I'm building a stair railing with three rails that has long balusters
between the lower two rails and short between the upper two. The
stairs have a landing so there's about a 10' section and a 4' section.


Here is a poor picture of the lower section:

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~kmuldrew/woodworking/rail.jpg

For the smaller section I drilled dowel holes perpendicular to the
rails and the angled ends of the balusters. This didn't work well
because any clamping pressure immediately cantilevered the rails. It
took a lot of mashing with a mallet and the heel of my hand to get it
all together. For the longer section I want to drill the dowel holes
parallel to the ballusters. My plan is just to drill some guide holes
in a block at the appropriate angle and then clamp the block onto the
rails (and later onto the ends of the balusters). Does anyone have any
better ideas?

Ken Muldrew

(remove all letters after y in the alphabet)