Exterior Window Shutters?

[Rick Hubbard]

Recently I’ve gotten fascinated with the idea of building exterior window shutters for our house. I’ve looked at the vinyl type, but because of some really odd dimensions on some of the windows, I can’t seem to locate the right size…so, off to the shop (maybe).

I’ve looked around on the SMC archives and find lots of references to Plantation Shutters (with movable louvers) but I’m interested in fixed louvers.

Has anyone ever built such things? Any tips/instructions would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

[Frank Drew]

Rick,

I've made them a couple of times and the job was made immeasurably easier by using a horizontal slot mortiser; mine had a tilting table but it wouldn't be too difficult to make an inclined accessory table that tilted the stiles just the right amount so that the slots were horizontal -- then it's just like routing lots of shallow mortises, advancing the stile a fixed amount after each cut. The advantage of using a slot mortiser is that you can easily round over your louver edges to match the round ends of the mortises.

Obviously, design and layout will take some time so that it all works out evenly, but it's not really ultra-complicated; you can make the first and last louvers hit the rails where you want by playing with the rail width.

Industrially, I understand that they do this both stiles at a time with a double headed mortiser. Or something like that.

This job could also be done with a plunge router and some clever jigging.

One thing to consider with any kind of exterior shutter is to make it out of a weather resistant wood, such as redwood, no matter if it's going to be painted or not.

[Bret Jackson]

Not trying to make any excuses for you to buy a new tool but...i think i remember seeing a pretty cool apllication for the Festool Domino where someone made fixed louver shutters with it. Some sort ofjig should help with the spacing and holding the machine at the righ angle then i wouldsuspect it would go pretty quickly from there on out. Just my 2 cents.

[Tony Joyce]

I've used the Domino and it couldn't be any easier. I used it on some 1-3/8" interior doors. One stop pin on one side of the material and the other stop pin on the other side.

Tony Joyce