On Jun 10, 9:40*am, geraldthehamster wrote:
Hello

In a earlier post, I was considering the possibility of building my
own staircase. In the end I bought one instead - a straight flight
with three winders at the bottom, all in redwood, which I've
installed.

I now have the balustrade to assemble. What I have is this:

-Newel bases fitted at each end of straight flight, with mortices
drilled for newel tops.
-Newels to fit into them (newels have squared tops with no holes,
fittings or brackets)
-Bottom rail, with groove on top, to cut to length and angle and fit
over stringer
-Banister rail, with groove under, to cut to length and angle and fit
to newels
-Spindles, and spacers for bottom rail and banister rail

Now, I can see quite clearly how all this needs to be cut, and how it
goes together, but in the interests of not missing anything obvious, I
wondered if anyone could give me some tips, or point me at a quick
guide, on the sequence of construction, methods of fixing, and so on.
I've Googled slightly but not found anything that isn't horribly basic
and unhelpful. The sort of questions I have in mind a

- *Do I toe-nail the spindles, top and bottom, between the spacers, or
glue, or both, or just fix the spacers but not the spindles?

- Spacers- *pin, glue or both?

- Banister rail to newels - do I just but them up and screw from
underneath?

- order of construction?

- other tips?

I know this is all simple, but I'd rather ask a few numpty questions
than miss something obvious.

Cheers
Richard

Newels in first, then fix bannister & bottom rails. I've only used
Richard Burbage newels which had the correct holes to take their
brackets for fixing the bannister rail. That made it easy. You could
look at their instructions nd brackets and route/chisel the correct
holes.

Work out how many spindles and the gaps at each end to make them
central with standard length spacers, or (better, imho) cut the
spacers so that every gap is the same.

Little dab of glue on each spacer. Paint/varnish will do the rest.

MBQ