Newell Post

[The Medway Handyman]

Hi

Got to cut a 4" x 4" newel post down in situ, needs to be a square cut.

Only way I can think of is marking it square all round and using a handsaw & elbow grease.

Is there an easier way?

[The Medway Handyman]

Let me rephrase that! It should be Newel Post and what I'm thinking of is a home made jig which enables you to use a circular saw from several sides. Sure I've seen one on a web site somewhere.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Medium cut wood blade on a grinder? or a reciprocating saw?

[John Rumm]

Draw a line on two sides with a setsquare

I found 30 secs cutting with a sharp pullsaw did the trick nicely. It would be more hassle trying to get a power tool in there I would have thought.

(normally it does not matter if the cut is not exactly square since often the stump will be used for fixing a spigoted newel post into, and it is getting the hole for the spigot upright that matters more)

[normanwisdom]

Straight cutting with a hand held circ saw - you need a saw board

easy to make, dead accurate in use. A short one for cross cutting needs to be long enough to carry the saw right through and past.

cheers Jacob

[Dave]

If this is to fit new rounded newels to a square base you'll presumably be slightly radiusing the "stump", so it doesn't need to be too flat - except in the middle section. When I replaced our old square newels with rounded ones from Burbridge I thought about making all sorts of jigs to get a flat top (including a masterpiece that gave support on all 4 sides so I could use a router) but eventually just used a regular handsaw (pull saw may have been better) and got a reasonable result. Before cutting I marked all the way around, then marked a second line

10mm below the cut line and used compasses to draw an arc to join the two at the corners. Once the cut was done I bored the hole and sanded to the arc. Now it's all stained to match it's barely possible to tell what's been done. The only awkward bit was that the cut happened to coincide with the mortice for the old ranch style rails(?) - but with careful cutting and fitting of a filler piece from the bit that was chopped off (fitted before boring the hole) the filler piece is almost imperceptible.

Dave

[adder1969]

Dunno about easier but if you want a flat top, rough cut it first then make up a square frame and use a router on the top.

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

Jacob the bloody newel post is in situ if you read the post.

[Guy King]

The message from John Rumm contains these words:

Pullsaws are growing on me. Though for ripping through a long length of ply a traditional saw still works best in my hands for smaller more delicate stuff like tenons and lap joints the pullsaw cuts cleaner, has a thinner kerf and wanders less.

[normanwisdom]

Yebbut he should be able to get at 2 sides I would have thought. If he can't get all around then he could finish off with hand saw.

cheers Jacob

[Phil L]

Short answer - no. You could make things easier for yourself by fixing straight scraps of timber along the lines you mark on and using them as a guide, but other than that it's down to the elbow grease.

[The Medway Handyman]

Great minds! I've been thinking about it and thats what I came up with.

Re elbow grease I recently bought one of those bright orange Tri-Cut Toolbox Saws from Toolstation.

The blurb says "Tri-cut saws cut on both the forward and reverse stroke, the triple ground teeth cut faster than any conventional saw". And it's bloody right! Never used anything that cuts so fast & easy.

[Roger Mills]

When I cut mine down, I used a circular saw from 3 sides, and finished off with a handsaw. before doing each circular saw cut, I clamped a batten on with G-clamps to make a guide.

[Stuart Noble]

If you clamp 2 x 2, or even 4 x 2, and hold the handsaw blade flat against it for the first few strokes, you should get a square cut

[The Medway Handyman]

Didn't need to cut it down after all, it was much lower than I remembered. Simply attached a new post on top.

Old post wasn't cut square and also wasn't level anyway, so some imaginative use of a mitre saw was required!

[John]

Thank goodness for that, at least I can sleep now!

Cheers

John Handyman to the Premier League