This Creeker's Past Week (Year) accomplishments

[ChrisA Edwards]

We moved into our TN house a couple of years ago, the wife wanted Plantation Shutters on many of the windows. I saw this as an opportunity to buy some new tools and so I started late 2017. We'd had Plantation Shutters installed on our Dallas house and that averaged out around $1000 per window.

I haven't kept a super accurate tally of my expenses, but I figure I'm at around $6000, but that includes buying $3200 worth of machines.

I'm retired, so my time doesn't count.

I used the Rockler Shutter System, buying most of the shutter hardware and their jigs for the Louver spacing and pin drilling.

I bought two truck bed fulls or 5/4 rough sawn Basswood, about $900.

My Dewalt 735 did most of the rough planing, before I broke down and bought a Hammer A3-31 when most of the planing was finished. I didn't figure that into the shutter cost as I pretty much didn't use it for this project.

I had about 60 mortise slots to cut, 1/2"w x 2" deep, so I bought a Powermatic PM719. This was one of the easiest tools to set up use.

For the Louvers, I needed 243 around 31" in length, so I bought a ShopFox W1812.

The wife wanted them painted white to match the existing trim, so I built a temporary spray booth in my garage. I initially bought an Apollo Turbine 5 HVLP spray gun, but I had minimal success so I tried a Graco Magnum X5 Airless sprayer, which I'd bought a couple of years earlier, and that worked perfectly.

This past week I hung 14 shuttesr in 11 windows and didn't have to modify anything for fit.

The wife is happy, now she's tasked me with doing 15 more windows.

[Ellen Benkin]

You are definitely on a roll! Less than $500 per shutter and lots of new machines.

[ChrisA Edwards]

With my wife latest request, for more shutters, I'm also hoping she'll approve a request to extend my garage an extra 30' x 13'.

I have room to do this extension, it would be nice to have a separate area for assembly, finishing and storage.

[Mike Wilkins]

The Rockler set up worked great for me when making some shutters for my own home. I made the fixed louver shutters for my home and their system was easy to follow. I suggest using a good sprayer to apply the paint if possible.

[ChrisA Edwards]

I suggest using a good sprayer to apply the paint if possible.

Do you have any suggestions?

I have an Apollo Turbine 5 HVLP, a couple of auto finish spray guns that work off my compressor and the Airless Graco Magnum.

I sprayed my Ducati myself, with the Automotive spray guns, and most people think it's the factory finish. I actually used this setup to spray some cabinet doors, in my kitchen, after I had to cut a 9" section out of the doors and re-glued them in their smaller configuration. You can't tell the difference between the pair I sprayed and the doors next to them with their original paint job.

I bought the Apollo HVLP system, but I had to thin the paints and primer and it was too much hassle filling the paint cups so frequently, even though I was using the 3M PPS system.

The Graco Airless , I sprayed the Sherman Williams straight out of the paint cans without any thinning. I did experiment with a few paint tips and actually went quite a bit finer than their recommendation.

I'm very satisfied with the Shutter's finish, their's no orange peel and the paint laid down super flat. I did sand the primer coat with 220 after sprayed that. I did get a couple of runs where I go a little too heavy with the paint application, but those sanded out easily and only required a minor touch up.

But I'm no expert, in finishing, by any means and if there are better tools or procedures for the job, I'm always willing to give them a try.

Thanks