Fixing a newel cap - help please!

[teddysnips]

We've had our horrible old staircase revived - it used to be mahogany- stained pine with the soldiers falling out. We've painted the strings, replaced the string caps and soldiers and painted all that + newels white, and replaced the handrails with oak. However, to complete it I'd like to put in newel caps in oak to match the handrails.

I've found these:

I can't work out how to fit them. They seem to have rather large ... er ... lugs? on the bottom (it has a diameter of 38 on the picture). How would I go about fixing this to the top of the newel (which is flat, except for the slightly rounded edges)? I have a drill but no 38mm bits!

And then there's the half-cap - how would I fix this where the newel butts up to the wall?

[John Rumm]

The easy answer is that you buy the newel posts with matching holes in the top. However, you are not starting from there!

Hence you need to drill a big ish hole. The simplest way is probably with an expansive bit in a powerful drill on low speed. Once the hole is done (try to keep it nice and parallel to the post), chop a bit off the peg on the cap so that it has a flat on the round section (this will let air our when you try to push it into the hole). Smother in PVA, tape it into the hole. Job done.

options here:

You could mark out the wood to be removed, chain drill just inside the perimeter of you line, and then chop out what you need with a chisel.

alternatively, since the cap will be flat against the wall anyway, you could simply chop off its peg, slap some no more nails on the flat side and stick it on the wall above the post.

[The Medway Handyman]

IME you drill a hole & glue them in. 38mm bits are rare, Bosch make one & B&Q list it on their web site.

I'd saw the lug off & glue to to the wall with No Nails, or plug & screw it then use a wooden plug to hide the screw.

[Man at B&Q]

So buy a 38mm bit! Chop some of the peg off if you can't be arsed to drill very deep. Glue it in with your favourite wood glue.

Chop the peg off and glue it to the wall, or make the peg smaller and square and chisel a matching hole in the top of the half newel and glue.

MBQ

[The Natural Philosopher]

I'd be tempted to cut them flush and use a jig to drill accurate dowel holes in both parts and use dowels..

ditto, except also drill the rear and put a screw into the wall, whack body filler over it and attach the thing to the wall as well.

Making large holes in end grain is a job for a sort of brace and bit thing really..or one of those paddle bits. But chances are you would split it.

Otherwise mark out and drill many holes, and use a chisel to clean up.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I bought a 38mm (or whatever) auger bit to fit in my brace and bit. Easy enough to do it with that. If there's someone else to hand, have them check you are drilling truely vertically into the post end. If the hole is slightly loose (mine was), I used some wood shavings from the hand plane to wedge the piece in. Glue and tap into place. They've never budged since, and people swing on them as they go up and down stairs around the winders. (Dowels would have broken off in my household.) Parts of bannisters and handrails do have to be quite strong -- people can reach for them in an emergency when they've already started falling, and they need to be able to handle the larger forces exerted in such cases, not just normal use.

That doesn't have to be so strong. I suspect something like no more nails would be good enough.

[teddysnips]

You guys! Thanks for all the helpful advice.

[Baz]

Hi Ed.

Ebay 38mm Wood Bit £2.80 delivered.

[newshound]

Excellent point