Floor Vents

[Luckbox72]

A neighbor of mine does handy man work. He installed a cherry wood floor for a client and had a fair amount of left over flooring. He asked me if I could make the floor vents to match the floor form some scraps.

This is the original wood

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Since the floor was 5" wide I had to glue tow piece to gether to get the necessary width. and then planed the tops flat.

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This is the high tech jig I cam up for the spacing of the slots.

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After the slots were routed.

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Then 3 coats of poly for the top

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and then did a mock up of the floor so I could look at the sheen and finish to make sure it matched.

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[PChristy]

Great job - :icon_thum

 

[Dragon]

OUTSTANDING WORK!!:eusa_clap:eusa_clapGood job on turning ?scrap? into something really nice. :notworthy:

 

[Travis Porter]

How are they attached to the floor/held in place?

 

[Luckbox72]

The section with the vent openings are about 3/4" thick. there is about a 1" rabbit 3/8" deep on the edges, so they just drop into place.

 

[skeeter]

Awesome job!

 

[SteveHall]

How does your setup work to route the slots? The photo looks like individual pieces. And how do you do this on a table, I can only imagine doing this with a hand-held plunge router in some kind of slot jig.

I'm trying to do the same thing, except run the grain the other direction (parallel with the slots). My store-bought grilles that came with our house all broke, they snap very easily with the grain running perpendicular to the slots. I can't decide if I should just cut individual pieces and fit them into the slot, or create a slotting jig for a plunge router... or try whatever you did if I can somehow understand it.

 

[Bas]

Wow, those look great! Next time, try to make sure you have the same grain orientation with the floor though :rolf: :rolf:
Very nicely done.

 

[Travis Porter]

The section with the vent openings are about 3/4" thick. there is about a 1" rabbit 3/8" deep on the edges, so they just drop into place.

How did you cut the rabbet???

Your jig for making the vent openings makes sense, and it is simple, but ingenius. I have seen similar set ups for other scenarios. Very nice job.

 

[Sweetgum]

That's nice!!

 

[CrealBilly]

Neat idea and great execution.

Could you please give a little more detail of the making?

1) Did you make a template and use a template bit in the router?

2) Did you end up doing a mortise and tendon, floating tendon or use dowels to attach all those gills to the sides?

3) I see by your picture it's a end grain to side grain joint - is that just a glued butt joint?

4) Seeing this will be a floor vent grill and there will be a lot of temperature variation (Heat and AC) are you concerned with wood movement and the gills breaking loose from the sides?

5) Would it have been better to make this from a solid piece of wood or at least a single edge joined glue up for width and cut the gill spacing with a router and template?

6) Just trying to learn a little about wood movement and end grain to side grain joinery. Am I asking to many questions?

Thanks

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Very nice! The floor vents in my sisters house are all inset and flush with the floor- they look fabulous too and there are no signs of shrinkage and gaps. I have wanted to do that for a long time, but its just another item on my "to do" list.

Others have commented about the strength of the cross grain grill, I agree it could be relatively weak. The other issue is the the vents in my house are oriented parallel to the walls but the flooring in those spots may be parallel or perpendicular to the wall. Also, I wonder if anyone makes or has attempted to make a wood grill with a vent that closes. All my floor vents can be opened or closed so the system can be balanced.

 

[Luckbox72]

Ok let’s see if I can answer some of the questions.

I took two pieces of the flooring and glued and clamped them together using then tongue and grove. I had thought about trimming it and jut butting them together, but to test the strength of the glued t&g I made a small mock up. When I tried to break them apart, which took clamping them between two bricks and jumping on them the wood gave before the glue did. They are ¾” cherry hardwood.

I had thought of making the grills separate but again I made a mock up, testing spacing to aesthetics and again found the wood to be very strong. I wouldn’t suggest standing directly over the openings, but figured they are up next to a wall and had to withstand more bashing with a vacuum over someone standing on them.

I had thought of using a plunge router with edge guide, but after testing on the router table I found it easy to use. I just used a 3/8” up spiral bit, then attached scraps to set the length of the opening, and then clamped another block so the first slot was centered in the wood. I took between 2 and 3 passed per slot. I then had strips of wood that were the width of the space and slot and just continued to add a spacer, cut one side, then flip the wood cut the other, and just kept going until I had the number of slots I wanted.

When I rabbeted the edges I just made sure that there was between a 1/8 to ¼ of an inch of play. Figured one the vent openings aren’t all exactly the same size and again they should be in an area when they will be hit too often. They have two complete coats of poly, getting in the openings I found a sponge brush worked the best, and the top got a 3rd coat to match the sheen of the flooring.

Since this was my first attempt I can’t comment or durability or overall wood movement. I tried to account for most of this by leaving the center section close to ¾ “ thick and left the boarder 5/8” thick. As I said I did some testing and they appeared to have more strength then I had first thought. Was trying to give as much airflow, while keeping strength.