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Escaping through back doors
comments (0) August 20th, 2008 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
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Years ago when I was tiling the countertop in my kitchen, I ran into a layout problem. I couldn’t figure out how to avoid a row of very skinny (and very ugly) tiles at the sink, which was a tiled-in farmhouse sink from Kohler, so I called tilesetter Michael Byrne. “Oh, that’s easy,” he said after I had explained my dilemma, “Just picture-frame a tile border around the sink. You can make the border whatever width you need to adjust the layout.” It worked like a charm.
Our art director, Bob Goodfellow, calls these solutions “back doors," the tricks of the trade that help you escape when you’re trapped by a problem. Bob knows a lot them. He used to be a boatbuilder, and then moved on to stairbuilding. His knowledge of woodworking is one of the major reasons that Fine Homebuilding is as good as it is.
These days Bob is into metal. He owns a plasma cutter and no longer deigns to work with wood. But he can still be consulted, like Nero Wolfe, or maybe Mycroft Holmes (the older brother whose deductive powers were even greater than Sherlock’s). I’ve been visiting Bob a lot as I work on my winder staircase.
Last week I talked to Bob about setting the handrails. There are three sections, each running between newels: a level rail at the top of the stairs, a central rake rail and a very steep rail at the bottom. My problem was the bottom rail. Despite my best efforts, the newel post at the bottom of the stairs was twisted. And of course, I glued and screwed it into place as though someone’s life might depend on it. There was no fixing it.
Some of you, I’m sure, can already see the problem. The cut on the handrail where it meets that bottom newel is steeper than 45°, which means I can’t easily cut it on a miter saw, and it’s got to be beveled (a compound cut) because of the twisted newel. Technically I could make this cut on my compound-miter saw, but it would be really tedious. When I took the problem to Bob, he said, “Oh, that’s easy,” sounding like Michael Byrne. “Just clamp the rail to the newel posts and cut it with a handsaw, using the twisted newel as a guide. You don’t even have to measure the angle.” And that’s just what I did.
I installed the rail Monday afternoon. And while it took some time to get it clamped in place at just the right angle, making the actual cut was surprisingly easy. I taped a piece of 1/4-in. plywood to the face of the newel post to protect it from the saw. I briefly considered cutting with a Japanese-style handsaw, but then realized a traditional western-style saw was the better choice. Because the blade on the latter is stiffer, wider, and longer, it gave me a greater bearing surface against the newel post. The cut was actually cleaner than the cut from my miter saw (maybe I need to change the blade).
Once I had the right angle on the bottom of the rail, I held it in place and marked the length (and angle) at the upper newel. I made the top cut on the rail with my miter saw, after making a jig that I learned about from Felix Marti (another back door). The jig creates a fence at a right angle to the miter saw’s fence and allows you to cut angles greater than 45°.
Next weekend I’ll install the balusters. I sure hope Bob has a good idea for how to lay out the spacing evenly.
posted in: Blogs
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About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
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