This is Part 2 of Board and Batten Shutter Tutorial

Read Part 1 here

By the end of this post you should be able to make a board and batten shutter for your house that looks just like the one in the photo below. Plus, you will be able to make it at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a custom made board and batten shutter.

At this point you have decided what type of wood you want to use, and whether you want a cut out. You have also decided how you want to mount your shutter and what width of boards you are going to use. You have also measured and made your lumber list.

I haven't mentioned the batten part of board and batten shutters. I have found that 1 X 4 size lumber works best on all sizes of shutters. I even used them on the very small 23 inch shutters that we made for the garden shed. More on the garden shed shutters at the end of the tutorial.

You have also purchased your lumber and of course you only chose straight blemish free lumber. Make sure you have stacked your lumber with spaces and let it dry for at least a week if it is pine.

Here is where you can chose which step you do first. You can cut the boards to length first and then router the edges or router the entire length of the board first and then cut your lumber. We have done it both ways and there is a small advantage to cutting the boards to length first because it is a little easier to clamp down a shorter length of board so you can use the router.

Now is the time to make the board part of your board and batten shutter look like it is tongue and groove board. By using a router with a round over bit you can achieve the look of tongue and groove without having a tongue or a groove.

Only router the front side of the board on the length edges. Do not use the router on the ends. Believe it or not but this step will be the very last step that you do. I know it sounds weird but trust me it saves a lot of frustration and gives a better finished product.

The three most important things to remember when using your router are.......

#1 make sure the piece of wood is securely clamped down so that it does not move (check to make sure that your clamps are not in the way of the router before you actually turn on your router.

#2 go in a counter clockwise direction.

#3 use a light touch. You don't have to push or apply pressure. Just keep the bearing touching the wood. The wood will have burn marks or gouges if you apply too much pressure.

At this point you have your boards cut to length and rounded over. For the sake of this tutorial we will assume that your shutter will be 3 boards wide. Lay your 3 boards face down and lined up perfectly. Then number them so that the order of the boards do not get mixed up from shutter to shutter. I use the 1A 1B 1C 2A 2B 2C method.

The next step is to join the boards together using a biscuit plate/joiner. You may want to skip this step, especially for very short shutters. We chose to do this step because it helps to keep the shutter rigid and straight, especially during the batten attaching step because we screw through the back so that none of the fasteners are visible from the front.

With the shutter boards face down and lined up perfectly, you will then draw a very straight line across one shutter to the next shutter. The number of lines depends on the length of the shutter. On our 50+ inch shutter, we drew 5 evenly spaced lines for 5 biscuits on our medium shutter we did 3 and sometimes 4.

Our biscuit joiner is a bargain priced model and I think we paid 69 bucks for it. It works just fine and we have used it a lot. Not only for shutters but also for the top boards on our deck railing.

Test run your biscuit joiner on a scrap piece of wood that is the same thickness as your shutter wood. You want the slot to be in the middle part of your wood. According to the instructions for your particular biscuit joiner make any adjustments up or down.

Here are a few YouTube videos to acquaint yourself to plate/biscuit joiners. They do a much better job of explaining than I do. Nothing beats a visual explanation.

Unboxing and Quick Review: Harbor Freight Plate / Biscuit Joiner

Biscuit Joinery Tips and Tricks

The biscuit joiner should have a center line on the pad that sticks out in front of your joiner. Line this up with the line that you drew on your wood. Turn on the joiner and plunge the cutter forward. Make sure that you keep the joiner level as it cuts. If you do not keep it level the slot will be cut on an angle and when the biscuit is install it will make it difficult to insert into the corresponding slot in the adjacent board.

We have found that we get the best slots when we plunge three times. The first time is halfway so that the wood chips can be removed when the cutter is retracted. The second time you go all the way and retract to bring out the chips and the final time all the way into the slot will clear out any left behind wood chips. You will know when the slot is completely cut and empty of chips when no more chips come out of the joiner. You will also hear a change in the sound of the motor because it is no longer cutting wood at this point.

Here is a short video of R using the biscuit plate/joiner.

Use a glue that is rated for exterior use. We used Titebond II Premium wood glue for interior and exterior use and have been very happy with it's performance.

FYI this slot looks like it isn't in the center but it just looks that way because the board is rounded on the top.

Always test fit your biscuit to make sure it fits and that there isn't a hanging wood chip getting in the way. We use #20 biscuits.

Only put a little glue into the CENTER of the slot. This will keep any excess glue from getting onto the wood and possibly ruining your paint finish. You also need to squirt a little glue into the corresponding slot in adjacent board. After you insert your biscuits and glue in one board and just glue in the other slot, you are now ready to push the two boards together. Tap the board with a rubber mallet to help the biscuits to go into the slots. Tap on the ends of the boards to perfectly line up all your reference lines.

Now is the time to add bar clamps. Very slowly close the clamps until all the boards butt up against each other and there are no longer any gaps between the boards. You may need to tap the sides with your mallet to help the clamps close. If your shutter starts to cup just clamp it down to a flat surface with C clamps or the squeeze kind shown in the photo below. If you use C clamps make sure you protect the wood by inserting a scrap piece of wood between the clamp and the wood. We use an old cedar shingle.

Let your shutter dry over night.

Next attach the batten board which you have also rounded off the length of the board and not the ends. You will see why you need to wait on rounding over the ends of the boards and the battens.

On long shutters I attach the battens 8 inches from the ends. On short shutters I use 5 inches. Whatever measurement you use make sure you use it on all your shutters. Clamp the batten in place. Flip over the shutter taking care not to move the batten.

Drill pilot holes in each board and use stainless screws and we counter sink the screw heads. The screws we used were 1 1/4 inches long.

After you have both battens attached flip the shutter over. Now inspect the top and bottom edges of your shutters. This is where you can fine tune the shutter just in case there is a board that is just a little too long.

Out of 20 shutters we had 2 that needed about a blade width off of one or two boards to get it perfect. Also check the battens for length and cut off any that are too long. By saving this step last you have the chance to make your shutter perfect. Now get your router out and finish the ends on both the boards and battens.

Stand back and admire your work.

The first shutter will take the most time to build and the most time consuming part is letting the glue dry.

After we made the two sets of shutters for the library, we realized that we almost had enough leftover wood to make shutters for the garden shed. So now we have shutters for the garden shed that will match the house shutters.

Tomorrow I will cover hanging the shutter and how to bling out your shutters with strap hinges, pulls, and shutter dogs. I will also post a list of tools needed and some helpful hints to make your shutter project go more smoothly.

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