johnnyb
Established Member
I thought I'd post about how I went about making some fixed slat external shutters. Now the leigh fmt has an attachment that makes angled mortices to suit tenons made on the same jig. I have an fmt but the jig isn't available in the uk and is quite pricey for a few shutters. So that left me to ponder a good way to make these using what I had(this is always the fun part)
After a bit of pondering I settled on 1 3/4 inch square frame with 1/4 inch slats. The idea was to use a dado set at 1/4 to make evenly spaced cuts at 45 degrees both left and right to form a pair. Some thought had to go in to the spacing of the slats so they left a decent gap top and bottom and also the position of the first cut. I Could use a removable spacer gauge on the mitre gauge to achieve even spacing after making the first cut. I did occur to me that I'd have no trouble with the first side but I'd have trouble getting the second side perfectly matched as it involved re making the wooden mitre fence/removable spacer in the exact same spacing but on the opposite side. The first sides were perfect but making the opposite side proved hard. As it was seemingly impossible to reproduce this spacing(what happened was any tiny discrepancy resulted in large issues due to error accumulation. I decided to measure using calipers initially then every three slats stop and take a look what was happening and compare it with its opposite side. If it was getting in front I'd tap it to close the distance and vice versa. It involved slightly loosening the mitre gauge screws tap tap. Do three more. Check. This method got me perfect on the ends slats and within a mm or 2 on the mid slats. Phew. The position of the first cut I established using a few test boards longer than the shutter then by putting a sized slat in the groove it was possible to establish a spacing and a start position so the top and bottom gaps were nice and even. Ps can anyone identify the wood?
After a bit of pondering I settled on 1 3/4 inch square frame with 1/4 inch slats. The idea was to use a dado set at 1/4 to make evenly spaced cuts at 45 degrees both left and right to form a pair. Some thought had to go in to the spacing of the slats so they left a decent gap top and bottom and also the position of the first cut. I Could use a removable spacer gauge on the mitre gauge to achieve even spacing after making the first cut. I did occur to me that I'd have no trouble with the first side but I'd have trouble getting the second side perfectly matched as it involved re making the wooden mitre fence/removable spacer in the exact same spacing but on the opposite side. The first sides were perfect but making the opposite side proved hard. As it was seemingly impossible to reproduce this spacing(what happened was any tiny discrepancy resulted in large issues due to error accumulation. I decided to measure using calipers initially then every three slats stop and take a look what was happening and compare it with its opposite side. If it was getting in front I'd tap it to close the distance and vice versa. It involved slightly loosening the mitre gauge screws tap tap. Do three more. Check. This method got me perfect on the ends slats and within a mm or 2 on the mid slats. Phew. The position of the first cut I established using a few test boards longer than the shutter then by putting a sized slat in the groove it was possible to establish a spacing and a start position so the top and bottom gaps were nice and even. Ps can anyone identify the wood?