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.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
John Rumm writes:
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.

That's roughtly what I did, but all by sanding. Start by marking a
circle on the top of the stump which is same diameter as the circle
on the top of the newel post, and then mark the radiuses on the sides,
again to match the newel post (I cut a piece of card to draw round so
all sides were the same). Then I used a belt sander to take it down
to the line, and finished off by hand. (Original idea was to stop the
belt sander before the line, but the well seasoned and dried post was
too hard to make much inroads by hand.) In my case, I wanted a spherical
surface; the one you pictured looks conical which should be easier.

Of course, the other way to make it match is to saw the top off the
newel square to match the stump ;-) But seriously, sharp corners on
stairs are just one more hazard you might want to avoid, particularly
whilst falling down the stairs, so rounding these off is a good thing.

--
Andrew Gabriel

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...

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 would use a router with a compass attachment - at its simplest, a piece of
metal or plastic sheet attached to the bottom plate of the router with a
hole for a screw at the centre of your circle.

Colin Bignell

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

In article ,
"David Hearn" writes:

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!

I had to drill some holes like this into the top of newel posts
to mount balls on. I used an auger (sp?) bit with a brace and bit.
The bit was damn expensive ISTR, but using a brace and bit allows
you lots of time to make sure the hole is centred and vertical.
The newel posts were my own construction, but I used Richard
Burbidge's balls, IYSWIM...

--
Andrew Gabriel

nightjar nightjar@ wrote:

I would use a router with a compass attachment - at its simplest, a piece of
metal or plastic sheet attached to the bottom plate of the router with a
hole for a screw at the centre of your circle.

I did try to think of a way of using a router for this, but was having
difficulty working out how to achieve the profile I wanted. You could do
it with a chamfer cutter, plunging progressively deeper as the radius of
the cut increases toward the edges of the post, but that would seem to
require the angle of the chamfer on the cutter to exactly match the
required angle on the shoulder of the newel. The other alternative I
considered was using a straight 1/4" cutter, and cutting a series of
stepped rings getting deeper as the radius increases. This would leave a
slightly simpler sanding job to remove the steps.



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
nightjar nightjar@ wrote:

I would use a router with a compass attachment - at its simplest, a piece
of metal or plastic sheet attached to the bottom plate of the router with
a hole for a screw at the centre of your circle.

I did try to think of a way of using a router for this, but was having
difficulty working out how to achieve the profile I wanted. You could do
it with a chamfer cutter, plunging progressively deeper as the radius of
the cut increases toward the edges of the post, but that would seem to
require the angle of the chamfer on the cutter to exactly match the
required angle on the shoulder of the newel.

I assumed that the newel post used a fairly standard angle. It looks like 45
degrees to me.

The other alternative I considered was using a straight 1/4" cutter, and
cutting a series of stepped rings getting deeper as the radius increases.
This would leave a slightly simpler sanding job to remove the steps.

That would work if you do have an odd angle to match, but a fully routed
profile will look neater.

Colin Bignell

nightjar nightjar@ wrote:

I assumed that the newel post used a fairly standard angle. It looks like 45
degrees to me.

Yup, just measured. Not far off 45 deg. It has a slightly concave finish
in the chamfer of the newel, but I can't see anyone noticing if I cut it
straight. I will need to get a non bearing guided chamfer cutter.

I may still have to do part of one by sanding however, because I do not
have enough clearance above the slope of the string on the top
staircase, and I won't be able to turn the router through 360 degrees
without the body hitting the string.

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--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/