Attaching spindles to oak handrail
 

I will be refurbishing our 1930's balustrading in a few weeks time.
There is a nice solid oak handrail, but no spindles (ballusters) - the
original construction has solid oak newels and rail but the sides are
clad in plywood on rough timber carcassing.

I will be buying some white oak spindles and baserail - the latter will
come with fillets making spindle attachment easy. But I am unsure how
best to attach the spindles to the underside of the rail.

The rail has a nice flat surface - will it be OK to simply glue and pin
the spindles to this, or should I be thinking about cutting a rebate on
the underside and trying to make up fillets? Or some other method maybe?

Attaching spindles to oak handrail
 

Tim wrote:
I will be refurbishing our 1930's balustrading in a few weeks time.
There is a nice solid oak handrail, but no spindles (ballusters) - the
original construction has solid oak newels and rail but the sides are
clad in plywood on rough timber carcassing.

I will be buying some white oak spindles and baserail - the latter
will come with fillets making spindle attachment easy. But I am
unsure how best to attach the spindles to the underside of the rail.

The rail has a nice flat surface - will it be OK to simply glue and
pin the spindles to this, or should I be thinking about cutting a
rebate on the underside and trying to make up fillets? Or some other
method maybe?

Pin and glueing is not a reliable solid method since the rail will probably
get a lot of use, more to the point is you will probably see small gaps
between rail and spindle.

--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

Attaching spindles to oak handrail
 

I see your point - thanks. In that case, my best option is probably to
route out a 41mm slot on the underside of the rail and use fillets as
per baserail, unless anyone's got a better suggestion? I have a router,
but am not that experienced with it - I don't want the handral to end
up as scrap!

Attaching spindles to oak handrail
 

The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
Tim wrote:
I will be refurbishing our 1930's balustrading in a few weeks time.
There is a nice solid oak handrail, but no spindles (ballusters) - the
original construction has solid oak newels and rail but the sides are
clad in plywood on rough timber carcassing.

I will be buying some white oak spindles and baserail - the latter
will come with fillets making spindle attachment easy. But I am
unsure how best to attach the spindles to the underside of the rail.

The rail has a nice flat surface - will it be OK to simply glue and
pin the spindles to this, or should I be thinking about cutting a
rebate on the underside and trying to make up fillets? Or some other
method maybe?

Pin and glueing is not a reliable solid method since the rail will probably
get a lot of use, more to the point is you will probably see small gaps
between rail and spindle.

Especially if you have children, you want the spindles to be held in
place securely.

Rebating would be preferable. You could build up a rebate with strips
of new wood rather than cutting out of the existing rail.

MBQ

Attaching spindles to oak handrail
 

Now that's a much better idea! So blindingly obvious I hadn't thought
of it. Cheers!!!