Sometimes the best laid plans work too well

[Brian Ashton]

My wife was wanting to put shutters in our bedroom but I was not too interested in paying $2000 for 3 so I said to my wife "Ah, I can make them..." Well she held me to it and requested them for her birthday. So I had my work cut out for me as I only do neander work and didn't have a plane to shape the louvres... 3 pairs of style and rail and 130 louvres later I had all the parts made - great workout for the arms. I was expecting it to be quite tough pushing such a wide plane through the wood but all the planing went very well. The only part of the process that was a frustration was the painting because I had to bush three coats of paint on each part.

Problem is, they went over so well I have the rest of the house to do now.

[Harold Burrell]

Oh, my! VERY nice!




Now...I need to find a way to hide this thread, so my wife doesn't see it.

Or else I will be inevitably commissioned to do the same. :eek:

[Patrick McCarthy]

good thing her birthday comes around only once a year; Dear, which room do you want me to do for your next birthday?

[Hilton Ralphs]

Do the louvres move?

[Jim Koepke]

Be careful she doesn't tell all her friends you made them or you may have a new business.

jtk

[Earl Sullivan]

How did you get the curves regular like that? Does the plane have a curved blade, or was there some trick to it?

[Phil Thien]

You made them too perfect.

Rookie mistake.

:)

They really do look fantastic!

[Winton Applegate]

Unbelievable. Great Job !

On the next ones put her to work painting them. Then remind her of the money she is "making".

[Brian Loran]

Very cool! Where in the world did you find that plane? I would have never even thought to look for such a thing...

[Jim Koepke]

Problem is, they went over so well I have the rest of the house to do now.

How about some more pictures as you make the next ones.

I am interested in how you attached them to the operator and set them in the frame.

jtk

[Brian Ashton]

Do the louvres move?

Ya the bar in the middle ties them together so they move as one.


Oh, my! VERY nice!

Now...I need to find a way to hide this thread, so my wife doesn't see it.

Or else I will be inevitably commissioned to do the same. :eek:

To late I sent her the link


Be careful she doesn't tell all her friends you made them or you may have a new business.

jtk

I'll tell her friends to get stuffed, but in a nice way :)


How did you get the curves regular like that? Does the plane have a curved blade, or was there some trick to it?

Ya I shaped the base of the plane and blade to the shape I wanted. I traced the shape I wanted on each end of the plane and then connected the dots with a variety of round planes and scrapers till it was relatively consistent. It's still a bit of a work in progress. The pic below shows the pencil scribble I've drawn on the base to id the high spots so I can scrape them down...


Unbelievable. Great Job !

On the next ones put her to work painting them. Then remind her of the money she is "making".

HA HA You're funny. My wife is a great painter (as can be seen by the rooster below), just not on something like that. She'd be more willing to change the brakes on the car than paint shutters. To be honest making the shutters was easy compared to the painting. That took at least 2/3 of the time. I'll try to borrow a decent sprayer for the next ones.


Very cool! Where in the world did you find that plane? I would have never even thought to look for such a thing...

I knocked it together for this job (You can see by the shot below of the wood I used wasn't the best). I shaped the base of the plane first to the curve I wanted and then ground the blade to suit. It's still on going in that I'm still lightly scraping the base to remove the high spots (you can see the pencil scribble to identify the high spots...). The skids on the bottom are what make the louvres consistent. Once they come in contact with the bench I'm done. The planing is done in 2 stages. I plane them till there's still about a 3/4" flat section left in the middle then flip and do the other side leaving another 3/4" flat strip... Once I've done all the louvers I go back and finish plane them. The flat section limits the amount of twist that could occur thus limiting the amount they could be out over all. If I were to plane one side to a finished surface and then flip it, I wouldn't have a good base to work from. Hopefully that makes sense, not sure how to describe it...


How about some more pictures as you make the next ones.

I am interested in how you attached them to the operator and set them in the frame.

jtk

The louvres are attached to the middle bar with the smallest eyelets I could buy at Leevalley. I open up the eyelets that are attached to the louvres and then screw them in with a tiny hand vice mounted in a drill (see pic below)... Then I screw the ones to the bar and then connect them all up and close the eyelets that I opened up - and everything is locked together. Years ago I bought a jewellers hand vice thinking it might come in hand one day. It's been 15 years or so since I bought it and I've finally found a use for it. To mount the louvres in the frame I bought nylon louvre pins that are readily available, just google nylon louvre pins and you'll find heaps.

[Chris Hachet]

This is unreal...youa re a far more motivated man than I am. NICE WORK!

[Brian Ashton]

This is unreal...youa re a far more motivated man than I am. NICE WORK!

Motivated to save money. To do the house in shutters would be over $8000. Cost of the pine, hardware, and misc about $2000 = $6000 reasons to be motivated I'd say. One things for sure they really transform a room - they look very classy.