Cafe doors:

[sal]

Hi. woodies how hard would swinging louvered cafe doors be to make? I have a router and the basic handtools chisels etc. I tried to buy them local but they had to be custom made so I thought I would take a crack at them.

Sal

[Larry Jaques]

Make sure you find all the little templates and jigs people have been designing for them over the years, Sal. It takes away some of the Tediousity(tmLJ) of building them. Googlem up!

For hinges, try

nothing. No matter where you read it, Or who said it, Even if I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own common sense. -- Buddha

[J. Clarke]

Mainly have to cut lots and lots and lots of diagonal cuts. You'll need to make a jig. Google "louvered door jig" and you'll find several options. If you don't mind spending 25 bucks there's a New Yankee Workshop episode on this. .

[dadiOH]

Got a table or radial saw? If so it's not all that hard. If you don't, it would be.

Forgetting the louvers for a moment, the door frames are made like any other door frame. IIRC, the louvers are normally at 60 degrees. If you can live with 45 degrees - I do - the louvers can be easy too. Here's what I do...

1. Make the door frames 1 1/4" thick.
2. Rout or saw a 1" wide by 1/2" deep rabbet on the back side of the stiles where the louvers are going to go. The rabbet can be more than 1/2" if desired but the width must be 1".
3. Take two pieces of wood 1" x the depth of the above rabbet and rout or saw 1/4" X 1/4" kerfs across them at a 45 degree angle. Space the kerfs as you want the louvers to be. Don't forget that you need a right hand and a left hand strip for each door.
4. Rip off 1/4" strips from a board at 45 degrees. The board must be exactly 3/4" thick; if it is, the strips will exactly fit in the kerfs made in #3. The louver edges will be sharp, ease them slightly.
5. Mount the strips from #3 in the stile rabbets and insert the louvers.
6. Attach 1/4" x 5/8" +- molding on the back of the door to cover the pieces from #3.

[sal]

Thanks for the info guys . I thought I might need some type of jig.

Sal

[Dave]

That depends on how difficult a design you use. An adjustable mitre saw that can cut repeatable angles is basically all you need. Yes, it's a little more expensive that a jig, but it's much more capable for future projects than a jig could ever be.

[sal]

Sal

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[dadiOH]

One correction: the width of the rabbet and the piece into which the louver slots are cut should be 1 1/16 rather than 1". That's because the louvers - cut from 3/4" stock - will be 1.06 wide...a hair under 1 1/16.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Rockler (and others) have louver bits, and louver guide templates for doing the mortises. Especially the mortise guide is helpful. They even have a faux louver bit that lets you use solid slats and each represents three louvers.

[Limp Arbor]

Looks like Rockler knew you wanted to make these and have something for you.

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