Oh Man, Stair rails are hard.

[Eric Larsen]

Man, did I ever get my butt kicked by my first stair rail.

The stairs themselves were pretty easy. I just took it slow, and used a good protractor. My biggest error is about 1/16" -- caulk will take care of it. It took time, but only because I installed only two stairs per day. (SWMBO can't climb more than three at a time.)

But the rails, now that's another matter entirely.

The rail caps were time consuming, but easy. A quick roundover, then the usual stain, sand, stain, sand, urethane, sand, urethane, sand, urethane. No big deal.

Cutting the holes for the ballusters into the handrail and the caps took hours. Because there's no room for error, I measured more than twice and made sure everything was plumb. Since the cap and newels are sitting on a floating hardwood floor, I had to cut 1" holes in the floor for every single bolt to allow for wood movement.

I was at it from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and all I got done was ONE cap, ONE newel, and ONE handrail, with all holes drilled. That seems excessive to me.

Any tips to speed things up a bit? At this rate, the stairs are going to take 10 days.

-E

[Richard Wolf]

Las Vegas!, Send me a ticket, I'll be right there.

Some real tips;
1) Stop being so nervous, it's only wood.
2) The second one will go faster.

Richard

[John Keeton]

Eric, if you are like me you undertake this type of project for one or all of the following reasons: you enjoy woodworking, you are challenged by the project, you feel that you can do as well or nearly as well (maybe better!) than a contractor that you know little about, and you wanted to save some money.

Given that, unless you are doing it for a living, time isn't really in the equation as it has nothing to do with why you undertook the project instead of hiring it done.

Sounds like you are doing a great job, so enjoy the journey!! Think of all you are learning and the level of satisfaction you will have. And, you get to tell everyone how it took two weeks of blood, sweat and tears! You get the compliments and the sympathy vote form SWMBO - the best of all worlds!

[Jeff Hallam]

Oh C'mon now guys, there must be a new tool that is "required" for this job and now SWMBO would be happy to approve it to end your suffering! Perhaps some Festools equipment could help you ;)

Honestly though, I have not attempted this type of project yet, but I am thinking about replacing the treads on my staircase. Please post some progress pics (don't wait till it's all done) along the way.

Jeff

[Ben Grunow]

Do layout on blue tape so you can peel it off if it is wrong (not that I ever need more than one attempt).

I also agree with Richard. They always have more at the lumber yard.

[Edward P. Surowiec]

Eric , I found that after cutting the handrail to mate with the newel post I could use the cutoff block as a guide to drill the holes in both the underside of the handrail and the top side of the cap. The cut edge of the cutoff block is plumb ( assuming the newel post is plumb) when it is place on the cap. The cutoff must be turned upside down i.e. top surface is place down on top of the cap. After marking the location of the balusters on the cap I used the cutoff block as a guide for my hand drill. I repeated the process for the handrail. I was able to drill 24 holes for balusters in three hours. They look great.
Ed

[Eric Larsen]

I ran blue tape down the middle of the cap today, and placed the rail on the cap at a 90-degree angle so I could lay out the balluster marks with a speed square.

I had the ballusters drilled in about 1/2 the time. And they're perfect.

But I had a major accident INSTALLING the ballusters. I was about 75% done, when I lifted the rail to install another iron balluster and about half of them fell out of their slots, 12 feet to my newly-installed oak floor. (Censored, censored, censored.)

I lucked out in a big way. Damage was minimal -- as if all the Gods of Mediocre woodworkers were smiling on me simultaneously.

Better still, LOML walked in 2 minutes later. Between the two of us, we got the job done in about 30 minutes.

Last time I try *that* solo, that's for sure.


I'm taking tomorrow off -- fatigue is the big culprit here, I think.

E