Apparatus for making Venetian blinds

An apparatus for forming elongated apertures in metal slats of venetian blinds, such that the apertures are substantially equally spaced from one end of each slat and generally in register with one another, said apparatus comprising:

• a base for supporting the metal slats of the blinds;
• a stop adjustably mounted to said base, said stop being dimensioned to permit the registration of the ends of the slats against the stop;
• a pair of spaced apart substantially parallel guides extending from said base, the distance between said guides substantially corresponding to the width of the slats;
• a clamp means for urging the slats of the blinds into a tightly nested stacked array intermediate the guides;
• a routing apparatus mounted to said base for cutting the apertures in said metal slats, said routing apparatus comprising a rotatable cutting bit and control means for moving said cutting bit relative to said slats, said control means being operative to move said cutting bit through alternating traversing movements relative to said slats and for incrementally advancing said cutting bit into said array for slats after each traversing movement;
• and
• wherein the slats of the blind define an arcuate cross section along their respective lengths, said clamp means having an arcuate clamping surface substantially conforming to the arcuate cross-sectional configuration of the slats.