Stair jigs and forthcoming trauma

[WellsWood]

So my stairs are shot. The stringers have largely parted company from the treads/risers, and the whole lot is being held together with numerous big galvanised brackets and lots of screws. Actually they have been for some considerable time now. I knew this when I took up the hall and stair carpet last year to force me to do something permanent about the problem, and that ( to my shame) is as far as I got. I guess I kind of froze like a rabbit caught in headlights :shock: . But the wood is so dry and worn out that nosings have actually started to split off the front of the treads, and something must be done - and quick!

Anyway, the upshot is it looks like a miracle cure isn't going to come along after all :roll: , and I can't seem to find anyone interested in doing the job for me, well not without winning the lottery or handing over my first born. I've mulled over a couple of schemes to repair it in-situ and nothing really seems likely to satisfy my desire for a permanent and proper solution other than replacing the entire flight (and to be honest, part of me really wants to have a go at making a staircase).

Consequently I've been looking at stair jigs, which frankly seem rather expensive for what they are, and wondering about whether I really need one or whether I can make one to do this one off job. Has any body any experience in this field they would care to share? The 2 jigs in the running are the Axminster one here, or the Trend one, which is about 50% more expensive but has the advantage of using standard 30mm guide bushes rather than the sub-base setup like the Axy. Anyone got either? What are the pros and cons of each one?

Any info or advice gratefully received.

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

Seeing how you arent likely to need it again any time soon, why not make one up out of inch MDF and use a guide bush in the router?
What are your stairs like exactly, whats the layout etc
What sort of prices have you had so far?
I know a couple of companies who can do it for a reasonable price, but that depends entirely on what you call reasonable I supose :lol:

 

[PAC1]

Accuracy is the key with stair building. If you make a jig make sure it is very accurate. For istance if your Jig is 1mm out of square over the step width (going) by the time you get all the way along you are 13mm out. This is not to bad length ways but if it is out per rise you may find an extra step! or the bottom step has a bigger rise than the rest! Is it just a straight stair case or does it have half landings, winders (triangular steps) etc? Does it have a straight bottom step or is it a D nose or double D nose step?
Hope you have a good mate to help you put it together and then lift it. We used to make sure two of us were hammering the wedges into each step together otherwise you could make a bananna shaped staircase.

hope this helps.

 

[OPJ]

If it's a straight flight then you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Making your own jig, as described above, is the way to go. Yes, it's important to check for squareness but, don't worry too much about making the housings slightly over-size - you can probably 'lose' all that by cutting thicker/wider wedges! :wink:

 

[JonnyD]

Making your own jig is fairly straightforward. The trickiest bit is getting the bullnose part right. You need to allow for taper of the dovetail cutter in your calculations. This is the only part that needs to be a snug fit as everything else will be wedged up tight. It is best to machine your left hand string from the bottom tread up and the right hand string from the top tread down to avoid breakout in the corners.

The internal 90 degree corner where the tread meets the riser can also get rounded over if you follow the jig with a guide bush. I tend to pull the router away at this point and clean up with a chisel afterwards to get a sharp corner.

I have a freud jig which is similar to the axminster one except it has interchangeable nose pieces for different tread thicknesses and just uses a 30mm guide bush. It works fine and is easy to use.

Jon

 

[Digit]

I had the same problem as you mark and as the wife wouldn't part with our son i had to deal with it myself.
A retired stair maker told me bluntly to forget traditional methods, pointing out that they were devised to suit problems faced years vefore.
First thing he asked me was would it be carpeted?
We said that it would.
I followed his advise, the strings were pine, the treads were MDF, this to stop any de-laming if ply had been used. The risers were ply.
Assembly was by glueing and screwing strips of timber to the strings to rest the treads and risers on, The risers were glued and screwed to the back face of the lower tread and to a piece of timber glued and screwed to the underside of the tread above and to the pieces on the strings.
The tread were also glued and screwed to the timber on the strings.
One great advantage accrued from this method, we were able to build the staircase in situ.
The strings were attached to the walls first, taking care to hide the screws under the strips of timber that supported the treads. We were able to assemble the stair simply by climbing up it!

Roy.

 

[WellsWood]

Roy, that's it! You've cracked it mate, and I can't beleive the answer to my troubles was so obvious and simple and yet I still couldn't see it #-o I was so busy obsessing about doing it "properly" that common sense went for a walk round the block.

I had intended to use those materials anyway to keep the costs down, but it hadn't occurred to me that under these circumstances I didn't need to allow for seasonal movement (well, shrinkage anyway - central heating doncha know) in the treads and risers. It gets me out of trouble on a number of other levels too - not least the aggravation of assembling the new ones with all those wedges singlehandedly, as I couldn't see how that was ever going to be feasable for a first timer. In fact the whole job suddenly got eminently do-able as a solo project - within my budget, and most importantly within my available time slot, as this has to be back in service by the end of next weekend - or else 8-[
It may even be possible to use the existing stringers without disturbing them, which means no work on the handrails or ballusters, which are sound anyway, other than a lifting a little flooor at the base to steady up the bottom newel.

Brilliant - off we go then.

Many thanks to all who answered, if only I'd asked earlier I could have avoided months of badgering by my better half - will I never learn :roll:

 

[Digit]

The chap who advised me was selling the timber as well! like you I'd spent ages getting used to the idea of the complications, particularly as this was a second storey stair case, and most of the problems evaporated.
If you use the existing strings you won't even have to do the maths, which I blooming well did.
Best of luck.

Roy.