Ok guys, here's the challenge. My spiral staircase does not meet code for distance between balusters. I recently had a windfall of a bunch of white ash veneer in 4' lengths which came from a laminated floor manufacturer who was put out of business because they could not afford the cost of ever increasing government safety regulations. My plan is to glue several layers of this together and form long spirals which can be bent around the existing balusters to meet code. Do any of you have experience in gluing multiple strips of wood together while in a bent position?
That will be a challenge. I would make a jig to the shape you want. It will takes lots of clamps.
jim
I'm not sure that I fully understand what you are trying to do but as Jim stated - you will need lots of clamps. My guess is that you could use the existing balusters as the "jig". Use a glue that has a long set-up time (e.g. Titebond Extend) and if the fitting is difficult, build up the veneer a few layers at a time. It might be easier to simply add intermediate balusters.
I'll try to post some pics of what I'm trying to do that will help explain. The balusters are steel. Would like to incoporate some wood to tie everything together and avoid buying a lot of steel bar and doing a lot of welding. Was planning to start with two plys glued together, bend it around the balusters as a jig and then continue to build up to 5 ply. I'll need about 3 of these and then straight ones to match for the balcony guard rails.
Wooden boats and airplanes have been built for decades using that method. Light and strong. Buy a bunch of clamps. I found it easier to just glue up one layer, let the glue set up, then add another layer.
If I get the drift, the ash glue-ups will parallel the top railing and spiral with the stairs (be running across the vertical steel ballusters) ?
What is the thickness of the ash veneer? And is it single ply now?
I visualize the most difficult step will be after the glue-up is in place and it needs to be sanded and finished in place. If there is any way to use the ballisters as the jig for glue-up, then remove it for finishing work, seems that would be easier (but not sure how to suggest it).
I used to work for a spiral staircase company. We would use long set up glue on 1/4" thick, sanded pieces for the stringer. Lots of glue to allow for the individual laminations to slide. If its not messy your not using enough glue. As you bend around your ballisters your going to lose some in length due to the bend. We would glue up to 8-10 layers at a time around a jig. Like said, LOTS of clamps. Between ballisters you would use 3" sacrificial boards to clamp to as not to mar the pieces and keep the layers tight bout every 5" or so. Leave it clamped up for a week. It also gets real heavy quickly so be sure it will handle the weight. 4' pieces.....We would use 20 footers, of course there were lots of hands to lift and bend it around the jig. Hope some of that helps. :)
use plastic resin glue
no creep
the strips are approx. 3/16" thick. Here are a couple picks to illustrate the general idea. Obviously the will be more than one rail and the spacing will be corrected. Last night I came up with the idea of actually sandwiching the balusters in the lamination so there would be no exposed fasteners and it would look uniform from both sides of the stairs... The stairs will get painted black after everything is done. Will be welding up the loft guard rail tomorrow and try to post some more pics when its complete. Once this is done I start on the wood rails. I think for setup clamps I will use 2 pieces of wood perpendicular to the rail which overlap it and screw them together at the ends. Place a set of these every 4" or so. End product should be about 1.5" thick. I think one of the toughest parts is going to be getting the ends aligned.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12478/CIMG0002.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12478/CIMG0003.JPG)
Can you make the ends longer and cut off the extra to make them all match?
Jim,
The top and bottom end of the rails I will leave long and trim to match as you indicate. I think the problem will be matching the seams of all the 4' peices as I go up without getting seam gaps. and making sure they are square to each other . Only the last laminate will really matter as the rest are concealed but I guess that is where the creep factor comes in. I guess I could do a distressed finish on it and make any rough seams blend in that way.
I too was worried about the butt joins when I built a wood strip boat but I found the joins disappeared when I stood back and looked at the whole boat.
People will look at and admire the entire staircase; only your friends will look close at your work ::)
Looking like a great start. To me, the width of that piece shown clamped on appears too wide to fit the application, but that will be your choice.
Clamping the first laminate on to the ballusters, the filling in the space between ballasters with the next laminates glued/clamped, then covering the stair side with a finishing laminate glued/clamped should give you a neat job.
Not important, as the piece you have in position seems to wrap and form a good curve, but is the 3/16" thickness one ply or more? 3/16" is pretty thick for a single layer and knife checks from peeling/slicing could be a problem.
The end butt joints will take some careful cutting to match grain pattern and reduce splintering, but seems each additional laminate can be carefully fine-tuned for the best fit before gluing/clamping.
Interesting problem. Glueing narrower strips would definitely be easier and appearance wise might be better (but depends on what you like) - perhaps use 3 parallel runs. I think it would be difficult to do strips on both the outside and inside at the same time - but if you finished the outside runs first and then used spacers so that you could clamp the inside bend, then it might work. To have perfect fits on the end of each piece as it is glued you could do a dry fit, overlap the second piece and then do a cut through both layers using a very fine cut saw. A precise fit would probably only be necessary for the final layer. I would also use a shaped caul when clamping the ends to ensure that they are down tight and make sure that the joints are well spaced for each layer. It would be wise to also lightly clamp vertically or use a jig during assembly to maintain alignment of the layers - it will save a lot of finishing time. Try to wipe off as much glue squeeze-out as possible immediately after clamping. Basically, it's a case of going slow and letting each layer dry properly - a few extra hands will also help.