Tools to use for cutting a skirt for stairs

[Tman]

Well I made a set of oak stairs, and for a story that is too long to tell, as the last step, I want to put on the stair skirts. They will be cut from a 3/4" oak slab, and go on top of the treads / risers. I know this is going to be challenging.

That oak slab that costs a good $50, so I want to cut and measure this right. I have a method to transfer the riser and tread layout to the slab, including the bullnose radius on the tread with a high degree of accuracy. Now I need to cut this out, and I would like to maintain tolerances better than 1/16" so that this meets up to the treads and risers with only little visible gap.

How do I do this?

I'll use my chopsaw with laser guide to cut the straight lines, but what about the bullnose radius, which is about 3/4" radius? I am thinking of either a router or a very small jigsaw. Seems the router would be able to navigate the tight radius easier, but one major slip, and there goes $50. Cutting a jig for the router is another option, but a lot of work. Any suggestions on the right jigsaw blade / setup to turn that tight radius with very precise results?

Thx, Tman

[Andy Asberry]

Here is how I did mine. I left 1 1/4" between the studs and the treads/risers. But I'm simply a homeowner/1st time builder. I didn't know how it was "supposed" to be done. Also, I used MDF, not a beautiful piece of wood. I just routed the edge.

[DT]

The finish trimmer (skirt) usually is just a piece of wood fastened to the wall first, then the treads and risers are cut to fit tight to it. You don't need to fit the stairs into a complicated routed-out series of recesses. Of course, if you already built the stairs tight to the wall...

Dennis