Shutters

[woodsteach]

I'm planning on making some shutters for the our house.  We have many many windows.  I'm leaning towards raised pannels or board and batten. 

If I use raised pannels how much do you allow in the frame for pannel movement?

Have any of you done this before and if so would you do it again and with what modifications would you reccomend.

Paul

[low_48]

I once made two orders for internal shutters for two different houses. The were made of poplar and were insulated between the panels, and weather stripping around the frames. When closed they really kept a room warm in the winter. NOT exactly what you were asking about though. We will need to know the species to help with expansion numbers. Quartersawn stock will be the cut of choice so expansion is minimal, and well as limiting warping. If you make raised panel, make sure to have weep holes in the bottom rails as water will wick in the groove holding the panel and will soak in, damaging the wood and finish.

[woodsteach]

Thanks 48,

I hadden't thought of the weep holes.  I'm looking at either Eastern Red Cedar or White oak.  Most likely ERC.

So your shutters were functional and not just decorations, now you've got me thinking about making them functional as well.

Paul

[Dodgy Loner]

I would like to have some functional shutters.  Seems like living in Nebraska, it would be a nice thing to have during tornado season ;).  I've never made shutters, and I probably never will, but frame and panel shutters would lend a more formal appearance, while the board and battens would look more rustic.  I think your choice should depend on the appearance of the house.

[srt]

Woodsteach,

If you use ERC, a 12" panel will move  about 5/32" from 15% down to 7%.

If you use white oak, the movement will be about 3/8".

Both figures are for flatsawn.

So, just figure (or guess) where your moisture is, and adjust accordingly.  I'd subtract an additional 3/16  from the panel in addition to allowing for the moisture movement. to be safe that the panel will not expand and blow apart your rail/style joints.

My choice would be heart ERC - Qsawn if possible.  I think they would be easier to make, last longer and surely not challenge the hinges as much, since they're way lighter than W. Oak.

I've built shutters before, and repaired quite a few.  You're basically building a door when you build a panelized shutter.  They take a good bit of time.

I have some  things I've learned that help me.   I'm not saying this is the way it has to be done, as there is more than one correct way to do just about everything.

Make the panels initially a little wider than you want (say 1/2").  When you run the ends through the shaper, there's sometimes some blowout.  If your panels are a bit wider than needed, and blowout occurs, you can just joint or rip some off and then run the bevel on the sides.  Your panel will still be wide enough.  You can also "back up" the panel with scrap as it goes through the shaper, but I'm not fond of trying to hold two pieces of wood with a screaming shaper at my fingertips.  Blowout is not much of a problem if you're running your raises on the tablesaw, but making it a little wider is still insurance.

I like to leave the rails and the top and bottom style all a little wide and cut it down to size after glueup.  This eliminates the need for clamp cauls and allows you to do a final squaring up of the shutter on the tablesaw if you need to.  Generally, real shutters have a half lap joint where the two shutters meet when they are closed, so the left and right hand shutter have reversed laps on their meeting styles.

Caps are a good investment, along with about a 7 degree bevel on the top and bottom rail.  Coil stock can be cut up and bent to make a good cap.  It doesn't take much to hold the caps in place, I've even just used caulk on a snug fitting cap.  Don't really want to put a lot of holes in something that's basically flashing the top of endgrain.  A few stainless trim nails could be used instead

When you hang them, if you want them to function, you may have to trim them again.  Old windows aren't always square, so bear that in mind before you measure and plop hinges on the shutters and house and expect them to come together nicely when they're closed. 

My favorite way to assembly a shutter is to make mortiss and tennon joints and glue it all together with West Syatems epoxy and colloidal silica.  Also, I coat the upper rail top and lower rail bottom with a little thinned down west systems to minimize absortpion.  However, years ago, shutters were assemblied without any glue at all, just through mortiss and tennons with wedges and then one or two square pegs driven through round holes from the face side at each T/M joint to lock all joints.  Every old shutter I've torn apart had no glue in it originally, and lasted for quite a long time.

Hope this helps.  I gotta get some lunch now.....

[low_48]

Did a little Google work, a couple of great sites for ref.
http://www.headhousesquare.com/index.asp
http://www.philadelphiashutters.com/

[woodsteach]

Thanks 48 fro all of the great info... now for the Mrs. to decide on which look she wants.  Then to decide if they are going to be functional or not.

decisions, decisions

Paul