John Rumm wrote:
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?

I did this a month or so ago using Richard Burbidge bracket-fix system.
Theirs uses a 50mm spigot, and also do a 50mm forstner bit (couldn't find
any other than a Richard Burbidge branded one which was exactly 50mm, and
not in a set) for £15 (probably overpriced).

What I did (following their video) was draw diagonal lines from corner to
corner across the top face. Drill the 50mm hole (my normal drill went too
fast and burnt the wood, not to mention wasn't meaty enough to drive a 50mm
bit) where the lines intersect. I had to switch to my Argos SDS drill which
had a normal chuck adaptor as this went much slower (better for the bit) and
was beefier (not to mention had a clutch - very useful as it did catch a few
times and would have been dangerous without). Once I'd drilled the hole
deep enough (make sure you get this hole straight! I didn't and as a result
of correcting it, ended up with a wide hole at the bottom - meaning the post
would wobble. I needed to glue and screw through the base into the spigot
on a few sides to fix it firmly, rather than just glueing it) you can then
insert the newel post into the base. Draw a circle around the bottom of the
post to show which part doesn't need to be removed.

Next (which was a neat trick shown in the video) use the bottom of a tin of
paint to draw a semi-circle on each side of the post base which then gives a
shape to work to. I used a hand plane to shape the base, making sure I
didn't go into the circle drawn onto the top matching the post base. Took a
while, but I'm pleased with the result.

There may be easier way of doing it (eg. electic sander) - but I didn't have
any of these. However - having the SDS drill was a life-saver, as I
wouldn't have been able to do it with my basic electric drill - far too fast
for that size bit. And don't underestimate the difficulty in drilling a
perfectly vertical 10cm deep hole!

David