Milling Wreathed Handrails

[Scott Horan]

I am learning about making wreathed handrails. I'm looking for suggestions on how to add the profiles. I know that Scheer has a railing router. Wondered if anyone has tried it. Any other suggestions?

Scott

[Mel Fulks]

I've made some. Used shaper collars and usually hand ground knives. For the traditional old type the top is usually cut first, then the top of the side ,then lower half of sides. Most of what I've made were easings. Made one non descending
volute. Sometimes when making rail for circular stairs they glue up whole rail but have to cut it in middle to get floor clearance when running it on shaper. Then bolt it back together. A guy I worked with long time ago glued up a rail out of pieces maybe 5/16 thick ,then glued on a cap that was made of solid band sawed pieces. Then ran the glued up unit on shaper. That made an unusually nice rail that did not show much of the plys. I know some use routers but I have not used them for that. Some of the geometry is way beyond me even though I've looked at different books with different methods. I would not be able to figure lines for free form,palet shapes,etc. that were beyond level.

[Wayne Lomman]

Router cutters work but I was limited by what I could control with a hand held router. The simple profiles were easy but the hollows for your fingers were a bit trickier. I have always finished by hand. Mine have always been one off and too many complex shapes for the spindle moulder without significant investment in jigs. This was never warranted so it was router and hand work. Cheers

[mreza Salav]

I made the railing for our house, it's documented here:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?217053-Stair-railing-and-posts&highlight=

I used the two Freud router bits that are for this purpose. I made a jig that will hold the router/bit against the railing.

[Richard Wolf]

Scott, It is a big expense for a router. It's weakness is that the type of rails that are common here in the US. Most rails we use are high profile, with lots of detail. In Europe, where the router comes from, most rails are of a simpler profile. So what happens, when you try to make multiple passes with the router, any small deviation will result in a problem on your rail. Also, spinning a high profile router bit with maybe a 2 - 3 inch dia. is going to result in a lot of vibration.

If you are going to use one, I would recommend having your router bits made to the general shape you would like and learn to carve from there. On the other hand, if you are interested in purchasing one, I would consider selling mine, I am retired and no longer have a use for it. Let me know and I will try to find it, it's been packed away for three years.

Richard