I just thought I’d post some pictures of the stairway I’m working on. I finished the floor a while ago. I’m working on this in my spare time—pro bono for the parents. The stairway is brazilian cherry treads with purpleheart risers and skirtboards. The center of the landing is lacewood and the borders you see are purple heart surrounded by two pieces of 1/4 aluminum. I also inlaid the aluminum in the posts in place of flutes–just trying to do something a little different.
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Replies
Holy purpleheart! What are those stair treads made out of? Things are looking good,nice work.
Dustin
The stair treads are brazilian cherry--just happened to have a few with some figure to them--I wish I would have used those as the first few steps. They turned out real nice with the finish.
WOW
Dan, that turned out really nice. Must have taken a lot of time, and I hate to think what the materials cost on that one!
I've reduced the pic size so that the slow dial-up'ers can enjoy the pics too.
jt8
Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. -- Ann Landers
Love the aluminum!! is that just flat stock, or is it an inverted T? what happens if the floors need to be sanded eventually? can aluminum be sanded? will the refinshers freak?
any pics of the work in progress? is the alumnum glued or screwed in any way?
The aluminum is 1/4 x 3/4 flatstock on the border. I nailed it every 6 inches to the purpleheart--very monotonous--but you risk it popping with epoxy--nails allow for different expansion rates--especially when sanding--it gets a little warm. The posts have 1/4 x 1/2 flatstock aluminum inlaid. On the posts I just used a structual epoxy--T88. It worked great--you just have to allow enough room for the epoxy and don't leave the aluminum proud otherwise it's hard to sand flat. It's much easier to sand the wood down to the aluminum--and yes the aluminum does sand--I just went from 50 grit to 80 grit to 100 grit and used an acid cure urethane for the finish--same as on floor.
Very cool looking.
Your response about the Al. reminds me of a shop I worked in YRS ago. We routed a slew of stairtreads with a celtic knot type pattern. Oak treads. The metal guy was to pour molten pewter in the grooves, we would finish the surfaces.
Well, you have to over pour the pewter so when it cools it wont shrink too much. Metal guy had a flash of lightbulb...over pour and then plane it off...WRONG.
We had finish nail anchors in the grooves, but his planer knives picked up the stringing and wadded up in the cutter head...destroyed the tread and his planer.
What we did in the shop , was we used really good Japanese hand planes to level the pewter ( easy actually) and scrapers for the final polish. Came out looking sweet with no scratches.
Edit for crappy typeing ( numb hand)
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success, is not pleasing others, it is pleasing yourself"
Edited 4/7/2005 2:55 pm ET by SPHERE
Do you have a picture of the celtic knot pattern?
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Aluminum! Looks better than brass. Very sharp looking and a class job.Ken Fisher
nope
Nope, this was almost 20 yrs ago I think..mirror image on each end of the tread. Pretty cool looking.
Maybe Ellis Walentine still has a pic. Oh, wait.his shop burnt a few yrs ago too.
Anyway, I worked in his shop for a spell, and it was his baby to do that job for a client.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success, is not pleasing others, it is pleasing yourself"
Dan: Nice work......I have been gone on vacation. Good job
amazing thanks! did you happen to use a mini hammer or something to make the nailing easier? would a 18G brad nailer fire through aluminum? as soon as I saw your idea, wheels started turning in my head :)
No easy way to attach the aluminum--I had to drill a pilot hole every 6 inches and nail it by hand. I did this all by hand about 200 ft of border or so and had to screw and plug it to install the border as 1 unit. If I had a shop or drill press I would stack a few pieces and drill them all at once. I put my dad to work on drilling the holes :) You may try to rebate the edges of your border to receive 1/4 x 1/4 aluminum and attach via epoxy. Then you've got to clean up the mess before you can install it but it would allow you to attach the border with a loose tennon and not have to mess with screws and plugs--but I like the look anyway. the project was a little bit of an experiment for me---I was just too scared of it coming loose in the sanding stage or in years to come with seasonal movement. The posts I'm not worried about--they're just 30 inch runs and the epoxy worked great for that.
Dan
Cool work!
I worked for a guy that got a deal on some purple heart, we trimmed out his master suit with the stuff.
Never seen it used for much more than a cute little jewlery box before, you incorporated it nicely.
Doug
dan... really nice... the purple risers ... are they stained ?
and i really like the floor.. also the baseboard detail at the round plaster corners..
View ImageMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Hey, thanks for the reply. The risers are purple heart. When you cut or sand the wood it's brown, but it oxidizes to that purple color you see--as purple as purple can be--it'll actually brown out over time. You can slow it down with a uv protector or you can resand and it will oxidize to that purple again. The floor has been down for close to a year now.
Hey, I forgot to mention the baseboard detail. the drywallers were actually suppose to square off the radius corners at the base. I just use 30 degree mitres with a center piece of base about 5/8 of an inch glued and pinned to the other pieces of base. It's a little slower than 90 degree corners but it beats putting a large bead of caulking or using a transition piece that never quuite matches.
Wow, very nicely done... I got a question on how u did the finishing on the aluminum and woods. Aluminum seems to put too much grayish dust when sanded and that seems to sounds like it (sanded dust from the aluminum) would fall in to the pores of the wood... How do u manage to keep it free from that dust?
I noticed the dust too when I was hand sanding the posts--I was a little worried. When I used a belt sander hooked up to my vaccum I had no problem with that--but I did a final block sanding by hand and it put a gray dust on everything--I just vacuumed and used a tack rag and the finish went on just fine. However I didn't sand and finish the floor--I had someone else do that, but there was no problem there either.