Visit Our Wood Shutters Factory
Please mouse over the tiles to view the full size images. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
If you're looking for a manufacturer of fine wood shutters you've come to the right place. Elizabeth Shutters has a standing invitation to our customers, school groups, scout organizations and curious neighbors alike to visit us online or see the real thing in Colton California near the city of San Bernardino. Each year, hundreds of visitors take us up on this offer in person and many thousands more peruse our site. Those that can take the time to come in person see how fine wood shutters are made, and are often surprised by how interesting and tactile the process really is.
Elizabeth Shutters' wood shutter facility is 43,000 square feet of industrial and office space with a small showroom containing samples of wood shutters and some photos and awards we're particularly proud of: the day we won anti-pollution certification as the (only) green wood shutter company in the U.S.; recognition from the BBB for outstanding quality; stories about us in the Los Angeles Times, Desert Sun, Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise; pictures of our state of the art VOC reclamation device; some very artistic wood shutter installations and so on.
Wood shutters are one of the few manufactured products left in America that you can actually see being made. In our case, that means going from raw wood, paint and metal hardware to custom cut, assembled, sanded, shaped, painted and finished wood shutters.
Wood shutters start with large planks of the highest grade Basswood (FAS). The wood is delivered to us in large pallets from the same local mill that produces our louvers for us. The pallets contain hundreds or thousands of linear feet each and we can go through a few per day when we're really busy. The louvers are cut to the proprietary Elizabeth Shutters' profiles and palletized in widths ranging from 2 ½" to 5 ½".
Raw wood and louver are cut individually to each job and window specification, with a bit extra to allow for later stage finishing and squaring. After cutting, wood pieces are planed to the appropriate thickness and louvers go through the first of several sanding stages. Wood is matched into sets for pairs of rails (horizontal pieces) and stiles (vertical pieces) that make up each panel. Meanwhile, louvers are drilled and shaped for louver pins and louver "lay" a technique to improve the fit between wood shutter louvers and reduce light gaps when closed.
Wood shutter rails are shaped on a variety of customized shapers, automated filing tools and sanding equipment depending on the specific decorative profiles and tilt bar cavities chosen. They are then drilled and fitted with oversized, spiral groove dowels for joinery. Wood shutter stiles are drilled in pairs by specialized stile drillers for louver pin holes and dowel holes that match the corresponding rails. At the same time, louvers are assembled into matched sets; stapled with oversize louver staples and attached to tilt bars by weaving louver staples through extra strength tilt bar staples. The wood shutter industry calls these semi-finished louver and tilt bar sets "skeletons" because they look like a backbone and ribs.
Rails, stiles and skeletons are assembled into wood shutters on large tables with industrial strength wood glues and high pressure clamping systems. Once set under pressure, these doweled joints are actually stronger than the wood surrounding them. The panels look like raw wood shutters at this point although they are overlong at the top and bottom. This is important as wood is not "born straight" but perfectly rectangular panels are essential to the framing and installation process. To ensure right angles, the overlong shutters are trimmed at the top and bottom on a panel saw specially designed for this purpose. It only cuts right angles and, though checked regularly, has maintained its tolerance for nine years and counting.
Now properly sized and rectangular, the panels are stamped for tracking, tuned for louver tension, adjusted again for louver lay, and dry sanded before receiving their first coat of primer. Elizabeth Shutters uses the most durable primers available for our wood shutters and by the time the panels have completed one or two priming and sanding steps they have taken on the uniform color and consistency that underlies our famous final coatings.
The panels and their frames are painted and sanded in multiple, iterative steps until every wood shutter passes the Elizabeth Shutters finish standard. Elizabeth Shutters uses the most durable top coatings in the wood shutter industry, made possible by our VOC abatement system. The acrylics and lacquers form an even, smooth finish highly sought after among woodworkers and consumers of wood shutters.
Quality assurance is woven throughout the shutter-making process, into every step from wood selection to final touch up and at the beginning and end of every stage. Every Elizabeth Shutters factory employee, from the newest sander to the most senior woodworking master has the responsibility and authority to turn back insufficient quality materials, products and processes; and to cancel and re-make a panel that will not meet our wood shutters standards.
Naturally, the preceding description is just a brief overview of wood shutter production. Additional subjects would include finishing options such as staining, sand blasting and antiquing; non-rectangular shapes (a specialty of ours); frame production; specialized and innovative construction techniques and dimension limitations. Elizabeth Shutters invites you to visit us for a primer on these and other issues in what we modestly believe is the highest quality wood shutters manufacturing process in the world.
