Mahogany Library Rolling Staircase


wdwerker

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Not saying you should have, because this thing is amazing already. But out of curiosity, would a sliding dovetail provide enough strength to skip the block? In your opinion, as you said you want it to just be a backup if the dado works it way loose.

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For liability I would stick with the supports. Im pretty sure you are really supposed to use steel rung supports which are the typical steel rods with threaded ends even if you put plugs over the hardware holes. I've done a few of these over the years all for senior living centers and they all had to have steel rung supports @ 250lbs center load. You can burry the rods and hardware.

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Got the curved braces on the handrail posts today. Took a few more steps than I had planned but they came out pretty close to perfect. !

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The clamping Blokkz I bought wouldn't work in this situation so I used an offcut scrap with the complimentary angle and used some sticky sandpaper to keep it from slipping.

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Kinda tough angle to get a perfect cut with my miter saw.

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Check for blade clearance with every clamp and proceed with caution. I have used this kind of set up to cut some very long pointed angles. I usually precut the part on the bandsaw so the waste piece is small and doesn't wedge into the fence opening.

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You can see the cut better with the saw out of the way.

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Saw blade cut wasn't smooth enough for a glue joint so I set up an angled guide for my osselating belt sander . Just a couple seconds sanded it to perfection.

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Then I had to resand the curved cut outs so all 4 posts matched with the same profile. Used the spindle sander and a 3" drum. Used a 3 1/4" circle template so I had room to grind it into submission.

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The green tape holds a sample laminate chip in place to prevent accidentally sanding a divot out of the post. Laminate chips are very handy around the shop. Shims, glue scrapers, and now sanding guards.

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3 stages, angled part glued on, angle sawed flush with post, and angle sanded ready for the handrail .

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It sure was a fussy process but 2 matched posts in 2 different lengths was a satisfying result.

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Got one side of the framework and handrail cut and clamped up to mark all the joinery. Lots of work with the domino coming up. Each joint will have at least (2) 8mm dominoes and all the wider joints will have 4 to 6 to handle the weight and stress.

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I based most of my layout and spacing of the steps on this metal warehouse ladder that I have had for years.

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We all make mistakes. Fixing them is a whole nother level of misery.

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Put the mortices in the wrong location ! So I glued domino's in place and sawed them off flush after they dried. Cut the proper locations right thru the patch and once it is glued up no one will ever be able to see it.

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I was going to route the top of the posts until the reality of how to use a 3/4" radius bit on such a small area on top of an 8' post .

So decided to just bevel the top the post at the same angle I cut all the staircase parts.

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We spent a few hours triple checking all the center lines before cutting the mortices with the Domino.

Those Bessey toggle clamps are great for holding parts while you cut all the holes. That's me in the picture.

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Once we had a complete frame cut we dry fitted it to make sure everything would pull up tight and square.

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The WoodPeckers framing square got a lot of use today.

Worked out all the clamping locations on the dry fit pieces and took pictures so I can duplicate it during the glue up. Lots of thought went into the sequence for glue up as well.

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Once we had 1 side frame clamped up we cut the final parts to build the left side.

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It is going to be a lot of work with the glue making things slide. Tighten this clamp until the lines match up, then tighten another and they move.... So it's going to be back and forth a lot. But those Blokkz really do the trick ! Every joint pulled up tight and even, no gaps I could see anywhere.

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