Stair railing and posts

[mreza Salav]

We are still waiting for the (curved) stairs for the house. It has been delayed by about 2 months. In the mean time I've been working on building some newel box posts, 10 of them: 4 larger ones that are for the landings and 6 smaller ones. Can't start the railing until the stairs arrive. Here are some progress pics of the posts. They are all out of maple, lock-miter corners, with recessed panels and applied mouldings. The moulding is the smaller version of the same that I built for the interior doors.

Here are the parts and a dry fit of a smaller box:

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And the boxes glued up:

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Here I'm dry fit testing one of the posts with the cap:

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I have glued all the 6 smaller posts. The bigger ones I'm waiting until the stairs are installed as I'm not sure of their final height and might need to adjust the skirts (how much they go into each other).


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cont'd

[mreza Salav]

There is also a big post that goes all the way to the ceiling as the cover of a load bearing post:

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applying the mouldings/trims:


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[mreza Salav]

I have finished 5 posts and sanded and there are 5 more to finish sand and apply the trims. Then move on to the next project until the stairs are installed and start the work on the railing. That is probably the single project I'm the most doubtful about that I can pull it. Will report the progress here...

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[Mel Fulks]

All nice neat work. Looks like you have done well on that lock mitre,too.

[Bill Huber]

Those look really great and as was stated the lock miter looks really good.

What bit did you us for the lock miter?

[mreza Salav]

Thanks. Bill, the lock miter is from LV.

[Bill Huber]

Thanks. Bill, the lock miter is from LV.

I have the Freud and it is not doing to well, it burns the wood like mad, I have not used it that much so maybe it just needs to be sharpened.

[Richard Wolf]

Nice work on the box newels. I always like the statement they make.

[mreza Salav]

Thanks Richard. Once the stair guys bring the stairs I'll go at the railing. Wish me luck!

[Jim Andrew]

Mind telling what the stair case costs? I built one in place about 20 years ago, curved, spent about as much time doing the stairs as building the house.

[mreza Salav]

Stairs (stain grade maple stringers and risers, carpet threads) is about $8k.
Railing and posts (the way I want/do it) would have been another $34k on top.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Excellent work. Excellent.

Tell us how you plan on finishing the maple.

[mreza Salav]

The house is at the drywall stage. I was planing to do the finish work myself (installing doors, trims, some architectural work) but I have way too much on my plate (railing, then cabinets, stain/spray everything etc). So have found a good finish work who I liked his work (and he liked mine). He scared me of the finish of all these maple everywhere.
My plan was to spray General stain and then top coat it with either their Enduro Varnish or pre-cat Urethane. The scale of finishing I have to do is huge for me...

[Justin Ludwig]

Those are fun jobs, Mreza. Good looking work. I'm looking forward to seeing pics on the final install.

[mreza Salav]

Finished all the 10 posts. Only the longer column is left. Here is how it will look when attached to one of the smaller posts to form a 9' long hollow skin that will cover a load bearing post:

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[Bill McNiel]

Very nice!

[mreza Salav]

Well, this project is almost finished now and ready for staining.
I posted an update on my "house building" thread but it got moved from this forum. Here I post the updates and some pics.

I have not put the knuckles on the spindles yet as I remove the railing to do the staining and then put them back on.
Cutting the strange miter/bevel angles at the end of the long 3D railing and adding small parts to the end to join them to the posts was challenging to do solo on a miter saw (I tried a manual miter saw box and it was disappointing). I don't want to admit how many times I cut those angles (little by little, try and error) and went up and down the stairs with that long rail to see how it fits.
You can see in the photos I made two temporary holders/stands from 2x4 on the middle of the stairs to hold the railing while I was measuring the angles at the top and bottom against the posts. Let's just say that it took me a good portion of a day just to cut that long railing and add a piece at the end to joint the post at the top. The one from main floor to the basement was even worse (a 14' long piece that is no made up of joining 5 pieces).

Having said that drilling the holes at the bottom of the 3D rail and mortising it has probably been one of the most difficults part of this project.

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[mreza Salav]

You can see the pictures of my jig for the router to do the shaping of the railing. It was done in 3 passes with one bit (changing the bearing progressively) and 3 passes with another bit for each side. There is also the jig to do the drilling/mortising on the stringers.

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[mreza Salav]

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[John TenEyck]

Stairs (stain grade maple stringers and risers, carpet threads) is about $8k.
Railing and posts (the way I want/do it) would have been another $34k on top.

Holy cow, are you serious? Man, I should have charged a whole lot more on the box newel balustrades I've done.

Very nice work. How will they be anchored?

John

[mreza Salav]

Holy cow, are you serious? Man, I should have charged a whole lot more on the box newel balustrades I've done.

Very nice work. How will they be anchored?

John

I put some backing under the floor before the ceiling was drywalled under. Then put a 2" thick block of maple, glued and screwed to the floor and backing underneath. The newel boxes go over the 2" maple, glued and screwed.

[Justin Ludwig]

I see you dropped the crown upstairs. Are you running a rope lighting behind it for accent?

You're doing a great job. Keep those pics coming.

[Ken Krawford]

Nice job. Did you make the moulding or purchase it?

[mreza Salav]

Justin, if you are talking about the crown moulding, there is no lighting behind it.

Ken, which moulding you are talking about? the mouldings on the posts/door/around stairs? I made them all.
The crown moulding is 6.5" and I purchased it along with the casings/headers for doors/windows.

[George Bokros]

WOW! You did an amazing job. My hat is off to you for even attempting to build those railings.

[Pat Barry]

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This is a very impressive project Mreza. Could you elaborate on what is going on in this picture? Are you using the staircase as a form to laminate the railing? That's an ingenious solution.

[mreza Salav]

Thank you.
Pat, I understand that's how most pros do it.

Justin: I think I now understand why you ask that. The crown is not "dropped"; I have a border (non-textured) on the ceiling that is going to be painted.

[Brett Luna]

My stair case remodel project (currently underway) pales by comparison.

[Brett Luna]

Thank you.
Pat, I understand that's how most pros do it.

That's my limited understanding, too. I made the newel post for our remodel but i'm using handrail components from L.J. Smith. They also offer curved handrail and out of curiosity (our handrails are straight runs) I looked at the product information and saw a very similar setup.

[Justin Ludwig]

Jigs (railing holders, if you will) are screwed to the stair treads and get tighter in radius the farther you travel from center tread. This allows for deflection after the glue dries and the jigs are removed. I think our jigs moved 1/4" each step, but I haven't built one since '08. We used a book we called the stair bible. I don't remember the real title. And I'm no pro, just a guy that loves wood and making it look good.

mreza, from the downstairs view, the crown border is deceptive. Still looks great!

[Larry Edgerton]

Mreza

If you did this work for a living you would be an impressive craftsman. As a homeowner you are nothing short of amazing. My hat off to you sir!

Larry Edgerton
Crooked Tree Joinery

[mreza Salav]

Mreza

If you did this work for a living you would be an impressive craftsman. As a homeowner you are nothing short of amazing. My hat off to you sir!

Larry Edgerton
Crooked Tree Joinery

Thank you sir! I'm a homeowner and all of these that I'm doing (doors, railings, arches, etc) are my first attempts at these, but I've educated myself before each and forums like this have been quite helpful.

[Justin Ludwig]

Thank you sir! I'm a homeowner and all of these that I'm doing (doors, railings, arches, etc) are my first attempts at these, but I've educated myself before each and forums like this have been quite helpful.

That's ridiculous. And very impressive.

[Richard Wolf]

Very nice work, well done.

[mreza Salav]

I appreciate it.

[Ed Edwards]

Another plus for the beautiful job you did on your posts. How do you plan to finish those? I can't wait to see the finished product, sure you can't wait either.
Ed

[mreza Salav]

Ed, I have just started finishing all the maple I have (doors, trims, posts, railing, etc). I am staining them myself (spray then lacquer). It's a stressful job as I've never done such a large staining and I am really afraid of ruining all the work I have put into this. I hope I get good results....

[mreza Salav]

Well I stained and installed (yes first stained and then installed!) the railings. Here are a few photos.

You can see a lot more with everything else in my "House building thread..." that got moved to the other forum:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?220868-Building-a-new-house-from-foundation-to-finishing-and-all-the-woodworking&p=2362005&posted=1#post2362005


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[Mike Schuch]

That is the exact reason I started using lock miters. Posts for my stair railing. The thing I learned about lock miters when I did my posts is how important it is to have the shaper spindle perpendicular to the table in all directions. Once I had my shaper tuned I got much better cuts with no burning on the hard maple I used.

Those are some very nice looking posts! Much fancier than the posts I made.