Shutters

[JFC]

Ive been asked to make some open and shut louvre shutters for a friend of mine and wondered if anyone knew where i could buy the mechanism to open and close the louvres . The type i was thinking of is a rod that goes up the centre of the shutters . Any ideas ?
Thanks ,
Jason .

 

[Barry Burgess]

Jason if you use the plantation shutter idea the rod is of wood and the blades are stapled to the rod - they work well. I have the plans for the Norm version although the program has not been shown here.
Barry

 

[jasonB]

As barry says all you need is a rod and some staples or screweyes.

Interested what you are charging for these. The client that I did the bathroom & bedroom for had a company that specialize in plantation shutters they charged £1000 for two 5ft wide x 3'6" windows. The guy said they no longer make them here as it is too expensive, they have them custom made in the fare east including spraying in any BS or RAl colour.

JasonB

 

[JFC]

Its actually for a very good drinking buddy so the price will be a cheap one but the reason im doing the job is he was quoted £2500 for 4 400mm x 900mm and 4 450mm x 900mm ( 1 bay window ) I cant see my mates getting ripped off so i put myself forward for the job .
Barry do you have a link to the plans please ?

 

[Barry Burgess]

Jason I have got the Norm plans + DVD - there is alot of work involved. Norm makes 4 jigs
- Installing the stapes in the slats
- Attach slats to control bar
- Drilling holes in stiles
- Drilling holes in end of slats
PM me if you want more info
Barry

 

[Anonymous]

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[jasonB]

I think I also saw some being made on the woodworking channel but I may be getting mixed up with a repeat of Norm. Heres the link to NYW

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct3.cgi?0602

JasonB

 

[JFC]

Ive just been surfing for shutters and had a quote of £9000 for four 400mm x 900mm shutters :shock:
Also had a chat with Barry and it seems the blades of the shutters need to be shaped . Im racking my brains to think of an easier way to make these as it seems a hell of alot of work for something so simple .
My first thoughts are to buy some wooden blinds and frame them so the workings are all done but the effect of shutters is still there ....... but im still thinking :lol:

 

[Colin C]

JFC
I was thinking that you might be able to use a feilding panel router bit for the blades, well to get the shape at least and then round over the edges.
I would have thought it is not to hard with the right cutter :-k
Some thing like this
http://www.axminster.co.uk/recno/12/pro ... -22931.htm

 

[Barry Burgess]

Colin that bit is not quite right but have you consider the length of blades you have to make?. With a router you have to do 4 passes as well. Most who make them use a spindle moulder with a customer made bit so that you only have to do 2 passes per blade. The shutters that I have examined in detail look they are CNC controlled manufacture. They look so simple but there is loads of work and jigs would help - you cannot make any errors for them to work. I have watched Norm's DVD and each time have put the project on the back burner. With Jason thinking of building them has got me going again.
Barry

 

[jasonB]

JFC

Several of my clients have plantation shutters all from the same company and all of them have "flat" blades just the edges are rounded over. Would be easy to do on the spindle with a bead cutter. I saw the guys samples and only the ones with very wide blades had tapered surfaces.

They also have inserted pivots not reduced ends to the blades like I think Norm Does them. Would be easy to make a drilling jig and use a bit of brass rod.

Jason

 

[JFC]

Jason , that was my thinking , flat blades with doweled ends . Is it really that easy ? I think a mock up is in order just to see if it works .

 

[Colin C]

Barry
I agree with your point but I know that JFC does not have a spindle moulder and as it has not been put to use flat blades, I think that is in best way to go .

JFC
Like JasonB said, I think it would be better to use some brass rod insted of dowel as the dowel IMHO would become lose over a short time, any way have fun

 

[JFC]

Erm , Colin , remember that great big lump of cast iron being used as a table that was behind you when you where on the lathe .......Well thats actually a spindle moulder :lol:

 

[Colin C]

#-o (homer) :tongue9:
Well I was to busy turning , that my excuse and I am sticking to it :roll:
( now getting coat and going away for a while :wink: )

 

[Inspector]

If you want to shape the slats into what is essentially an elongated diamond shape, then put them through your planer. Oops! Thicknesser. Make a sled to hold the lengths of slat material and run them through. If you make 2 or 3 stations on a sled then you can cut multiples. You need two sleds. One for the rectangular section that you start with and a second to hold the other side that already has the tapers on it. To speed up the roughing you can use the table saw with the blade angled to cut the bevel, or if the sawn surface is good just use the table saw and skip the thicknesser.

 

[JFC]

Inspector , i think you where right first time with the planer . I cant see a sled working with a thicknesser as the feed rollers would pull it out the other side . I think :-k

 

[Inspector]

JFC
I think we have a bit of a terminology problem. (Darn foreigners)

When I said Planer that is what I meant. It's the North American term for your thicknesser.
In the context of a sled I want it to ride through rather than having a fixed auxiliary table clamped to the table. Both will work but the sled I've got in mind has the rectangular slats sitting in a shallow trench to give the correct angle for the slats. The feed rollers press the slat on to the sled and the slat pushes against a stop at the front of the sled and the whole thing slides through with the knives beveling the face of the slat.
That takes off the first quarter of the diamond. then you either flip the slat around or if there is a tear out problem a second groove tilts the slat over the other way.
That takes off the second quarter of the diamond. Now you need a different groove that is shallower by the amount removed from the first side to plane off the third and forth quarters.

So that is 4 passes to make a slat unless it's so thick that you need multiple passes to reduce the thickness to finished size.

The above is why I also suggested doing the rough bevelling with the table saw (push sticks and feather boards assumed) and if needed cleanup in the thicknesser.

You can see why it is usually done with a shaper. Myself. If I had to make some I would get some knives made for my Williams & Hussey planer/molder and do them in two passes. I'm not sure if there are any of those machines in the UK that you could get to but since chinese made clones are starting to show up here, it may not be long before they show up where you are.

 

[JFC]

I had a look into the williams and hussey shaper , it looks a great bit of kit and if i remember it was quite compact .