by Doug Sewell
We have milled over six million lineal feet of basswood components in the past few years.
Our strength is in generating a smooth and well prepared shutter component. Stiles are flat and straight. We purchase our basswood locally with in about 200 mile radius of our factory. As the wood is brought into our factory we do everything within our power to control issues like moisture content and maintaining flatness. Our next goal is to install our own dry kilns, giving us control of the conditioning of the wood with our target to consistently deliver a much flatter louver. We currently prime our components with water based primer paint using Chemical Coatings as the supplier. We are experimenting with Sherwin Williams water based primer too. We are installing a UV vacuum coater to be able to apply the primer. UV primer is 100% solids compared to water based which might be 45% solids. The environmental issues are one of the points of consideration for going UV, another is scratch resistance and we understand the UV coatings will fill into voids better than conventional paints. We hope to have this up and going by the New Year.
One of the most challenging issues related to a supplier to deal with is the meeting of minds related to yields.Louvers and rails are produced from a grade of the sawn lumber called #1 common for price competitiveness. Most all shutter fabricators use #1 common for this part due to the short cuts of a louver (6” to 26”). We are continually fighting the cost versus yield issues and this grade is a happy medium. (If I owned an assembly factory, I would consider the option of purchasing the lower #2 common grade to lower my costs, but would have to implement a training for the cutting of the shorter wood to make sure we were not throwing away too much material.
Our louvers and rails are guaranteed to exceed clear cuttings of 80% and most mouldings are clear to only one defect. We cut away any end splits and knots close to the end of the pieces and when we are packaging we are looking to make sure there is always “good meat” for the fabricator to have for their cuts. I would wager the average yield of clear components from our production of louvers and rails is 90% or better. If the moulding is under 5 foot there will be no knots or defects, from 5 to 7 foot one knot or defect would be allowed and over 8 to 12 foot would allow up to two defects, but they would again be in a manner that would generate good clear material from the moulding. Just to put this into perspective, 90% yield on an 8 foot louver is 7” 3”….
We are not big on recommending finger jointed louvers or other components. That said, we do offer the product and do all of the work at our factory. Our concern is the reality of taking two independent pieces of wood and expecting them to react the same in a very challenging window environment. Once milled and sanded in theory the two pieces joined together with the joint are smooth and feel like one piece of wood. Nothing guarantees that the two pieces will stay that way. Even after painting the moulding, the wood is capable of expanding and contracting. Look at cabinets, doors and floors and how they move throughout the year. Each piece of wood in a finger jointed component can and will show up with less than .001” in thickness change. That is so small, yet with paint that little change in thickness will telegraph thru the paint. I am aware that there are a large quantity of louvers and stiles made from finger jointed materials and it has helped lower the cost somewhat. I hear continually about the issues of problems in consistency with my competitors and their finger jointed wood. Is this really worth it?
As a supplier to this industry, I completely reject this process as the best solution for making a quality product. Wood is only one part of the cost of the shutter. The painting and assembly is the bigger part. Wood maybe 25 to 30%.....For the problems finger joints can cause, is it worth the risk?
