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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