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Has anyone out there actually made outside window shutters? I have looked at Norm Abrams method of making plantation shutters but I am not clever enough to apply it to making window shutters with the fixed louvers. All of the ones I see to but are plastic and not too attractive.
Jerry
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Jerry,
Guess you forgot about our little discussion over at the Cafe. No problem though, my head wasn't too clear the next morning either. As I said:
Any who, to answer your question, yes I have. There are several ways to do this and I recall seeing plans for a shop built jig where a router can speed things up a tad, although where escapes me at the moment.
Generally, the louvers should be at 60°. You will need to lay out the top and bottom ones out on the inside edge of the stiles, divide this space by the number of louvers needed (allowing for thickness). Use a scrap piece of 1/4" hard board as a template cutting out a "chevron" at the appropriate angles. This template should be large enough to safely support your router. Attached to the bottom of the template will be two fences distanced the exact width as the the thickness of the two stiles. Clamp the stiles together on edge. Using a bottom bearing straight bit or pattern bit rout out the "slots" following your lay out marks.
Another method would be to make a template similar to the one above with the exceptions that all the "slots" are cut out and the template clamped or tacked to the edges.
One other method is to clamp the stiles together, set your adjustable bevel to 60°, lay out the slots using a marking knife or awl, and chisel them out by hand.
You could also use double round mortise and tenons, regular mortise and tenons, or even double dowels. Though I wouldn't recommend dowels.
Dano
*Jerry,Since I took the time to make a rough sketch of a router jig as you requested via an e-mail, I thought I would share it with others as well. FWIW. Dano
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