Building Plantation Shutters - My Review of Rockler's System

Building Plantation Shutters Using the Rockler System - My own findings

I recently built the 1^st set of Plantation Shutters for a window near my shop in the basement. I wanted to test the process so I picked a window that wasn't too visible, just in case it didn't turn out well! I used the Rockler Jigs and Methodologies to build the 2-panel shutters for this window.
I purchased the 3 ½” Plantation Shutter Jig from Rockler and all the louver pins, louver hooks, non-mortise hinges, mouse-hole jig and all the other 'fixings' that go with the Rockler System.

For those that are interested - Here are my findings:

Rockler Design Wizard
I used the shutter design wizard on the Rockler website - http://shutters.rockler.com/louver.cfc?method=start

It generates a full list of parts and supplies that you can buy at Rockler.

PROS
· It generates a full list of parts and supplies that you can buy at Rockler.
· The wizard does do a great job with the shutter door height. The height is the more difficult calculation – the width of the upper and lower rails (they are different) and where to drill the holes for each louver are the difficult calculations – the wizard calculates these and draws a nice .pdf picture to illustrate.

CONS
· The challenge with the Rockler Shutter Wizard is that rather than asking you for the window opening – it asks you for the actual shutter dimensions – which means that you have to do calculations to figure out what each shutter size will be. My spreadsheet now calculates the size of each shutter door panel based on the window opening.
· The shutter wizard uses 2-inches for all stiles, but the Right Door – Left Stile needs to be 2-3/8“ – the plans do not account for this.
· For taller windows - The wizard does not include the option for a middle rail - you have to calculate and make adjustments for the middle rail.


Louvers – Buy from Rockler or build them myself?

For me, the decision to buy Rockler’s Louver stock or build my own came down to a few points:
· I wanted 7/16” thickness for the louvers - Rockler only sells 3/8” thickness
· I had been in the store a couple times and quite a few of their 58” stock was warped quite badly - I wanted to be able to control the quality….
· The 58-inch dimension works well for some windows - I had louvers that were going to be about 21 inches wide, so that would mean only 2 louvers per 58-inch stick - 16 inches of each stick would be wasted.
· $8.99 is the regular price for the 3 ½” stock, although I have seen them go on sale for $4.99



Pros & Cons of using the Rockler System
Here is what I learned from using the Rockler Shutter Templates & Instructions:
PROS
· Website Wizard was very easy to use! – very precise – didn’t notice any discrepancies. It generates great pictures - very accurate!
· Plans that came with the Rockler Shutter Jigs – very good! Lots of details & pictures
· Quite a few videos online that described the process of how to build the shutters.
CONS
· Shutter Pins – Very Expensive. Norm’s source for shutter pins are much cheaper…..
· Because the louvers were very thin on the edges – it was difficult, even with the Rockler jig to drill the hole accurately with a hand-drill. Some of the holes “blew out” the side. This made it very difficult to install the barbed hooks properly.
· The mouse hole jig wasn’t deep enough – I had to fuss with the plastic jig a lot to get the mortise long enough for the length of the control arm to fit into the mortise
· Hooks used to connect Louvers to Control Arm – I had issues with these - they seem very cheaply made - they aren’t sturdy enough and for me - they had a tendency to pull out. They are almost impossible to put back in once they come out.
· Holes drilled in the stiles with the spring-loaded, self-centering ¼” bit were too loose for the Louver pins. Not sure why.
· Bassword is a very stringy wood, so drilling the holes with the cordless drill caused some tearing of the material around the drill holes. It wasn’t a clean, crisp hole like you would get with a drill press running at a higher RPM.
· Poor quality of Rockler's 58-inch louver stock - the quality was poor for the inventory the Rockler store had in stock for the couple visits I made to the Denver store - YMMV



Norm Abrams’ “Methods” of Building Plantation Shutters
After I finished the 1^st set, I ran across Norm Abram’s NYW videos for his Plantation Shutter build on YouTube. He builds 2 ¼” movable shutters with the front control arms – very similar to Rockler’s system.
I bought the plans from him and then used his 2 youtube videos for reference.
There are also Pros & Cons with Norm’s system. I think Norm’s methods are generally better – especially the way he uses a Narrow-Crown Stapler to shoot the staples into the louver sides and into the control arms. They are much sturdier and will hold up a lot better over time. His jigs are top-notch, but they will take time to build.
His Stapler jig makes shooting the staples into the louver sides very accurate.
I also like the way Norm uses the drill press to drill the shutter pin holes in the stiles and on the ends of each louver. Again, the drill press has a higher RPM so the drilled holes are much cleaner in the stringy Basswood.
Building Norm’s jigs takes time, but now that I have these built, then you can be very accurate in building the shutters.


Another Thing to Think About - Window Frames?
When I started the 1^st set of shutters, the hardest part was trying to figure out what kind of frame to build. The Rockler system has a couple illustrations on what to do for the frames, but there are many different types of windows - so there are lots of things to think about.
I found http://theshutterstore.com – It was a very helpful site – lots of videos and descriptions of every kind of plantation shutter and of quite a few different types of frames.
I settled on a Z-Frame Inside-Style frame that is described on their website – somewhere I found the rough dimensions of their Z-Frame and adapted it a bit to what we liked. It was very time consuming to go through multiple iterations, but now that I have made a set, I can now build them without too much trouble. I made the 1^st set of window frames from 2x4 Douglas Fir material. They turned out OK – they have a lot of knots – I will probably use Basswood for the next sets of shutters.

Here is the wizard that you can use to see what different configurations will look like – 2-panel, 4-panel, mid-rail, no mid-rail, hidden or front control arm, etc – helpful to visualize
http://www.theshutterstore.com/shop/...eight-shutters


Summary
Like I mentioned above - I have built a set of shutters for 1 window using the Rockler system.
For the next run of 8 windows, I have used the Rockler Design Wizard and have generally kept the Rockler "dimensions"
For construction however - I have switched over to using Norm's methods and jigs - I feel they are better for me.

For the run of 8 more windows, I have built all the window frames and just finished making over 400 louvers that are 7/16” thick!
They turned out great - lots of labor involved. I am keeping detailed notes and taking pictures as I go, so I will be happy to share my notes as I go.
I will add new posts with narrative & pictures throughout this 8-window run.
It may take a few months to get all these completed!

Feel free to ask questions along the way - I will give my honest opinion.


Thanks


Nate

Nate, I am properly shamed to admin I purchased the Rockler kit last year and have yet to put wood to work on building the first set of shutters. Your review is so useful - I agree on the Rockler stock, I had already decided to mill my own louvers, but considering other species as I haven't found Basswood locally. I am now energized to get back on track, and will benefit greatly from your experiences!

How do you make your own louver? Use router table, shaper or moulder?

I've built four window shutters using the Rockler 3 1/2" system. I agree with your assessment and pro/cons. I made my own louvers (using the Rockler router bit) because I wanted them in Oak rather than the basswood available from Rockler. It took some trial and error to get the louvers right, and be prepared to setup several safety jigs to run that thin stock through that large router bit. In the end though, I ended up with some really beautiful shutters. I had an estimate to put shutters on those windows prior to deciding to build myself, and it was for several thousand more than I paid for the kit, bits and stock.

I had not thought of the Norm approach, and will check that out prior to my next batch. Thanks (I agree that the pins to connect the sutters to the rod are a PITA)

I made the louvers using Rocklers 3-1/2 louver router bit. As Steven mentioned, to keep the thin louver stock tight against the fence, I used a set of Double feather boards on both the indeed and outfeed sides of the router fence. It is very labor intensive and time consuming - each louver goes through the router bit 4 times to shape the 'airplane wing' profile on the louver. A slow constant feed rate was the secret - I ran the 425 louvers and they turned out nice - very little chip out. The basswood mills very nicely.
i figured out the approximate costs for milling my own louvers. Will do a separate post on that.


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I know the moulder would be the best choice for making louver. I have a shaper (1 1/4" spindle) with power feeder, just wondering if anyone has used the shaper with the corrugated knife to mill the louver.

I've used a shaper to round the louvers. Since the rounding is such a small cut I consider it perfectly safe to "climb cut" them with a fast rate power feed speed.

Great write-up. Did it save any money to make your own louvers?

I had their fixed louver jig for a couple of years before dusting the dust off and reading the instructions-twice. I used Cypress for the build since it was going to be painted. I considered the Rockler louver stock but they do not have an outdoor-rated material on offer, so it was time to do some milling. I would do a slighter wider stile next time and invest in a better paint method.
Running the Cypress through the planer to get the 1/4" thickness, sawing to width, then multiple passes on the router table to get the proper round-over on each piece was a lot of work.