I'm getting the stair spindles etc. delivered tomorrow. I want to build a r emovable panel, a bit like John Rumm did, but this is a whole staircase (13 treads), and if not done well the result could be a bit wobbly. The recommendation for fitting the bottom rail is to glue and screw.
There is a newel at top and bottom. The idea is to fit the handrail with bo lts covered over with a plug or filled, that could be drilled out if the pa nel (i.e. the whole banister) needed to be removed.
For the bottom rail, I guess a few screws or bolts under a few removable sp acers would hold it down, but this may not give it enough rigidity, althoug h most of this is probably provided by the hand rail.
Ideas for a more rigid fixing of the base rail:
- Long metal dowels drilled into some of the spindles and the stringer. Co ns: might get jammed over time, hard to align correctly
- The base rail is a bit wider than the stringer so mouldings will be need ed to tidy it up. I could arrange the mouldings to be permanently fixed to the base rail but not to the stringer, so the base rail "unit" fits over th e stringer instead of just on top of it, which would help. Shims might be r equired to tighten the whole thing up.
- Some magic concealed quick release system.
Any more ideas ?
Simon.