Worked with Ipe first time Monday – super stuff, really an eye-opener. Once I started thinking of it as aluminum, it was fine – everything had to be pre-drilled and pre-countersunk – darn near had to tap where I put screws into it instead of through it.
Lousy working pix, but the front of the house is in-process – ignore the hideous colors, and I was working at night, in the rain and sleet.
After ripping off the ALUMINUM SIDING on the porch railing/walls at Thanksgiving
Nasty brick steps –
View Image
Building 7’+ full-width steps ; Ipe on PT with SS screws –
New railing, too – I copied a picture of some she liked, and I talked her into the diamond cut-outs for “whimsey” – Again, ignore the color – it’ will be nice Craftsman earth tones soon enough!
Stairs finished – come spring or summer, I’ll build big piers at floor height on either side, if we can find the novelty CMUs – might cast concrete faces to apply to regular block.
Forrest – warm and dry now
Edited 1/1/2008 10:34 am by McDesign
Replies
Nice job!! Was the existing brick steps falling apart? Looks like some deterioration on the bottom step but other then that they looked in pretty good shape.
Nice railing too. You going to replace the wood columns with something tapered to reflect the craftsman look?
Runnerguy
Thanks - The existing brick steps were falling apart - poorly done in the 70's over an unmortered rubble core; replacing the original wood steps (still on some of the neighboring houses). My new stair stringers are full width like the original stairs, and land on the original concrete pad, still better than 1/16" to level after 80 years.
Those wood columns are the original tapered ones, just not apparent with the stupid molding and painting applied by an insane previous owner. They'll get better!
Forrest
Looks good. I love Ipe. I just finished building a kitchen island with an ipe base and a maple top. I'll try and post a pic once the finish dries and I get the drawer put back in.
It's always a challenge to work with, which is why it's kind of exciting. I've glued it up with every type of glue and had every one fail, as well as every one work. If you talk to boat builders they seem to have the most concrete experience working with Ipe on a furniture-like level, gluing, milling, etc.
I usually use the large-headed square drive SS screws when putting it down as decking or steps, I like that clean modern look of the SS against the rich Ipe colors.
I built some countertops out of it as well. Routing out for the undermount sink was pretty much insane. I hit interlocked grain a few times and nearly got thrown by the router. I was sure I wrecked it each time. My hands were physically shaking by the time I was done.
(I think the pic is going to be really large, sorry in advance)
Wow! Pretty counter. No routing for me yet. Did do some ripping on a small portable TS; that went far better than I expected - lots of steam in the rain, though!
Forrest
I bet a lot of steam! You might have experienced it when you pre-drilled for screws: sometimes when I use a countersink bit it builds up enough steam and pressure inside the hole that it has a small explosion when the bit is pulled out. I started wearing safety glasses when I was doing a bunch of drilling because small ipe chips and steam would explode back at my face. An exciting wood to work with all around!