Steve Maskery
Established Member
I live in a house. One with a staircase, and as with all houses with staircases, I have the knotty problem of what to do with that awkward space underneath.
The floor in that area is nowhere near level (3/4” difference over 5ft or so) and it's just rough concrete. So it's been a bit of a dumping ground ever since I moved in. I decided to do something about it. (Sorry about the phone photos, it's a bit cramped for a tripod).
It currently looks like this:
The floor is a wooden frame raised on adjustable kitchen cabinet legs, with MDF panel infills. There is a shelf half way up
I've made a face-frame with an off-centre mid-stile and made a pair of Shaker F&P doors. So far, so good.
I've been mulling over how to make the triangular door above (OK, trapezoidal, if you want to out-pedant me). This is how I've gone about it.
I don't want to be measuring anything. The challenge is that it must be exactly the same width as the pair below it and at exactly the same angle as the stairs themselves.
Rather than take measurements, I made a rod (or story-stick, as you may see it referred to as) and then used that to make a full-sized template. It almost went according to plan...
First of all I marked the width and height on a story stick
and measured the internal angle of the face-frame. 41.7deg.
Back in the workshop, I cut a piece of 4mm MDF, using the marks on the rod for setup.
Having cut the width, I used the angle-finder, still set from the staircase, to lay the track. A piece of wood held against the edge of the MDF ensured that the angle-finder lay exactly on the edge.
I made the cut and took it up to the house.
It wasn't right. The slope ran out noticeably along its length. What had gone wrong? I assumed I'd allowed the angle-finder to slip, so I did the job again, being very careful to ensure that it didn't move. But that piece was wrong as well. By exactly the same amount in exactly the same way.
So I put the template into the corner of the frame. Perfect! But when it sits on the existing doors, it's miles out. Ah, perhaps I had not hung the doors level. But no, a spirit level over the two doors reads 0.0 deg. Any closer and it would be off. What on earth is going on?
And then the penny dropped, if the doors are level, what about the stud wall?
That was the problem.
When I made the face-frame, I just fixed it to the existing stud wall. I didn't check that that wall was properly vertical. It's not, it's out. Not by much, but enough to mess me up here.
So once I knew where the problem was, I was able to cut the template to fit, ignoring the fact that the left-hand edge of the frame is not actually vertical, and, like Cinderella's slipper, it fits.
The floor in that area is nowhere near level (3/4” difference over 5ft or so) and it's just rough concrete. So it's been a bit of a dumping ground ever since I moved in. I decided to do something about it. (Sorry about the phone photos, it's a bit cramped for a tripod).
It currently looks like this:
The floor is a wooden frame raised on adjustable kitchen cabinet legs, with MDF panel infills. There is a shelf half way up
I've made a face-frame with an off-centre mid-stile and made a pair of Shaker F&P doors. So far, so good.
I've been mulling over how to make the triangular door above (OK, trapezoidal, if you want to out-pedant me). This is how I've gone about it.
I don't want to be measuring anything. The challenge is that it must be exactly the same width as the pair below it and at exactly the same angle as the stairs themselves.
Rather than take measurements, I made a rod (or story-stick, as you may see it referred to as) and then used that to make a full-sized template. It almost went according to plan...
First of all I marked the width and height on a story stick
and measured the internal angle of the face-frame. 41.7deg.
Back in the workshop, I cut a piece of 4mm MDF, using the marks on the rod for setup.
Having cut the width, I used the angle-finder, still set from the staircase, to lay the track. A piece of wood held against the edge of the MDF ensured that the angle-finder lay exactly on the edge.
I made the cut and took it up to the house.
It wasn't right. The slope ran out noticeably along its length. What had gone wrong? I assumed I'd allowed the angle-finder to slip, so I did the job again, being very careful to ensure that it didn't move. But that piece was wrong as well. By exactly the same amount in exactly the same way.
So I put the template into the corner of the frame. Perfect! But when it sits on the existing doors, it's miles out. Ah, perhaps I had not hung the doors level. But no, a spirit level over the two doors reads 0.0 deg. Any closer and it would be off. What on earth is going on?
And then the penny dropped, if the doors are level, what about the stud wall?
That was the problem.
When I made the face-frame, I just fixed it to the existing stud wall. I didn't check that that wall was properly vertical. It's not, it's out. Not by much, but enough to mess me up here.
So once I knew where the problem was, I was able to cut the template to fit, ignoring the fact that the left-hand edge of the frame is not actually vertical, and, like Cinderella's slipper, it fits.
, thank you for the giggle.
