I have been working on a project to replace a few shutters on the front of our house. I started out trying to do the project with hand tools but ran into snags. I just bought a new Bosch router table and router that fits the table. Most of my prior work with a router was done on an old Freud router table and an old router and I wanted to finally get this project done with familiar tools and methods.
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The router table is mounted on a cabinet I built for a variety of clamping, gluing needs. Yes, it has a Festool top so I can use Festool clamps to clamp things to it. On the right side of the table are the 8 panels I glued up and raised with hand planes. The green shutter on the left is what I am attempting to match. The yellow bits are three: rail & style & pannel raising bits. There is a piece of test wood on the table. I am tryng to figure out how one might go about getting the rail & style bits to cut matching profiles that glue up properly? I believe the standard method entails a major amount of trial and error. Maybe there is a quicker way?
The rails & styles on the original shutter appear to have warped, soaked up water and rotted. The orignal shutters are made of 1” thick stock, which box stores typically do not carry. I found a supply, probably a special trim board order, at Lowes by luck one day and bought all the decent pieces they had. I made the raised panels using the Lowes wood. I bought the stock for the rails and styles from the only supplier I could find who had 1” thick trim stock. The rail and style stock is actually water proof pressed MDF. I originally thought this might be a good thing as the waterproof pressed wood should not warp or rot. Now I am wondering if the rail & style stock can handle being routed without breaking?