Making Plantation Shutters

[BOB OLINGER]

Greg - Give Tim a call. He's a great guy; maybe has what you need even though not on the website. I had some difficulty with my moulding machine one weekend, sent him an email, and he responded on the weekend. Now, that's pretty good service!

[Ben Abate]

I emailed Tim yesterday and he's on vacation this week. but he did reply. I'll wait til next week to talk with him about the tooling.

Any Pictures yet Bob. I'm not in any hurry I thought I'd ask since I was replying to the above thread.

Ben

[John Toigo]

Well it's a production machine. If you have a moulder you can run your stock off to whatever length you can handle in your shop - like 20' lengths. Then just run it through the pin cutter & the louvers just drop right off. Probably take longer to drill the holes in the sides for the pins. Of course if you had a multiple head boring machine.......

[Ben Abate]

Bob,

You did say that you used the 3" cutter in an oval shape from Tim correct? He just emailed me a few profiles to see what I might want and I thought you mentioned that you used the oval. If I may ask, what are the sizes of your frame members if the slats are 3 inches? I have a few jobs to do but I'm sort of waiting to see what all info is out there before I give it a go. I'd like to see your end results or any other pictures you have of the process.

thanks for your help
Ben

[BOB OLINGER]

Hi Ben,

Sorry, but I'm in Chicago for a few days on business so I can't respond with definite accuracy. However, I'm quite sure the stiles on all the shutters I made are 2" wide. Now, the rails are different width depending on the height of the shutter the taller shutters have wider rails. A couple more things on the width of the rails. First, you should lay out the shutter in height using the slat width - I believe mine over- lapped about 1/4" with the 3" slats. Second, I adjusted the width of the rails once I figured out about how many slats you'd use for the particular size window. Third, stand back and take a look and see if you like your dimensions. For example, if the rails look too wide, you can see if you can narrow them up and add more slats. Determine if you want a middle rail - same process. Take a trip to Lowes (maybe some other borgs have plantation shutters, I went to Lowes). They have several floor displays - take your tape measure and make notes on what you like and don't. Also, I took a few pictures but didn't get them posted yet. I promise to try to post them. Have you seen Norm's CD on making plantation shutters? If not, I suggest to get it. I didn't follow everything he did, but it was a great help. Concerning the knives for the slats, I'll retrieve that info when I get home. Meanwhile, if you want, just ask Tim which one I bought - he should have it in his records. I will have to say that making plantation shutters was a challenge beyond my previous work, but a GREAT feeling of accomplishment. For example, accuracy in drilling the holes in stiles or slat ends shows up quickly if off just a little. I still have an order for a daughter in process - these from poplar as they will be painted (another challenge) -slats are milled, not cut for length; rails and stiles are cut ( at least I think so as this project was started well over a year ago, then my wife put her order as top priority). Anyway, I've learned a lot, including a few tricks, and willing to share all. Again, I'll try to post pictures later this week. Meanwhile, if any other questions, let them fly.

[BOB OLINGER]

Hi Ben,

Sorry it took so long, but here's a couple pictures of my shutter making. I tried to post more, but it said the files were too big. If anyone can give me some pointers on posting pictures, that would be great.


Shutter construction 004.jpgShutter construction 005.jpgPlantation Shutters. 001.jpg