out window design and basic principles necessary for making the windows, as well as implementing improvements on the windows after consultations with Dridhakarin and Keturaja, although this is necessary for the development of my new business also. I have left promoting my new business to the time where I’m more confident in the business. I am now leaving the ‘design stage’ - which took longer than the expected 4 – 6 weeks, although a fair number of windows have been made during this time – the design and implementation phases have mixed.
Outside work
This has been a very useful time for me, not having to start out by myself needing to do all of this while selling to local clients, while gaining the valuable support and feedback of Keturaja, Dridhakarin and Windhorse.
My new Secondary Triple Glazing Business now feels realistic and I am excited to see how profitable it could be, I can see that it will be very useful to gradually build in outside (paying) clients while finishing off the Community STG needed, rather than having to suddenly find my clients at the end. Although I’m confident that this can be done long before the cold weather starts. It would be possible for me to leave Windhorse at this point, it may have an empowering effect! However I think it would be better for the business to continue under the wing of Windhorse during this time while income from clients is paid to the Trust and held for me to go to the new business when it starts on its own feet, after deductions for time/costs on outside work and start up costs is covered fairly. Some of this profit I would like to use to support Saddharaja in his India work. I’m confident that it will make profit and this will be a motivating factor for me as well as a promotional aspect of the new business.
The Future
I am still in need of someone to join me in the project and for a team to develop. I know I don’t have all the skills. In the future I want the project to become a complete training context, perhaps situated in the Bhante Land Project and joining forces with the Dhammaduta Training. I hope it will become another option in the The Triratna Community and Order for an intensive and attractive training context for young and old men.
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