I'm building a stair railing with three rails that has long balusters between the lower two rails and short between the upper two. The stairs have a landing so there's about a 10' section and a 4' section.
Here is a poor picture of the lower section:
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the smaller section I drilled dowel holes perpendicular to the rails and the angled ends of the balusters. This didn't work well because any clamping pressure immediately cantilevered the rails. It took a lot of mashing with a mallet and the heel of my hand to get it all together. For the longer section I want to drill the dowel holes parallel to the ballusters. My plan is just to drill some guide holes in a block at the appropriate angle and then clamp the block onto the rails (and later onto the ends of the balusters). Does anyone have any better ideas?
Ken Muldrew snipped-for-privacy@ucalgazry.ca (remove all letters after y in the alphabet)