Louvered Doors

If you've ever attempted to build a cabinet with louvered doors, you know that cutting the slots for the louvers can be complicated and tedious. You could build a router jig to help with the task, but this still means more work just to build the jig. So I came up with a different method that allows me to quickly cut the slots on a table saw.

First I cut a groove in the door stile, as shown in the drawing below. Then, using my table saw and miter gauge, I make a louver strip that contains a series of angled kerfs, spaced to fit the louvers I'll be installing in the door later. To prevent tear-out, I use an auxiliary fence attached to the face of the miter gauge while cutting the kerfs. 

After all the kerfs are cut, I rip the louver strip to fit the groove I cut in the door stile. Then I glue it in place. When making the louvers, I just make sure to size the thickness of the louvers to match the width of the kerfs I cut in my louver strip.