The steam box is great! We built ours before I did all my windows. By sash 50, it was probably time for a new one--or for some shoring up. Yours looks more substantial than ours. We "lived and learned," as they say.
One thing I can say for sure: there's definitely a breakage rate, the more you do. I would say about 20% of my glass cracked. I'm assuming it has something to do with the heat, pressure, and expansion, but I'm no expert. Luckily, I do enough architectural salvage to replace the broken panes. In fact, I'm in the process of having wood storm-sash windows made by Illingworth Millwork in Adams New York. I had enough glass for them to use to outfit every opening. It required about two houses worth of window glass between sizes and breakage, but I imagine the waviness is going to be awesome!
Cleaning all that glass is no easy task, either. I used a combo of garden hose, squeegee, 0000 steel wool, Windex, paper towels, and razor blades to remove YEARS of weather. Of course, that was after I--CAREFULLY--took 100 sash apart with a reciprocating saw. Some of the panes were pains
and had a bit of acid rain haze--sometimes impossible to remove but it's all part of the charm, right?
Good luck with your project!
