MikeG.
Established Member
Right, let's start at the beginning. I have a temporary staircase made of bits of construction pine, open tread, totally non-compliant with regulations, and we've put up with it for long enough. So I bought some oak. This stair will be the first and probably the last that I have ever made, and I wanted to make it individual but still traditional, so I settled on a cut string stair. Better get on with it......
I haven't any photos of running the waney edge boards through a friends big planer thicknesser, because that's just dull. Two boards that I couldn't take with me, though, were the strings, because of their length and the position of his machine. So I had to clean those up by hand:
I used an electric hand held plane as a scrub plane, then followed up with a belt sander across the grain, then along the grain, then a number 6 hand-plane to flatten, then a belt sander to finish. It was hard work to clean up the two strings, but on each of them I only had to get to a finish on one side, and just flatten the other side to something like:
Proper joiners would no doubt make the strings first, but I was a bit nervous of cutting into these massive timbers, especially as I wasn't clear how to reference the cut-string side and the straight string side.....so I did a production run of ballusters:
..........and ground to a halt. 25mm was too skinny. So I raided my stores and came up with a whole heap of assorted bits:
Thank goodness for a bandsaw and a planer thicknesser:
Thirty mm square was a whole lot better. I sanded them in pairs:
I wanted to have stopped chamfers, but I think I worked out this was over 300 stops, and I really didn't want to do those all by hand. I hate chamfers which stop in a burnt half-round feathery mess, and eventually, with a little help, came up with a plan involving a bearing-guided straight cutter and a jig or 3.
On the end of each of the stair ballusters (which are two different lengths) is a dovetail. For those used to me hand-doing most stuff, sorry:
However, I did shape the dovetails by hand:
I also cut out the treads:
With a cut string, the end of the tread projects out past the string, but you don't see the end grain (normally). You mitre in a piece, which performs the job of trapping the ballusters in their dovetail mortice. Another job for the guided cutter and a pattern:
This time the guide was on the top:
There was also the bullnose step at the bottom to deal with:
I haven't any photos of running the waney edge boards through a friends big planer thicknesser, because that's just dull. Two boards that I couldn't take with me, though, were the strings, because of their length and the position of his machine. So I had to clean those up by hand:
![jhvDsUm.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/06c/06c10f4b9a2ba73c209d61c913bf0f1c.jpg)
I used an electric hand held plane as a scrub plane, then followed up with a belt sander across the grain, then along the grain, then a number 6 hand-plane to flatten, then a belt sander to finish. It was hard work to clean up the two strings, but on each of them I only had to get to a finish on one side, and just flatten the other side to something like:
![Eg3qEYz.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/cdb/cdb8f8e408dc44e5845d82c6d13f98c9.jpg)
Proper joiners would no doubt make the strings first, but I was a bit nervous of cutting into these massive timbers, especially as I wasn't clear how to reference the cut-string side and the straight string side.....so I did a production run of ballusters:
![iCaooSs.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/ea9/ea9fa6e56b7b00e7381d46a62f80948d.jpg)
![d7xTbHQ.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/86f/86f9b59006411a161aca0ccfac6b394b.jpg)
..........and ground to a halt. 25mm was too skinny. So I raided my stores and came up with a whole heap of assorted bits:
![oMiExiP.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/e6f/e6fb1867148d5db85bdf1510a796e186.jpg)
Thank goodness for a bandsaw and a planer thicknesser:
![oMiExiP.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/e6f/e6fb1867148d5db85bdf1510a796e186.jpg)
Thirty mm square was a whole lot better. I sanded them in pairs:
![ahPj3y2.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/57c/57cd4c54446a0d5a311124bbd49d1b57.jpg)
I wanted to have stopped chamfers, but I think I worked out this was over 300 stops, and I really didn't want to do those all by hand. I hate chamfers which stop in a burnt half-round feathery mess, and eventually, with a little help, came up with a plan involving a bearing-guided straight cutter and a jig or 3.
![7piEi16.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/fe7/fe754441378831a26bf2df696576d4be.jpg)
![FD7QNjH.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/93d/93d73e62e72cf5e8fa10feafe7cd3814.jpg)
![qv5URWg.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/707/707505b45b7232c0ed0ab591136417e4.jpg)
![aiZkfzT.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/7cb/7cbe977bacfd28df9f6e2017fda0d96f.jpg)
![8FHA6ue.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/042/0425141c09023d852e943e7a08022d7d.jpg)
![MK7Y8jl.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/d43/d43285d4c4158bca9d692a73a86ac2f3.jpg)
![boorVnG.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/c5a/c5a35de342c7148daa60b30cff8ab42f.jpg)
![m4tt11q.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/4e6/4e6a224662e2ff98c4532be2e3562de8.jpg)
On the end of each of the stair ballusters (which are two different lengths) is a dovetail. For those used to me hand-doing most stuff, sorry:
![2NsmNfS.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/ea8/ea8badd39a663ad20887211757715a07.jpg)
![4Pd0di9.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/60e/60e723dd1b7e7ed2784503e2aacf85ab.jpg)
![43GNK5u.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/ba9/ba9b4e9ff6160c2dbc6ad65952bb4d82.jpg)
However, I did shape the dovetails by hand:
![Ezr2MGS.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/ca5/ca52bea010bbe17c2d27ee2e50af6966.jpg)
![cvvSEJU.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/74b/74b84c2c016e827ee7742e4978efd596.jpg)
![ArTPBcv.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/845/8455976ed40bbb548832b4787a383573.jpg)
I also cut out the treads:
![MXCfYyj.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/41d/41d03790a2bf7ccff0d3a3775485d25a.jpg)
With a cut string, the end of the tread projects out past the string, but you don't see the end grain (normally). You mitre in a piece, which performs the job of trapping the ballusters in their dovetail mortice. Another job for the guided cutter and a pattern:
![5qUEK7d.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/3f0/3f02c0d1f976dcc497efe87d3813f4c5.jpg)
This time the guide was on the top:
![hlpySLj.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/754/754dd2e71402472863fb64d66a936b4f.jpg)
There was also the bullnose step at the bottom to deal with:
![U1mkXbT.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/db9/db9c3e51bed43109690b4d420e59b4af.jpg)
![yIguJgK.jpg](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/cee/cee10b38e3e7b7a5bd1339e8480b3ea8.jpg)