Plantation Shutters

[David Less]

Hi,

Has anyone built any interior plantation shutters. It looks like a simple style and rail constuction but I'm not sure how to mount the center loovers and the loover rod. The store ones use little pieces of wire but theres got be be a simpler way for us do it your selfer's with full blown workshops. I don't want to have to spend money on plans. I figured I could use hardwood dowels for the loover pivot pins but still not sure how to mount the center loover rod to each loover.

Can anyone give me some advise?

David

[keith ouellette]

Norm did a great set of these on New yankee. He showed how to make the jigs you will need. It wasn't an easy one to do and is well out of my skill range. Start at new yankee work shop and look for plantation shutters.

[Carl Eyman]

I know you said you don't want to spend the money on plans, but isn't it sensible to spend $10 on plans and have a good result than not spend it and waste $50 worth of material, time. and have no product or one you don't like? IMHO, of course.

[David Less]

I know you said you don't want to spend the money on plans, but isn't it sensible to spend $10 on plans and have a good result than not spend it and waste $50 worth of material, time. and have no product or one you don't like? IMHO, of course.

Pretty much in my defense the only part I'm not sure of is how Norm fastens the loover bar to the loovers. I didn't want to spend 25 bucks on Norms plans for this.

David

[Dick Heatwole]

Woodline sells a 3 bit set to make the louvers and pins to install the louvers, etc. They will enclose a free plan along with the set. you will need a stapler to attach the adjustment rod.
I made 4 sets and they turned out to MBH complete satisfaction. I got the hinges from Rockler not sure of the number but you can do a search on their web site
Good Luck

[Steve Roxberg]

Woodline sells a 3 bit set to make the louvers and pins to install the louvers, etc. They will enclose a free plan along with the set. you will need a stapler to attach the adjustment rod.
I made 4 sets and they turned out to MBH complete satisfaction. I got the hinges from Rockler not sure of the number but you can do a search on their web site
Good Luck

The Woodline set is often on Amazon at a cheaper price.

I also know of a sourc for the louver material.

[Mike Forsman]

David,

I have made plantation shutters for about 7 of the 8 windows on the front of my house. I will be making the last one in several weeks and another batch of shutters before too long (need to finish some other projects first).

100_0331_crop_small.JPG 100_0350_small.JPG 100_0351_small.JPG


Here is the link to the thread where I first posted those pictures of one of the windows. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...t=17128&page=2

They are not really that hard to make. I did quite a bit of research prior to starting construction on the first batch. I even made a prototype out of cheap construction pine to make sure it would work the way I wanted it too. During my research, I discovered that plantation shutters were made of pine, basswood, maple, popular, and many other woods. I was planning to paint mine, so I decided to make mine out of soft maple. I thought pine, basswood, and popular would be too soft to stand up well in a house with 3 teens. Soft maple was not too expensive so I went with that. The last one will be stained and is being made out of red oak.

I built the rails and stiles using mortise and tenon joints. I made the rails slightly thinner than the stiles.

I though about making the louvers curved, but after looking at shutters in local stores, I noticed that many of the custom made shutters were made with flat louvers. So, I made mine flat too. I also used less wood by making the louvers flat. I rounded over the edges with a bull nose bit.

To attach the louvers to the stiles, I used shutter pins from woodworkers supply. (http://www.woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FU...ARTNUM=812-395).

I made the tension/tilt rod out of maple and used a bull nose bit on that too.

I made sure that I test fit all the parts together prior to doing the paint and final assembly. I was not sure that I would get a good finish with the shutters put together, so I painted mine before final assembly. I used Fuhr finish from Homestead finishing on mine. I sprayed it on to get a good smooth finish.

The most complicated part of the entire project was figuring out how to attach the louvers to the tension/tilt rod. All of the shutters I looked at locally had the louvers attached to the tension/tilt rod with staples. But, then I found several online places that custom built shutters. These companies talked about using brass eye screws instead of staples. The claimed that the brass eye screws would not pull out like the staples would. So I used brass eye screws. Put all of the eye screws in both the tension rod/tilt rod and into the louvers. Then using needle nose pliers I spread the eye screw in the tension/tilt rod just enough to put the eye screw from the louvers into the tension/tilt rod and then closed the tension/tilt rod eye back closed. Here are some details for the tension/tilt rod attachment that I tried to describe in words. I should point out that I did use solid brass and not brass plated eye screws. Brass was much easier to bend.

IMG_0665_Enhanced_resize.JPG IMG_0667_Enhanced_resize.JPG

Continued in my next post

[Mike Forsman]

Continued from my previous post

I also built a tension adjustment screw. When I built the prototype, I discovered that the louvers would not stay in position. So, I built in an adjustment screw to tighten one of the louver pins and keep it from moving unless someone moved the tension/tilt rod. I put the access hole for this adjustment screw on the hinge side of the shutter. I also put a neoprene washer that fit the screw and inside of the hole so that the screw would not back out when the louvers were tilted.

IMG_0662_Enhanced_resize.JPG Shutter Tilt Rod Details_Resize2.jpg

The line drawing attempts to show how adjustment screw is constructed. I drilled a hole all of the way through on one of the louver holes about 3 up from the bottom of the shutter. I used that as a reference to make a stepped hole from the outside. I then counter drilled a hole so that I could put a threaded insert into the hole. I used a 10-24 screw and put a neoprene washer that I found in the plumbing area of a local hardware store (not one of the big box units). This neoprene washer was just a little bit bigger in diameter than the hole. this allowed just enough friction to keep the screw from working loose as the louvers move. These shutters have been up now for over 2 years, and so far, the adjustment screws have not moved a bit.

I also had to build frames to go inside of the sheet rock around the windows. There was no way that those window openings were straight, square, level, or plumb. I build the frames and shutters at the same time. I think for the next batch, I will build the frames first, then build the shutters to fit the frames. As it was, I had to try to keep track of each frame and the shutter that went into that specific window.

If I can help with any more info, let me know.

[David Less]

Guys thanks for the valuable information. Mike great write up for the do it yourselfer from scratch. I think I'll follow your design, that way no need to buy a profile router bit for the loovers.

I told my wife just let me post on Sawmill Creek and I can make my own rather than spending 500.00 on store bought.

Thanks again everyone

David

[Ed Bamba]

Mike, not sure if you mentioned it or not. But how thick are the rails, stiles and louvers? I like your idea of flat louvers; I was wondering why the tapered louvers on some shutters.


Thanks, Ed

[frank shic]

david, i hope your wife doesn't come to hate us!!!

[Mike Forsman]

Mike, not sure if you mentioned it or not. But how thick are the rails, stiles and louvers? I like your idea of flat louvers; I was wondering why the tapered louvers on some shutters.


Thanks, Ed

Ed,

The louvers are 3/8" by 2 1/2". This is seems to be a standard size for the louvers. They overlap each other by 1/4" on each side. So, the non-overlapped space when the louvers are closed is 2". The louvers are just bull nosed. The louvers will not be completely vertical when closed, but the ones in the stores don't either. I did route a relief in the stiles so that the louvers would close more.

The stiles are 2" by 1 1/4".

The top rail is 1" thick by 4" high. The bottom rail is 1" thick but the how high it is depends on the height of the window. It has to be sized up to make the opening space an even multiple of 2".

Hope this helps.

[Fred Floyd]

I bought the plans from Norm's New Yankee Workshop and made the shutters as he did, with curved louvers.

I tried the router bit method without much success. With about 11 windows to do, I convinced my better half that I need the Shop Fox moulder. That turned out to make the project more expensive, but the louvers came out perfect.

The first batch was three windows in the living/dining room. I am quite pleased with the results.

[Fred Floyd]

In Norm's plans, he includes the making of two jigs that are essential to placing the staples in the louvers and control bars -- well worth the $10.00 that they ask.

[Calvin Crutchfield]

Fred,

Thanks for your information. I was informed/volunteered today to make the shutters for the house. I have a cpl questions for ya if you don't mind.

You decided to purchase the shop-fox molder, is the one Norm used he W and H? ($1875) ? I see the shop-fox molder on Amazon (sold by Grizzly) is the GO552 while the one on Grizzlys site is the G0488. Which one did you get and why?

Where did you get knives made? Were you able to get the kind Norm uses?

Did you alter from the plans from NYW at all?

Apologize if these questions will be answered in the plans. I ordered the plans and dvd today and am mostly curious about the molder/knives