A process of re-newel...

[John Rumm]

Or rather perhaps the subject should be "how to turn a bit of wood when you can't turn it, and don't have a lathe?"

I need to re-instate the ballustrading on my stairs soon. I have a "stump" which is what remains of the original newel post before a combination of its shear ugliness, and being in the way of something large I was trying to get up the stairs goaded me into its aggressive pruning:-

which I will fit one of these:-

are friends to match this to go at the bottom of the original stairs, and the foot of the new stairs to the loft)

Now fitting the post to the stump is not too difficult - drill a 2 inch hole with an "expansive" bit and slot the spigot on the bottom of the newel into it.

However I would like to make the top of the stump match the profile on the top of the newel post as closely as possible, and I can't think of a accurate way of shaping it in situ.

I could cut it roughly to shape and then try and finish it with a belt sander - but aside from sounding messy, I don't know how easy it would be to get a nice even profile.

Any suggestions?

[Andrew Gabriel]

That's roughtly what I did, but all by sanding. Start by marking a circle on the top of the stump which is same diameter as the circle on the top of the newel post, and then mark the radiuses on the sides, again to match the newel post (I cut a piece of card to draw round so all sides were the same). Then I used a belt sander to take it down to the line, and finished off by hand. (Original idea was to stop the belt sander before the line, but the well seasoned and dried post was too hard to make much inroads by hand.) In my case, I wanted a spherical surface; the one you pictured looks conical which should be easier.

Of course, the other way to make it match is to saw the top off the newel square to match the stump ;-) But seriously, sharp corners on stairs are just one more hazard you might want to avoid, particularly whilst falling down the stairs, so rounding these off is a good thing.

[nightjar]

I would use a router with a compass attachment - at its simplest, a piece of metal or plastic sheet attached to the bottom plate of the router with a hole for a screw at the centre of your circle.

Colin Bignell

[David Hearn]

I did this a month or so ago using Richard Burbidge bracket-fix system. Theirs uses a 50mm spigot, and also do a 50mm forstner bit (couldn't find any other than a Richard Burbidge branded one which was exactly 50mm, and not in a set) for £15 (probably overpriced).

What I did (following their video) was draw diagonal lines from corner to corner across the top face. Drill the 50mm hole (my normal drill went too fast and burnt the wood, not to mention wasn't meaty enough to drive a 50mm bit) where the lines intersect. I had to switch to my Argos SDS drill which had a normal chuck adaptor as this went much slower (better for the bit) and was beefier (not to mention had a clutch - very useful as it did catch a few times and would have been dangerous without). Once I'd drilled the hole deep enough (make sure you get this hole straight! I didn't and as a result of correcting it, ended up with a wide hole at the bottom - meaning the post would wobble. I needed to glue and screw through the base into the spigot on a few sides to fix it firmly, rather than just glueing it) you can then insert the newel post into the base. Draw a circle around the bottom of the post to show which part doesn't need to be removed.

Next (which was a neat trick shown in the video) use the bottom of a tin of paint to draw a semi-circle on each side of the post base which then gives a shape to work to. I used a hand plane to shape the base, making sure I didn't go into the circle drawn onto the top matching the post base. Took a while, but I'm pleased with the result.

There may be easier way of doing it (eg. electic sander) - but I didn't have any of these. However - having the SDS drill was a life-saver, as I wouldn't have been able to do it with my basic electric drill - far too fast for that size bit. And don't underestimate the difficulty in drilling a perfectly vertical 10cm deep hole!

David

[Andrew Gabriel]

I had to drill some holes like this into the top of newel posts to mount balls on. I used an auger (sp?) bit with a brace and bit. The bit was damn expensive ISTR, but using a brace and bit allows you lots of time to make sure the hole is centred and vertical. The newel posts were my own construction, but I used Richard Burbidge's balls, IYSWIM...

[John Rumm]

nightjar I would use a router with a compass attachment - at its simplest, a piece of

I did try to think of a way of using a router for this, but was having difficulty working out how to achieve the profile I wanted. You could do it with a chamfer cutter, plunging progressively deeper as the radius of the cut increases toward the edges of the post, but that would seem to require the angle of the chamfer on the cutter to exactly match the required angle on the shoulder of the newel. The other alternative I considered was using a straight 1/4" cutter, and cutting a series of stepped rings getting deeper as the radius increases. This would leave a slightly simpler sanding job to remove the steps.

[nightjar]

I assumed that the newel post used a fairly standard angle. It looks like 45 degrees to me.

That would work if you do have an odd angle to match, but a fully routed profile will look neater.

Colin Bignell

[John Rumm]

nightjar I assumed that the newel post used a fairly standard angle. It looks like 45

Yup, just measured. Not far off 45 deg. It has a slightly concave finish in the chamfer of the newel, but I can't see anyone noticing if I cut it straight. I will need to get a non bearing guided chamfer cutter.

I may still have to do part of one by sanding however, because I do not have enough clearance above the slope of the string on the top staircase, and I won't be able to turn the router through 360 degrees without the body hitting the string.

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