Need a little louver help

[rcartmetal]

Of course, you could just do tapers on the inside sides of the louvers and leave the outsides flat.

[james.miller]

Cut the sled when the table is set at the correct angle for the louvers just adjust the fence to put the bit in the correct position on the sled. You can use either the SS headstock or the OPR to spin the router bit, the OPR will probably give a better cut.

Make one pass on the sled then turn it around and adjust the fence to make the second cut. Make sure that the sled allows the edge of the louver to stay against the fence for stability. This will give a shallow v-grove in the sled for routing the second side of the louver.

The rout first side of the louver just lay it flat on the tilted table, run it through then flip it end for end keeping the flat side down.

Use feather-boards on the fence to hold down the louver as it is being cut.

Jim in Tucson

[charlese]

Of course, you could just do tapers on the inside sides of the louvers and leave the outsides flat.

I'd love to Spike - - But the louvers will flip both up and down, like venetian blinds. The louvers in the "Woodsmith" magazine were made flat, with rounded edges. The problem I have with that is - when the blinds are in either the up or down position only one plane will touch the adjacent louver. This plane will be somewhat on the inside of the edge. As the louvers are 1/4" thick the best we can do is to have a larger than 1/4" offset between louvers when fully closed. (if you can picture this). This is too irregular for my taste.

What I want to do is taper the louvers on both sides so when closed, they will look closed and fairly smooth, with only small offsets. A front taper will rest against a back taper of the adjacent louver and end up almost vertical.

Thanks to this forum, I now have a couple of ways to accomplish this task. Once set up, I imagine making about a couple hundred louvers. Haven't measured or counted yet.

Almost through with the new shop storage cabinet (No finish - just wood) Next project is the shutters.

[Ed in Tampa]

I don't know how far your into your shutter project but over on the Sawmillcreek forum some guy is selling 400' of ellipical shuttter stock made for Norm's plantation shutter project.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=59023
Ed

[charlese]

Thanks Ed! I saw that too! He only wants $300 for 400 lineal feet of louvers. The problem with these is they (louvers) are only 2 1/4" wide. Norm has only a 1/4" overlap on his louvers, with a two inch spacing. Other than that, I like Norm's plans. He designed a stout frame. My louvers will be 3" wide with 2 1/2" spacing.

I had thought how he shaped his louvers would be interesting. Turns out - interesting only for machine lovers. He used his very special ($$$$) moulding machine with very special cutters fabricated by his very special cutter manufacturing machinist.

Thanks for thinking of my project! I have found a couple sources for louver pivot pins and am not yet satisfied with a source for staples.

My Local lumber supplier will be getting in a new supply of poplar - so I'll probably be satisfied there!

[charlese]

My planning has changed on the size of the louvers for my shutters. They are now going to be 3" wide louvers rather than the 2". This will allow for a 2 1/4" spacing between louvers. I tried out three methods to manufacture these louvers.

The band saw simply didn't make it! Although this is the simplest method of the three - it is unsatisfactory. The louvers made this way looked pretty good, but I just couldn't control the minor waver of the blade on this thin cut. It was noticeable on the louver edge, and would present problems in rounding the edges. I used a new 5/8" re-saw blade, but had to set the upper cool blocks three inches above the table. Even at high tension this taper cut followed the wood grain enough to vary the diameter at the edge of the louver. This was nothing I couldn't sand down, but then I'd have to go to the narrowest edge and the louvers would not be uniform.

The OPR worked O.K. but needed multiple passes per edge because the tapered edge worked out to be 1 1/4". I found the OPR difficult to set up - very touchy, with lots of adjustable parts. This application also required fastening (screwing) to the sled. With hundreds of these things to make - this would be too time consuming and fussy.

The table saw worked good, but didn't like the possibility of wobble and kickback. A fence straddling jig was a thought, but still would have required screwing to the straddler - similar to the OPR.

Then I found a router bit just made for this application. It is a base molding bit called "ranch". "Woodline USA" put this bit together with other 1/2" shank bits to form a "plantation shutter kit". Too bad I didn't find this earlier!

So - made up a tall, adjustable fence that will work on my folding router table. Found an article on that fence in "Wood" magazine (November, 2004 -Issue 159). I had flagged that issue and planned to make it some-day. Today is the day! The bits are here - waiting for a T track/knobs/bolts to come. Now I have to buy the wood! So far have been using shop cutoffs/scrap.

Here is the new cross section of the louvers (approximately).

[charlese]

My planning has changed on the size of the louvers for my shutters. They are now going to be 3" wide louvers rather than the 2". This will allow for a 2 1/4" spacing between louvers. I tried out three methods to manufacture these louvers.

The band saw simply didn't make it! Although this is the simplest method of the three - it is unsatisfactory. The louvers made this way looked pretty good, but I just couldn't control the minor waver of the blade on this thin cut. It was noticeable on the louver edge, and would present problems in rounding the edges. I used a new 5/8" re-saw blade, but had to set the upper cool blocks three inches above the table. Even at high tension this taper cut followed the wood grain enough to vary the diameter at the edge of the louver. This was nothing I couldn't sand down, but then I'd have to go to the narrowest edge and the louvers would not be uniform.

The OPR worked O.K. but needed multiple passes per edge because the tapered edge worked out to be 1 1/4". I found the OPR difficult to set up - very touchy, with lots of adjustable parts. This application also required fastening (screwing) to the sled. With hundreds of these things to make - this would be too time consuming and fussy.

The table saw worked good, but didn't like the possibility of wobble and kickback. A fence straddling jig was a thought, but still would have required screwing to the straddler - similar to the OPR.

Then I found a router bit just made for this application. It is a base molding bit called "ranch". "Woodline USA" put this bit together with other 1/2" shank bits to form a "plantation shutter kit". Too bad I didn't find this earlier!

So - made up a tall, adjustable fence that will work on my folding router table. Found an article on that fence in "Wood" magazine (November, 2004 -Issue 159). I had flagged that issue and planned to make it some-day. Today is the day! The bits are here - waiting for a T track/knobs/bolts to come. Now I have to buy the wood! So far have been using shop cutoffs/scrap.

Here is the new cross section of the louvers (approximately).
[ATTACH]322[/ATTACH]