Shutter Jig Advice Needed

[Rick Hubbard]

After an interminable amount of research, I finally found conventional specs for building traditional exterior louvered wood shutters. Rails and stiles are 1 5/16 inch thick X 2 ½ wide (except for the bottom rail which is usually a minimum of 4 inches wide). Louvers are 3/8 inch thick X 1 5/16 wide with round-overs at leading and trailing edges. Louver angle is either 40 or 45 degrees and the louvers are inset from the inside and outside faces of the shutter stile by ¼ inch. Spacing between louvers is 1 inch (see attached illustration).

Now that I have accumulated all this information, I’m faced with the task of building a jig to accurately cut evenly spaced mortises in the shutter stiles. Has anyone constructed such a jig, or alternatively, does anyone have some suggestions on a general design for the jig?

Thanks,

Rick

[Dewey Torres]

Hey Rick,
Did you see how Tim did his? Is it too late to adopt this design?

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=79497&highlight=plantation+shutters

[Jamie Buxton]

The conventional way to do that in a small shop is to build a self-indexing router jig. You get a jig balancing on the edge of a workpiece, which can be troublesome. A slicker way is to use a hollow-chisel mortiser, if you happen to have one of those. You can put the chisel in the mortiser so that it is at any angle you choose with respect to the edge of the workpiece. Set it at 40 degrees or so, and bore lots of square holes along the wood which will become your stiles. Each hole is a mortise for the end of a slat. You make the slats the same thickness as the mortise width. Two cuts on a bandsaw cut away the extra wood on the ends, leaving just the tenon to fit into the mortise.

[Rick Hubbard]

Hey Rick,
Did you see how Tim did his? Is it too late to adopt this design?


Yes, I DID see this thread earlier (and I have to say that is a pretty fantastic project and I blatantly copied some of his ideas). A major difference between Tim's plantation type shutter and traditional exterior shutters is that the louvers are fixed between the stiles on exterior shutters. Also (at least in this part of country) the overall contruction of the shutter needs to be pretty rugged to withstand the weather.

My major challenge is how to cut MANY identically spaced mortises inside the stile edges so the louvers are held securely.

Rick

[Narayan Nayar]

I hate to bring it up because your post is asking about a jig and not about equipment, but there are several articles on the web which demonstrate the Domino being used for this.

Here's one (http://burrellcustomcarpentry.com/subpage25.html)

Though these articles are of course extolling the virtues of the Domino, I think the key takeaway from them is less that the Domino is great (even though I think it is), and more that this tool creates the exact type of hole you're trying to produce many times consistently and very efficiently.

In other words, whether you like or want a Domino or not, it seems like a great tool for this particular purpose.

[Rick Hubbard]

The conventional way to do that in a small shop is to build a self-indexing router jig. ......A slicker way is to use a hollow-chisel mortiser.

I thought about using my HC mortiser, but given the fact that I intend to build 30 of these confounded things, I'm pretty sure this techique would over-tax my limited patience. I'd much rather construct SOME sort of jig for a router :)

Rick

[Rick Hubbard]

In other words, whether you like or want a Domino or not, it seems like a great tool for this particular purpose.

Hey Narayan!!!

Take a look at my sig line :)

I agree a Domino would be almost perfect for this but I'm about $800 short of the purchase price!!

Rick

[Tom Hargrove]

I think Norm did a show on shutters a few years ago and built a jig for a router. I would check his website.

[Bill Huber]

I do not remember just which one it was but Norm made a jib on one of his shows to do the very thing you are doing.

If someone has the shows on tape and you could get it I think that would be all you need.

[Joe Chritz]

I know if I was doing it I would take a drive back the dad's place and do it on the CNC. Depending on how many you have it could still be an option to farm it out to someone to just do the mortises.

For a router jig I would think of something like a box that slips over the stile and has a "channel" for the router to slide in so it can only just cut the mortise. A small piece of louver attached to the bottom could be used to space from louver to louver, sorta how a box jig works.

Granted I haven't done this (although I use a similar setup for router cut mortises) it should work, at least while thinking out loud.

If that makes no sense I can post a pic of the snap together jig I just used for some M & T joints on a desk project.

Joe

[Dewey Torres]

here it is:

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?0602

These appear to be the adjustable ones though.

[Narayan Nayar]

I saw your sig line, Rick, and smirked. No shortage of good quotes from ol' Karl.

Just to be clear, though, in this case you wouldn't be idling. Or, as you make it seem, well-to-do. :)

[Bill Huber]

here it is:

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?0602

These appear to be the adjustable ones though.


That is not the ones he needs, those are movable and he needs the one that are not.

Norm made the jig on the show and I had it until DVR went south, that's what make me mad.

[Dewey Torres]

Found it!

http://woodworking.about.com/od/woodworkingplansdesigns/ss/Louvers_7.htm

[Rick Hubbard]

Found it!

http://woodworking.about.com/od/woodworkingplansdesigns/ss/Louvers_7.htm

Thanks Dewey! Odd, that I didn't find that myself (but then again, to give you an idea of how well things are going for me today, a guy from our accounting staff came in my office earlier this morning all in a state of panic because the keyboard for the overhead projector in our conference room would not work. After I fiddled with things for 10 minutes or so, my boss walked in and turned the on/off switch on the key board to the "on" position, offered to let me kiss his ring, then walked out with a BIG grin on his face :o Yeeesh).

Rick

[Dewey Torres]

... After I fiddled with things for 10 minutes or so, my boss walked in and turned the on/off switch on the key board to the "on" position, offered to let me kiss his ring, then walked out with a BIG grin on his face :o Yeeesh).

Rick

Rick,
Don't beat yourself up. He probably knew about the switch from past experiences.

[Rick Hubbard]

Rick,
Don't beat yourself up. He probably knew about the switch from past experiences.

No doubt- Now there's TWO of us who know about the switch from past experience :rolleyes:

Rick

[Rick Hubbard]

The link that Dewey gave me stimulated some creative thinking. See attached Sketchup rendering and give me your thoughts.

Rick

[Dewey Torres]

Rick,
The only thing I can't see is how you plan to index the inch increments. Maybe mark the stile every inch and line up with a reference line on the jig?

[Rick Hubbard]

Rick,
The only thing I can't see is how you plan to index the inch increments. Maybe mark the stile every inch and line up with a reference line on the jig?

Yeah, thats the only thing I can come up with off the top of my head. I envision the board that clamps in the vise being exactly 1 inch longer than the base so that when the work place is moved to the left the reference mark on the workpiece will align with the end of that board. What I would REALLY like to do though is to come up with some kind of indexing pin arrangement (something like what is used with box-joint jigs) but I just can't get my head around how that would work. Any ideas?

Rick

[Dewey Torres]

Make your router guide fit into a boxed in frame where it can be pulled up and set back down in exactly the same place. Then all you need is an indexing pin on the underside of the router guide facing down (mounted exactly 1 inch to the right or left).

[Rick Hubbard]

Make your router guide fit into a boxed in frame where it can be pulled up and set back down in exactly the same place. Then all you need is an indexing pin on the underside of the router guide facing down (mounted exactly 1 inch to the right or left).

Aha- now thats the ticket! I think I'll also try attaching a hinge at the front where the boxed frame and the router guide meet. That way I can be pretty much assured that when the guide and router are tipped back down into position (after sliding the stock) that it will be in exactly the same position. Do you suppose Rockler will ante up royalties for us on this? :D

Rick

[Dewey Torres]

Do you suppose Rockler will ante up royalties for us on this? :D

Rick

I doubt it. It takes a lot of guts to make these shutters vs buy them. That makes the sales audience quite small.

[Joe Chritz]

That sketch up is just about what I was thinking.

I have used something similar for the mortises on a mission style bed, just not on an angle.

Joe

[steven sherman]

http://6.cn/plist/98783/3.html

Here is a link to the video that Norm built.


Steve

[Myk Rian]

That's a link to a stolen video, on a Chinese website, that takes forever to view..