Attaching spindles to oak handrail

[Tim]

I will be refurbishing our 1930's balustrading in a few weeks time. There is a nice solid oak handrail, but no spindles (ballusters) - the original construction has solid oak newels and rail but the sides are clad in plywood on rough timber carcassing.

I will be buying some white oak spindles and baserail - the latter will come with fillets making spindle attachment easy. But I am unsure how best to attach the spindles to the underside of the rail.

The rail has a nice flat surface - will it be OK to simply glue and pin the spindles to this, or should I be thinking about cutting a rebate on the underside and trying to make up fillets? Or some other method maybe?

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Pin and glueing is not a reliable solid method since the rail will probably get a lot of use, more to the point is you will probably see small gaps between rail and spindle.

[Tim]

I see your point - thanks. In that case, my best option is probably to route out a 41mm slot on the underside of the rail and use fillets as per baserail, unless anyone's got a better suggestion? I have a router, but am not that experienced with it - I don't want the handral to end up as scrap!

[manatbandq]

Especially if you have children, you want the spindles to be held in place securely.

Rebating would be preferable. You could build up a rebate with strips of new wood rather than cutting out of the existing rail.

MBQ

[Tim]

Now that's a much better idea! So blindingly obvious I hadn't thought of it. Cheers!!!