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My current job I’m working on requires that I fabricate two tall raised panel doors for a pantry closet. The closet also contains a gas hot water heater. The city building codes require that the doors have louver vents installed in the bottom section. My customer wants the doors to be made of White oak to match the cabinetry and trim I’m building for the kitchen. They would like the louvers to be made of white oak also, so here’s where I need some help. Does anyone know of a jig that can be made to fabricate the louvered vents or any suggestions on how I could cut the louver mortises. I’ve built plantation shutters for customers before; however, in that application the louvers actually operated rather than just be stationary. Thanks in advance for any help.
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I made a set of louvered doors for a wet bar once, 'Dog. Piece of cake. Mortise the stiles before you assemble the door. Make a jig that clamps onto the stile. It allows the mortising bit to move only in a straight line, the width of the slats, at whatever angle you decide, maybe 60 degrees or something.
You plunge and slide, retract the bit, slide your jig to the next indexing mark and repeat, and on and on, until you're done. Easy. Just takes a little experimentation with the angle and layout. It helps if the bit is just a hair wider than the slats.
Excellent application for spiral bits. I'd be glad to send you my jig, if it will help.
*Hey Jim,Thanks! If you had a picture or drawing I could probably get by. On the wet bar doors do you recall what the thickness of the stiles were?
*Well, I can't post a drawing OR a photo. Should I fax it to you? If you can wait for the mail, say 3 days, I'd be happy to mail it to you on condition you send it home when you're done. You'll probably want to alter it from mine anyway. Tell me what to do buddy.The doors on that wet bar were either 7/8 or 1", coulda, maybe, been a strong 3/4", I can check, hold on, I'll run down to the shop......OK, I'm back. The fences are set for 1+1/4" right now, but there are layout lines on the bottom of the table that make me think the first time I made the jig was for a 1" door, and that seems right to me. But all you'll have to do is unscrew the fences and adjust the width to whatever you need. Also, I threw my 30/60 triangle on there to check it out, and sure enough, the slot for the mortises was 60 degrees. Probably used a 5/16 straight bit to mortise with.