Redrilling existing holes in timber at a different angle

yes, but the CBF has better strength and adhesion: I am happy to hang off a CBF filled hole with a screw in it: Not so plastic wood

Yes. That works as well

I think that is the best idea yet. You can plane the dowel back after the holes is in

OK, right. Thanks.

Toolstation has this:

Plug the existing holes first, then drill new ones. If hand drilling angled holes then start of perpendicular to the surface, and drill a couple of mm down first, then adjust drill position to include the angle

- the shallow hole drilled already will stop the bit skating off.

John,

Thanks for that. Plugging the original holes was an approach which hadn't occurred to me at all.

Is it possible to drill the new holes in a slightly different place from the old ones? Either way, you need to fill the existing holes with some wooden dowels, but it's best not to start drilling across two materials of difference hardness because the drill will wander into the softer material. If you use a decent wood auger with a pointy end, you should be able to start each hole on a sloping surface.

You will need a pillar drill, and you will need to find a way of holding the rails at the correct angle - possibly by sitting them on a suitable wedge and clamping everything to the drilling table for each hole.

Have you considered keeping the rails horizontal, and stepping them to follow the steps rather than sloping them?

"Bert Coules" snipped-for-privacy@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk:

Circular rasp or Surform?

I had wondered about that but didn't like the way that the plugged original holes would be so visible (at least on the lover rail). Though perhaps with the right filler and some judicious treatment I could minimise them

I had been wondering about what sort of bit to use, so thanks for that.

I saw two drawbacks to that: It would need additional posts to support the stepped rails, and I would miss the safety aspect of having one continuous rail to slide a hand along while going up and down the steps.

One other possibility might be to not use the original spindle holes at all: I could add triangular timber inserts top and bottom and drill new holes at a safe and easy ninety degrees. It wouldn't look as elegant as my original idea if I could do that idea well, but it would look a great deal better than a bodge job. Forgive the hasty sketch:

I would just make a jig with a bit of wood with the angled hole drilled in it to a depth that holds the drill for around 5 cm. When clamped (or screwed) to the work piece the drill is then already at the correct angle and cannot easily drift away from this angle. Repeatedly freehand drilling to a set angle is not easy.

yes.

Lightweight fillers have no structural integrity at all. They are just cosmetic.

Are you thinking of a jig with just one hole which would need to be moved along for each new drilling operation? As well as getting the angles right, I think that maintaining the correct spacing could well be a problem too, especially since it obviously has to be matched on both the top and bottom rails.

I had wondered about permanently attaching a length of wood (say one inch thick) the entire length of the railings and with the holes drilled at the correct angle, and using that as the sole housing for the spindles - that would mean I needn't drill into the original rails at all. But using the wood as a jig is an interesting idea too, thanks.

"The Natural Philosopher"

Ah, right. Thanks.

Well, many moons ago I did this by filling the holes with a mixture of glue and sawdust. The thing I cannot recall was the type of glue. It might just have been that white stuff, but that can dry pretty hard. I also had a drill stand at the time and the lengths to drill were not very long. Brian

It gets worse. You'll find that on stairs you need two spindle lengths. (There will be two spindles on each tread.) Neither is the same length as for horizontal runs.

There is also the problem of how to join the horizontal and inclined bannister rails without it looking total crap.

Yes, I realised what you meant. Thanks for the point, but a bit of experimentation suggests that it won't be a problem.

That would only be the case if the lower end of the spindled were attached directly to the treads; that isn't so in my case, where there will be a rail at the bottom as well as the top.

Brian, thanks for that. Glue and sawdust sounds a tad messy but I'll keep the idea in reserve in case other solutions don't work out.