Louvres

Ruffles

Ruffles

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Joined
26 Feb 2004
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3,046
Location
Boat: Portsmouth, Us: Stewkley
www.soulbury.demon.co.uk
Making new wash boards - or about to.

Need to build in a louvred vent. I'd rather build them in to the board rather than buy louvred pieces to stick on. Seems more elegant and the boards will then stack flat.

So I will have a rectangular hole in the top board. I presume I make separate cheek pieces to take the louvre slots? Do I run the slots all the way through (easier) or make them blind for better appearance?

On another note. If I buy teak/iroko in 150x25mm and epoxy them together to make 300x25mm (two boards) will that be reasonably stable or will it warp. I'll edge it with 25x25mm across the end grain. But I want to be able to get them out after rain! The original boards are trimmed teak faced ply.

TIA
 
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The top washboard on my old gaff ketch is made from louvred door bought from a hardware barn and cut down to size.

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Until recently I had two full height louvred cupboard doors in the garage. Most of the slats went as kindling. They were hardwood but not teak so unsuitable for our climate - even with 10 coats of varnish.

I guess I could cut slots in the boards themselves. A 45 degree slot in 25mm timber would need to be 35mm deep. Is that possible with a router? I've never used one!
 
Routers are wonderful tools....... Like a scraper (only worse) you can do an awful lot of damage to a piece of wood with a router in unskilled hands. Don't let this put you off - buy a decent router and more importantly good quality bits and practice on some spare timber. Whilst the skill isn't instant, it's not that difficult to pick up. Old Frank
 
Frank,

Never even seen a router. Your talking to someone who invariably uses a hand drill if at all possible. I only bought a power drill when I needed to put 1/4" holes in a brick wall.

Seriously though. Reading up on these things they seem to typically have a 55mm plunge depth. Are they able to make an angled cut? They come with a "template guide, parallel fence". I assume this is the bit that allows you to make a straight cut? Looking at this sort of thing?

SWMBO has me down to build shelves on the landing. So I may be able to justify buying one...
 
Your better off making a jig and using the guide bush to do all those slots . Once you have your jig made you will have the job done in no time with a router . You can tell SWMBO that the router will allow you to put a nice moulding on the edges of the shelves .
 
If I had a choice of tool to cut 45deg slots in rectangular or square section timber I would use in order of preference
A radial arm saw with preferably a dado head (sliding compound saws around £100 if you shop around)
A table saw as above
A router mounted in a table
Hand cut and chisel if time allowed
and finally a hand held router and jig,
mainly for the reason that you can ruin a nice piece of timber extremely quickly with a hand held router!
 
Dados are fine for trade use in trade machinary . I am assuming that having never used a router before the OP has no experiance with machinary , so telling him to put a stacked dado head in a table saw is not a good idea IMHO .
For the OP a hand held router and a jig with a large base area would be cheaper and safer . All in my opinion of course /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif


I think this says it all
1: it is not illegal to buy or own said tooling:
2: the dado sets can only be legally used upon machines that are set up for them: i.e. a longer spindle/shaft on the machine in question.
3: the machine(with the exception of radial arm saws) must have been manufactured before the year 2000(i think may be 1998/9)
4: the main reson for the banning of the use of dado cutters is due to the fact that all modern machinery has to have a braked motor. (a motor which will stop within 3 seconds or less, which if fitted with a dado set(many blades/chippers/washers.. will automatically start to undo the retaining nut the minute the brake takes effect......now if you then start back up the machine the blades which are now loose will resemble a ninja death star film..and end of workman ) and not as previously stated, as some wadkins machines etc have overlaying guards and not blade mounted guards.
AND 5: if you are caught using said setup on a newer machine or even injured by them coming apart, you will be prosecuted...that is if you are still alive...
hope the above helps to clarify the situation
 
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