If you had to make curved handrails for a deck what type of wood would you use?
Thanks,
dlb
.
The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
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dlb;
The first thought that comes to mind for me is mahogany. Tight grain, weather resistant, not too hard to work, easily available and not priced out of the world.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
curved wood
;)
Actually I have made them from red cedar, from SYP PT, and from Fypon.
With exception of the Fypon, I rip strips to about 1/2" ( depends on the radius needed and the flexibility of the wood species) and then glue it back together in the right shape, then mill that profile on the stock formed.
I can't say too much more without knowing more of your details.
Species selection should be based more on the fact it is exterior than on the fact you are curving it.
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curved wood
;)
There is always one in every group!!
Thanks for the reply. I tried using 1" strips of #2 grade pine deck boards but they broke at the knot locations which then prompted my posting.
Another question: If I use 1" strips should I soak them in water prior to placement?
Thanks,
dlb
.
The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
In my experience the strips have to be cut much thinner than what you are talking about.
I have resawn boards to 3/16's and got them to bend very easy.
I mist them with a spray bottle before glue up and use Gorrilla Glue. The moisture aids in bending and glue setting up.
Woods favorite carpenter
Recent testing *nearby* - http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Materials/MaterialsPDF.aspx?id=28897 seems to indicate that Gorilla Glue (despite the name) isn't as strong as some of the other waterproof glues such as Titebond III.
Jeff
Edited 12/30/2007 10:40 pm ET by Jeff_Clarke
In an old fine woodworking issue I found an article on bent lamination that warned against yellow glue due to it creeping out in humidity changes.But maybe Titebond III solved that.
urethane glue
I can't say I know what that is but I think it's what the author had recommended.Would it work outside? Edited 12/30/2007 10:12 pm ET by IamtheWalrus
Edited 12/30/2007 10:14 pm ET by IamtheWalrus
absolutely!I use it almost exclusively outside.Look for gorilla glue.
I've heard gorilla glue needs oodles of clamps otherwise it'll expand.Any experience with such?
Edited 12/30/2007 10:29 pm ET by IamtheWalrus
yes, it will expand, the key is to use a throw away paint brush and use a very thin but even layer of glue on one side of the joint and moisten the other side, as with any curved or radius glue-up you will need lots of clamps or a two sided form to ensure consistent bonding across the entire surface of the materials.
I like Gorilla glue for laminations.
I use water to help the plys bend easier, and gorilla glue needs water for curing.
I've read some failure stories involving TBIII outdoors. Thats why I haven't tried it yet.
THats all I use for interior use is TBIII.
Woods favorite carpenter
1" is too thick for most of the porch curves I work with. That is why I said 1/2" to 3/8".I use wood with no knots too. You can't do good work with poor wood. There are other poor grains that I avoid too.If you wet of steam the wood, then when it shrinks, the overall shape of the curve you make will change a bit and the glue joints will be stressed
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Thanks. Based on what you said then, I should not soak the wood prior to installation but cut thin enough strips for immediate applications, correct?
dlb
.
The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
Yes.If you are using gorilla glue, you can mist it first, but I would not wet it thoroughly. The shrinkage when it dries would challenge the glue joints.When steaming or wetting to bend wood, you should place it in the curved form to let it cure/dry to that shape, then take it out and glue it up, re-clamping in the form.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
what radius are you doing, and what species did you decide to go with?Here are a few of my curves.First one is FyponSecond is laminated from clear red cedar and third is same from exterior. The step treads are laminated from a composite decking like trex.The final show some interior oak treads
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Those are some really "ONO" railings and treads!!!!!!! (That is a word not an acronym and means something is really good.) Over here everyone wants the same ugly railing on their places, the one with the vertical 2x2 pickets in it. I get so tired of making those!!!!!!Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.
Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)
The Fypon stuff should be available in the islands. The company was bought up and off-sourced to China and even HD carries it now,I have heard.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Nice looking work. I used to do historic preservation, but I couldn't get the potential customers to pay for it.
Doesn't 027 need a handrail, or was the picture taken before it was installed?
Kowboy
Owners didn't want a rail. No inspections here.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
"If you are using gorilla glue, you can mist it first, but I would not wet it thoroughly. The shrinkage when it dries would challenge the glue joints."
I don't plan on using GG - maybe titebond III.
"When steaming or wetting to bend wood, you should place it in the curved form to let it cure/dry to that shape, then take it out and glue it up, re-clamping in the form."
I gathered that this was the procedure based on a previous posting. In order to make the rim joist I had to soak the 1/2" PT plywood for 2+ hours to get it to bend; hense, my question concerning soaking the wood.
I don't know what 'ONO' means but I don't believe that any word will aptly describe the work shown in the pictures. That first one, the outside deck, is truly amazing!!
Thanks for the input!
dlb
.
The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
Pictures
Any idea why I cant see the pics of the railings you did?
Th.is is the railing I did on my deck with the left over Ipe
The one time I had to bend wood I used strips in the 1/8-3/16 range.Then again it was maybe a 5 in. radius.Wetting and pre bending(lean it up against something with a weight in the middle causing it to bend for as much time as you have patience for) proved to be key.But on a large radius like yours if you have sturdy posts to bend around I'd try to bend all of the layers together with a whole lot of clamps and maybe PL-300 for glue.It may be over kill but I for one love the peace of mind that comes from slight overkill.And if bending all together it'll control the cracking knots at least in the middle plies.
PL 300 is for gluing foam. It is probably the worst choice I can think of for this application.I use Titebond.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I used it on a curved face frame for an interior built in.The only problem I could think of was how the squeeze out cleaned off.But for paint grade it was fine.But you've got more experience,so you may have a reason not to.As far as an all purpose construction adhesive ,I like it,any reason not to?
Yes - it never cures up hard so there is room for considerable creep on a curve.I am thinking you meant to say PL200 or 400 not 300
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Piffen,
OP asked if you were doing curves what "wood' would you use.
Last time I looked, FYPON wasn't a wood. You cheated! :-)
Were those FYPON rails worked like regular wood? I thought they came prebent.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
Yeah, but I was teasing him with all the options for how to do this.Fypon offers a selection of several radii standard, but they can make one of their railings in any radius you want, as long as you can afford it.again - to be clear, only that first one shown was Fypon. The next one in almost the same style was made in red cedar. That would be my first choice to make and mill out.
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I like to use clear cedar. I try to avoid using glue whenever I can for the outdoors because of expansion and contraction of the woo. we used Gorrilla Glue and bscuit joints for this application because the radius required it.
"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
Bob
beautiful execution!! is that mdo @ box columns?
could I talk you into saving that as a jpg to repost so the file size is small enough to download on my end?
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Yes please tell me how to get these jpegs smaller?"Rather be a hammer than a nail"
Bob
Looks like Doug is on it already, but for future reference and to add to your education, the format your original is in is Bmp which is windows bitmap and it contains millions of pieces of information re colours and pixel placement. It is good for printing large versions of your photography in clear detail.The Jpeg format is an auto compression that leaves the viewable photo about the same size, but compresses a lot of redundant information in the file so the file size for email and sharing is much smaller.So all you would normally need to do is open the photo with whatever photo software you have and are familiar with. Then go file> save as > and in the popup window select jpeg in the save as type line. you can even keep the same filename if you want. You will now have two copies of the same photo, one high quality for yourself and one that is easier to email and share here.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin
How the hell we gonna steel someone's ideas if they cant accommodate with the appropriate pic size!
View Image
Thanks prodeck!
Doug
Edited 1/6/2008 12:02 pm ET by DougU