Several years ago, I remember seeing a design for a jig which is used to transfer the width and “tread end to skirt” angles from the unfinished stair carriage to tread stock. I believe the design was in the Tips & Techniques section of Fine Homebuilding but I have been unable to find again. (my subscriptions go back 9 years). Can anyone out there point me to the Issue containing that design? If not, would anyone share their design for this device. Yes, I know that is a similar instrument for sale in the magazine, but would prefer to build my own.
Thanks in advance!
Replies
i made mine out of an aluminum street sign i found in a ditch
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i can take it apart and extend it for stairs wider than 36"
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each end is the mirror image of the opposite
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Edited 8/13/2006 11:27 pm ET by MikeSmith
Edited 8/13/2006 11:28 pm ET by MikeSmith
Edited 8/13/2006 11:28 pm ET by MikeSmith
Thanks, Mike - despite the barbs that followed. It's a goo didea!
Mike gets the props for sweat equity. If you'd rather spend the money than the time, the setup from http://www.collinstool.com is pretty easy on the budget and works just dandy.
"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think -- there are no little things" - Bruce Barton
Thanks, RW. Price isn't bad - looks a little awkward (sp) to use.
I was looking through some old issues today and saw an article that had a picture of a homemade jig.
January 2005 pages 76-80 is an article of finishing stairs.
Here's what I use... 3/4" birch ply scraps...and you don't have to back over a stop sign to get 'em<G> I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
Dang...the abominable snowman puke in your stairwell?...that looks disgusting ;-)
I will bet ya he had it foamed to help eliminate squeaks.
Thanks, Snort - this looks both simple and easy to use. Interesting use on the kick - I hadn't thought to use it that way. I normally fit one side and scribe the other as the skirt board doesn't usually cause a problem. This is a much better idea, though, for stain grade kicks.
It's a renaissance jig<G>...with different wings and stretchers, we use 'em for window sills, shelves, wall caps, beam caps,etc...anything captured at both ends...and the price is so right I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
Snort....Your jig looks almost identical to mine. But I used two beams across, not one, and used the LV "story stick" clamps to hold em in place. I used baltic birch end plates as well, and used 1/4-20 locking bolts to hold em in place. The job I made em for was 8 years ago, and they have seen constant use since. The LV story stick hardware useds 3/4x1/4 sticks, so in an ABS tube, I have sticks which allow me to do sills, treads, countertops up to 10' length, just change a set of sticks. Although you get a tad of static, what most folks don't realize is that with some of this "captured" stuff, once you set the jig, you also have to get it out, and in doingso, you find out how you have to get the piece into place once it's cut. I know you know what I'm talking about.And of course you know as well, that these type of jigs are so accurate that if you don't cut slightly less that yer jig transfer, you is gonna have problems getting it in place. For you, I know I'm "preaching to the converted", but I just wanted to add my two bits and say "well dun" Bigger more complicated stuff I've taken to using 2" strips of coreplast and hot melt glue to make my templates. The stuff can be easily conformed to out of flat wall surfaces with a handplane. But I betcha that ain't news to you either. Moreover, when the job is finished, the pieces can be broken apart and taped together waiting for the next job. They don't last forever though!!! Some fella keeps cutting them shorter and shorter...Eric
in Cowtown
Some fella keeps cutting them shorter and shorter...I'm a cutter...makes 'em real easy to carry around, then<G> I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
Thanks, omnimax - that's the jig that I remembered. The instructions for building it, though, were from an edition between 1990 and 1996 (I think). Appreciate your input.
Get in your truck and drive to NY this weekend. Mike Smith promises he'll show you how to make one once you get there. See you at the Tipi. :)
we can use some of the signs Vince collects on his ridesMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Wheels, try FHB Issue 90, page 22. I think that's the article you were thinking of.
Also, there's a review of the "Strair Wizard" in Issue 113, page 122.
And a reader describes another homemade gauge in 173, page 24.
-Allen
Thanks, WNYguy - sorry I waited so long to read this tonight - will look tomorrow evening. You've either got one heck of a memory or an index system I'd really like to have.
Wheels, I used the "Magazine Index" on this site (in the blue strip under the Fine Homebuilding logo). It didn't list the earliest article, but that was referenced in one of the others.
My collection of magazines doesn't go back that far, so I'll be interested if that one is, indeed, the article you were looking for. The time frame seemed about right.
Allen
Didn't realize that the index was there - thanks for the tip.
Wheels, you're welcome! I've been hanging out here for a few years and only discovered the index a few weeks ago. I used to pull out every year-end issue, and laboriously go through each index.
When it occurred to me to look here for an index, I was so excited to find it I almost started a thread, "There's an index!" But then I figured everyone else already knew.
Allen