Window grilles?

[jshoes51]

I build these carriage house overhead doors for a local overhead door company. I bought a shopbot 1 1/2 yrs ago, and I'd love to use it to make these curved top window grilles for these doors. It would save me hours of work if I could put a sheet of goods on the table, program the grille into the computer, and let the bot do it.

About half of these doors I build are cvg red cedar left natural, so I have to build those grilles by hand. For the painted doors, a dissimilar material would work since it'll be painted.

What would be a good material that comes in sheet goods to cut these out of? My first thought was pvc (Azek), but the muntins are about 3/4" wide and I wonder if they would deflect when being machined.

I tried to attach an image of the doors, but the file size 80kb and the allowable upload size is 50kb. The file is a pdf. How do I re-size it so I can upload it?

Thanks,

Jim

[CajunCNC]

You can copy & paste into PAINT. Then size as needed. Save as J-PEG.

[myxpykalix]

Jim,
go to www.xat.com (http://www.xat.com) and download "jpeg optimizer"
its free it will let you lower the kilobyte size of your pictures while allowing you to keep the deminsions large enough to view.

[jshoes51]

7599

This is a typical curved-top door I'm referring to. I make matching inner and outer grilles and sandwich the glass in between. At present, I cut the radius (usually about 12') for the top piece of the grille out of a 1x6, then stick-build the rest of the grille. After all the parts are glued/screwed together, I run a router around the inner edges to give it some detail. The time savings would be huge if I could cut the whole grille out of sheet goods, but before experimenting, I just wondered what the best material would be...extira, pvc (Azek), mdo etc.

[sam_harbold]

Jim

Here are a few photos of a grill we cut out of Azek for patio doors. We used 1/2" thick Azek and the grill bars are 3/4" wide. We done all the profiling cuts first leaving a .04 skin on the bottom. We then came back with a 1/8" cutter and cut the grill out but still left tabs in order to keep the bars from bowing.

7600

7601

Sam

[geneb]

I'm very curious about the use of the term "Grille" here. I work for a vinyl window & door manufacturer on the west coast, and we always have referred to them as "grids". Is this an east coast/west coast terminology thing like sash/vent?

g.

[myxpykalix]

I'm on the east coast and i've always heard them called "grilles". But if you were to put that design to a piece of paper I would call it a grid. So i'm sure it is just a interchangable term.
"You say potato, i say po-tot-oe.....

[garyb]

We just like to throw shrimp on ours grille around here

But then we also call it a barbie!

[jshoes51]

Grids or grilles, same thing around here. Everyone nows what you're talking about. To me a grille is a removeable piece whereas a grid is built into a window fixed in place between the glass.


Sam,

That's exactly what I'm aiming to do. At what point did you put the routed edge on the grilles? I hadn't thought about tabs, but I have used them before so I can see how they would help. But with a tab in the way, I don't see how the 'bot could put the routed edge on. When I build these by hand, I stick build them then run an ogee bit with a bearing around the inside edges. I suppose I could just do the profile cut on the 'bot then router the edges by hand.

Thanks,

Jim

[drodda]

Seems to me the routed edge would just be a V-bit run first to get the chamfered edge and then a straight bit to cut the Grilles out. I do this on MDF letters all the time to get that same look.

-D

[jshoes51]

Dave,

OK, I follow your strategy. Do you run it as a pocket cut to the inside edge of the vector?

Thanks,

Jim

[drodda]

I use cut along vector for the V-bit cut. Then with a 1/4" bit I cut along profile to the inside of the squares to remove the window opening. I would use the tabs to keep the thin parts from flexing while cutting. this would also allow you to use a mechanical hold down in the scrap that will be removed.
You can do this same thing with an Ogee bit or roundover bit instead of the V-bit if you want a little more decorative edge on the grilles. Just buy a plunge cut Ogee bit to use in place of the V-bit.
-D