Replies

1. 
   blewcrowe | May 11, 2007 03:10pm | #1

   I'd probably do it on the table saw. (Hey, I don't know if that came out right.)

   I create a sled that rides in the ts slots, with a fence permanently affixed at the angle I wanted, then slide the piece across a dado head cutter. If one was "good", and I aint that good, one could rig up an indexing spacer, too.

2. 
   daverichards | May 11, 2007 04:16pm | #2

   There's an excellent jig for routing angled mortises for louvers. It is described in a book called 25 Woodworking Projects for Small and Large Boats edited by Peter Spectre and published by WoodenBoat.

   It is basically a router on a long trammel arm and a couple of clamping surfaces for the work. Although technically the mortises that are cut are short arcs, their radii are so large they are effectively straight. The chapter in the book that describes the process goes into great detail about setting up and using the jig as well.

   You can get the book from the WoodenBoat Store or probably from your local big box bookstore.

3. 
   ring | May 11, 2007 06:02pm | #3

   One way is to make a shallow tray-like jig that the plunge router base sits in, and allows only the movement in one axis needed to create the mortise. Underneath the tray would be 2 rails to position it over the piece being worked on and hold the correct angle. It would also need a small "tenon" or pin to set in the previous rout and index the distance to the next one. You'll need a right-hand jig and a left-hand one. And you need to leave a good 6" of extra length at both ends to be cut off after you've done all the routing. It's a little tedious but I did it this way once.

   Another way which might be interesting would be to set up a Festool Domino to do the same trick. Improvise an angled fence and indexing pin. Same principle as the router but the "tray" is built into the tool.

   David Ring

   http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e

1. 
   chaim | Feb 01, 2008 02:51am | #7

   That's a good way to do it, but I found it a really heard glue up! (it was a Big door!)

   A better way would be to make the jig and rout deeper groves then rip the stock to width and apply as you would a molding together with your louvers. You can do this after assembly and so miss out on that hard glue up and cut your louvers accurately with out any hassle!

   ChaimMake your own mistakes not someone elses, this is a good way to be original !

4. 
   dull tool | May 12, 2007 04:43pm | #4

   try New Yankee Workshop
   327 Holly Court
   Williston, VT. 05495

   JIGS AND PLANS Item no. NY 0101P
   Price (2/21/2001) was $15.00 plus $4.95 S&H
   MORTISING JIG FOR LOUVRE SLATS

   ALSO LOOK UP KNOTS #34527.1

1. 
   oldbeachbum | Jan 31, 2008 10:18am | #6

   There y'a go bringing Norm into it, again!...The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it.  -Mark Twain...Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home....aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!

5. 
   user-200815 | Jan 31, 2008 09:14am | #5

   Festool's DOMINO not router - but easy, fast and accurate

   http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/DOMINO/Louvers/Louvers0.html

1. 
   daverichards | Feb 01, 2008 07:51pm | #10

   That's a neat idea if you have a Domino.

   For those who don't and haven't been tipped over the edge to buy one after seeing this, here's a sketch of a jig for doing the same thing with a router. Although probably not as fast as using a Domino it would certainly be cheaper.

   http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/b51a46b0.jpg

   This is drawn from the plans for it in 25 Woodworking Projects edited by Petre Spectre and published by WoodenBoat.

   The jig amounts to a trammel with a very long arm. The router is swung through such a short arc, the resulting mortise is essentially an oval. One stile is mortised while clamped to the right fence, the other while clamped to the left fence.

   The original is very low tech and would be cheap to build. The over engineer in me has all sorts of ideas for incremental moving of the stiles and other things. Sometimes though the KISS method is better.

1. 
   user-200815 | Feb 02, 2008 04:28am | #11

   Questions about the Router With Swing Arm idea.The long tramell arm lets you route a curved slot - the arc having a sufficiently long radius to route a short slot that is essentially straight.Questions:1. as shown, how do you cut the first few slots above the mortise? You'd have very little of the part to be slotted against the fence.2. how do you control the beginning and end of the slot (length of the arc)?3. how do you index the spacing between the slots?Each question individually has an easy answer. But the combination gets a little more complex, especially since you have to be able to cut mirror image slots on the opposite part.This is a creative, innovative group. Solutions?

1. 
   daverichards | Feb 02, 2008 05:17am | #12

   Charlie, those are good questions.

   From the book:

   1. Holding the work: As is typical with door frames joined with mortises and tenons the stiles are left long and the horns sawn off after assembly. As I understand it, leaving the stiles long helps to prevent a blow out when cutting the mortise near to where the end of the stile will ultimately be.

   2. Controlling the length of the slot is done by setting stops to limit the travel. The author discusses this and uses screws as the stops. I imagine one could make more easily adjusted stops if desired.

   3. The stiles are clamped together and index marks are laid out. the author inidcates that he likes a one inch pitch for this. The index marks would be aligned with marks on the jig.

   As you say, it's a creative and innovative bunch. I bet some of the brighter bulbs (I'm only about 25 watts so that's just about everyone else. ;)) could come up with some more flashy solutions.

   I suppose in this day of high tech machines such as the domino, this sort of thing is rather primitive. On the other hand a lot of the tools we use in woodowrking are even more primitive even if they were just made last week.

6. 
   Hal123 | Feb 01, 2008 04:46pm | #8

   As a related question regarding shutters, has anyone ever set up to make integral pins on the slats for operable shutter slats? How did you do that?

1. 
   ChipTam | Feb 01, 2008 07:48pm | #9

   I made about 40 shutters with moveable louvers 20 years ago.  There were two articles around that time that were very helpful (one in FWW: the other in FHB).  Check the index under "shutters".  I'm sure you'll find them.  They're not that hard to do once you've made the jigs.  However, there's a surprising amount of wood in each one.  Mine were exterior shutters and I found that cedar worked best.  I started off using douglas fir but the shutters were heavier than need be and the slats tended to splinter.

   Chip