Wooden Venetian Blinds

[Gregg Feldstone]

Does anyone know of any kits sold for nice wood Venetian blinds?
I can cut the blinds easily enough on my bandsaw but think a kit with all the hardware and patterns for drilling would be helpful. I don't have a shaper, so it would be hard for me to make profiled blinds ( with oval "airplane wing" shapes). Any ideas? I don't want to shell out $130-$200 per window for ready made blinds made out of cheap wood.

[Dave Carey]

Don't know of a kit but good ole Norm built some "plantation blinds" a while back. All I remember is he used lots of jigs. http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct3.cgi?0602

[Bob Taylor]

I just saw the plantation shutter episode yesterday on Denver CH 12. He did use a shaper to form the shutters however. I would like to make them but also do not have a shaper. Norm seems to have all these goodies donated by "friends" of the show. Why don't I have friends like that?? How about a loaner friend??

[Dave Bureau]

Hey Bob.
If you want to buy me the knives and wood, I'll mill the parts for you on my W&H and ship them out
Dave

[Joe Scarfo]

There is a router bit company, out of Az I believe, who has bit sets and plans for plantation shutters.

I see them at all the woodworking tool shows, but their name slips my mind.. Timeberline maybe?

I've bought stuff from them in the past and have been reasonably satisfied w/ their stuff.

Thanks
Joe

[Mark Patoka]

Here is the thread that talked about this same topic.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?referrerid=5960&t=44229

In one of the posts, Woodline, http://www.woodline.com/scripts/prodList.asp, is mentioned as having a router bit set to create the wing profile with instructions. I wish Norm would have mentioned an alternative to those of us that don't have access to the specialized molder to make those. After watching that episode, my wife has also added the plantation shutters to my list of things to build for the house:) .

[Jeffrey Makiel]

The Woodworking Channel had a Great British Woodworking episode last week that made shutters of a much more simpler desing than NYW. The shutters blades were flat and the hardware was off-the-shelf. I don't recall if there were even any special jigs.

-Jeff :)