How to construct circular nosing for around staircase?

[ississauga]

Nosing, you know the stuff that looks like this and goes on the upper floor next to the staircase

at hardwood stores they are about 1 inch thick by around 4 inches across. But circular nosing needs to be custom made, once a template is created. My question is how do they make it?

I have customers that need this stuff, instead of waiting the 10 days and probably not getting an exact fit I am thinking of making it. If I do the following steps will I get the desired product?

-Take a 1 inch thick oak plank (maybe the 1 foot by 4 feet stuff at Home Depot) and draw the circular forms according to the template

-Cut each small section using whatever tool

-shape them using the router to make them look like nosing

-Glue them together

Will this work or will I get unexpected problems after a few weeks/months? (like cracing along glue lines due to different expansion/contraction of the wood etc.)

[Greg G.]

This is my opinion, you may get others - consider them all. (Most of them anyway...) ;-)

I would divide the circumference into equal lengths and construct a series of mitered straight sections that could then be cut away with a bandsaw, jigsaw, etc, and then routed to final shape. I would also consider biscuit joinery for addition strength and ease of lining up the joints. BE CAREFUL in placing the biscuits! Use small enough biscuits and place them so that when you do the trimming and routing, they won't show through. This may require small face frame biscuits. You might also consider dowels, finger joints or dovetail joints if you're a real glutton for punishment.

Like this:

would glue them up BEFORE trimming and routing the edges that show. Any cuts on the underside can be done beforehand. It is going to be

*very* difficult to get them lined up correctly if you route the nose before gluing. You might even be able to mount this thing in it's permanant home before routing - I don't know the finished size or circumstances.

FWIW,

Greg G.

[loutent]

I think it would be much better to use smaller width oak so that you are not using pieces where the end grain becomes perpindicular to the front which would be very weak - especially for a tread.

Gluing up ends set at 22.5 with biscuits and routing the finished shape with a template seems like the way to go.

Another method might be to use a circle jig on your bandsaw so that you could make infinite diameter circles as needed, then put the bullnose on them with the router.

Lou