New railing

[Darrel]

My Son has been hard at work remolding a house for some folks in town.  He asked me to do the railing around the stairwell.
Here are a few pics of the existing rail.








Its made out of Douglas fir, the posts are 6x6's.  Although it doesn't look too bad in the pictures, it really is pretty rough.  The customers say that they want something a little more elegant. 

The new rails will be made from birch, the posts will be boxed full dimension 4x4's.





More pics to come as work progresses. 
Darrel

[Darrel]

Ok, it's been a long time and the railing was finished before the super bowl. Life has been hectic to say the least. But I won't bore you with all that, suffice to say, life is "normal" again even if it is a new normal.

Anyhow, here are some photos of the process. Hope you enjoy.








I see a horizontal boring machine in my future!



Staining with Starbucks Gold  Coast.


Cleaning up the coffee mess.










That's my first major project in 24 years.
I was slow.
It's like riding a bike.
Why did I ever think I wanted to be a nurse?

Oh, and most importantly, the customer is happy and they have two more jobs waiting for my son and me.

[samandothers]

Really nice job!  You have not lost the gift.  I like the coffee as a stain very smart.  Did you drink a lot of coffee to get all the grounds!?!

[Darrel]

Thanks Sam. My customers drank the coffee. My yuban wasn't quite dark enough.

[cbla]

Great job. I love the design!

[21incher]

Great design. Never seen coffee used for stain before.  Does it hold up to sunlight?

[Darrel]

I used coffee to stain cabinets years ago that still look good.

[Solomon]

Wow!!   Totally Awesome !   You have some skill and patients.
And just by your pictures, I learned a good trick.
I like the way you used a lag bolt to secure your posts through the block of wood that rests in the dato inside your box posts.
Awesome work Brother,  thanks for sharing those pictures with us.
You just taught me something !!!!!   :P

[Darrel]

Solomon, thanks. I wasn't sure for a bit there that I'd be able to pull it off. What I had to do was assemble 3 sides of the box post and after that I had to assemble the entire railing and bolt it down before I could put the 4th side on the box post. At that point the box post had a bit of torque from all the clamping and forces from being bolted to the floor in an old house that wasn't quite square. Needless to say, the 4th side of the box post no longer fit. Took some trimming and fiddling around and quite a bit of effort to get it to all come together. If I ever use that method again, I'll have to rethink a few things. In a perfect world, it would have worked very well. But the reality is less than perfect. Angles in that old house weren't quite 90°.  The floor wasn't quite flat.

None of these issues would have been a big deal if I had used a different method, but putting the 4th side on the box post last left little gaps where before they had fit perfectly.

[Solomon]

Perhaps complete the post without a top and use a long extention, socket and Ratchet to turn the lag bolt and cinch it down tightly.   Just a thought.      :P :P :P

[Darrel]

Funny you should say that, my son and I talked about that very thing after I came to the realization that the way I was doing it wasn't the best option.