Or rather perhaps the subject should be "how to turn a bit of wood when
you can't turn it, and don't have a lathe?"

I need to re-instate the ballustrading on my stairs soon. I have a
"stump" which is what remains of the original newel post before a
combination of its shear ugliness, and being in the way of something
large I was trying to get up the stairs goaded me into its aggressive
pruning:-

http://www.internode.co.uk/temp/stump.jpg

Into which I will fit one of these:-

http://www.internode.co.uk/temp/post.jpg

(there are friends to match this to go at the bottom of the original
stairs, and the foot of the new stairs to the loft)

Now fitting the post to the stump is not too difficult - drill a 2 inch
hole with an "expansive" bit and slot the spigot on the bottom of the
newel into it.

However I would like to make the top of the stump match the profile on
the top of the newel post as closely as possible, and I can't think of a
accurate way of shaping it in situ.

I could cut it roughly to shape and then try and finish it with a belt
sander - but aside from sounding messy, I don't know how easy it would
be to get a nice even profile.

Any suggestions?

--
Cheers,

John.

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| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
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