Stair rods

[Andy]

Hello All,

I'm thinking of adding stairs rods to my new 27" stair and landing carpet runner wot I installed myself.

I know carpet rods aren't needed but I thought it would be a nice touch.

On the negative side brass 1/2" diameter stair rods seem not to come for less than about £20 each, and that's not solid brass, just tube.

I'm not keen on forking out £250-odd for what is essentially decorative, but I just wanted to check if anyone had any recommendations: I'm not keen on plated ally, it never looks the same as real brass.

I see 3/8" diameter are cheaper, I've seen £8.50 ( Carpets Direct - Simplicity range) and £12.85 ( Stair Rods UK - Mini range ) mentioned each, purporting to be tubular cartridge brass. Anyone know of any cheaper sources for real brass 1/2" stairrods, and does 3/8" look too weedy, etc? Or are stair rods not back in fashion yet?

:0)

Andy

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

'Night.

[meow2222]

How about copper rods @ =A32 each? Electrical earth rods from any BM. Possibly copper microbore plumbing fittings on the ends. Copper needs cleaning and varnishing else it tarnishes.

NT

[nightjar]

You could buy brass rod from a metal stockist, but 1/2" will currently set you back about £4.50 a metre + VAT, if you buy it in 3m lengths and cut it to length yourself. You then need to polish it, or send it to a metal finisher to be polished.

Colin Bignell

[Roger Cain]

I found a nice set of solid brass ones at a junk shop which did house clearances.

[Andy]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

Hmmm, I could just about make up and polish a set or rods ( I have polishing accessories and the neighbour would let me turn the ends into something decorative on his lathe ). I don't fancy having a go at the end brackets though, thats a lot of fiddly sawing, filing, drilling and polishing x 26.

I think I'll keep an eye on eBay and recce my local junk shops etc

cheers,

Andy.

[nightjar]

If you have access to the back of the stairs, you could use brass eye bolts. However, I would be very dubious about trying to turn a 27" long rod unless the lathe was very big, thus able to take the rod between centres, or it had a bar feed, to avoid having a long bit of rotating unrestrained bar sticking out of the back of the headstock.

Colin Bignell