I’m looking for a supplier for wooden columns.
I have a interior job that calls for a full wall to be opened up, a half wall of 36″ and a column to the header.
I live in the Pittsburgh, Pa. area and have been to the box stores. I don’t care for what they offer. Any help would be great …….Thanks ahead of time.
MJC Woodworks
“Gentle to the touch, exquisite to contemplate, tractable in creative hands, stronger by weight than iron, wood was, as William Penn had said,”a substance with a soul.'”
Eric Sloane
Replies
http://forums.taunton.com/n/find/findRedir.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&mg=A732031B-01AF-45B6-A8D3-D47B61496686
Woods favorite carpenter
They are not that hard to make your self. For making the staves router bits are available with the proper bevel so the staves can have an entasis before a biscuited glue up.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Here are two to get you started.
http://columns.com/intro_welcome.html
http://www.worthingtonmillwork.com/
check with Doug at Dambaugh Lumber
724-452-6330
Brookside, Allegheny Millworks and Mars Lumber would probably have leads too ...
but I'd try Doug first.
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Thanks everyone for the help.
Special thanks to Jeff,Us Burg guys have to stick together.
MJC Woodworks"Gentle to the touch, exquisite to contemplate, tractable in creative hands, stronger by weight than iron, wood was, as William Penn had said,"a substance with a soul.'"Eric Sloane
Edited 1/8/2008 5:52 pm ET by mjcwoodworks
put Doug on speed dial.
I worked for a company in the N Hills that used him ... first with another yard, he switched .. they followed. He's that good.
Dambaugh is up in Harmony ... but they'll deliver all over Pgh. I've had them deliver down to Wash, PA. Prices a bit higher ... but with Doug never a problem ...
and they got a great crew of delivery guys ... on most runs they send two .. and they almost always ask "where" ... not just dump and run.
I phoned in orderers for years ... one day realized I'd never met the man ... so took a side trip up to see who I been buying from. And once Doug knows your name ... big time or small like me ... U can ask for the occasional favor and get it.
called one Fri for "one more piece" of Azec ... around 3:30 ...
told him I get that last stick on ... I can get paid!
around 4:15 the pick up was in the driveway.
can't beat that!
good luck on the columns where ever U find them.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Thanks for the info Jeff.Maybe we'll run into each other some time.Have a great day.MJC Woodworks"Gentle to the touch, exquisite to contemplate, tractable in creative hands, stronger by weight than iron, wood was, as William Penn had said,"a substance with a soul.'"Eric Sloane
http://www.adamswoodproducts.com/
http://www.somersetdoorandcolumnco.com/
Highly recommended!!
Jeff
This place has some:
http://www.turncraft.com/
BTW - unless you want to stain them don't feel like you have to use wood. For example I have used the fiber cement exterior columns inside - they actually paint up pretty nice - better than fingerjointed wood by far. Can't think of the brand right now.
Edit: also it sounds like you need some around 4 or 5 feet. You can cut down 8' columns. Most that taper are only tapered for the upper half or so.
Edited 1/8/2008 10:59 pm ET by Matt
No ... do not cut 8' columns down to 4' - 5' columns! Entasis is for the first 1/3, not 1/2.
Jeff
If 3' of an 8' column were cut off, thereby upsetting the entasis, what percentage of the people who viewed the column do you thing would notice it?
I think that the really important question if you are dealing with classical elements, classically-proportioned, is: Why wouldn't everyone notice it?;o)Don't you object when a snack manufacturer reduces the amount of food in a package by 20%, makes the package larger and prints on it 'New and Improved - 2 oz. free'
Don't they say the same thing? Who will notice .....
Jeff
Edited 1/9/2008 9:32 am ET by Jeff_Clarke
OK - let's turn this around a little.... Since you are the resident certified post/column official... :-)
Look at this pic. I'm planning on using these posts and similar railings on a house that is supposed to have a bit of a Victorian look. There will be some modest gingerbread brackets where the posts meet the porch headers. Do these posts need a plinth and/or capitol added? Or should they just be installed as shown in the pic?
TIA
Matt,I know you asked jeff, but I do a lot of period work so I'll jump in with an opinion. I always find this particular style of post a weak substitute for what it is supposed to be imitating. The relief in the turned part is very light, and it has no curvature in it at all. Plus the whole thing is awfully scrawny. Brackets at the top would help, as would a small base wrapped around the bottom, but it's still going to look half-hearted no matter what. If it was my job, I would look for something beefier and more voluptuous at a salvage yard or a better profile from a new manufacturer.Also, how high off the ground is the deck? My local codes officer will let me go with railings that are lower than 36 inches if the deck is less than 30" above grade, and lower usually looks a lot better.Steve
The columns on the web site are 5" or maybe 5.25" - actual size. I'd opt for something thicker if I could find it - not that I have looked real hard - but the ones pictured are readily available. What do you suggest - other than scrap yard? Sorry I build new stuff. They do have other stuff. BTW - usually I go with around 1" of thickness for each 1' of height, although with Victorian stuff aren't the columns generally thinner? There are to be around 8.5' tall. If I add some kind of wrap, etc, to the bottom, don't I need to add a similar scaled down version to the top?
I'm with you on the railing heights. I'll probably go with around 30".
Of the ones on the web page you linked I like the two towards the right end a little better just because of the swoopier lines in the turning, but still feels thin to me.
No real rules for victorian. There are many different styles of victorian though. Too many variants to get into here. I just go by what's common in the area to model "new" victorian details.
Here's an Italianate style porch we did quite few years ago. We made the columns and ballusters. The posts have 4x4 treated cores and are wrapped in 1x pine, so the skinny part of the post would be about 6 inches across, and the thicker part maybe closer to 7.5 inches, and maybe about 9 inches at the base. Note how there is no thickening at the top, but the brackets add some needed massing to balance it out.
View Image
The ballusters are thick too. made from 8/4 stock, so 1 3/4 thick, and spaced very close together.
View Image
View Image
Thanks...
Yea, that looks nice. I like it a lot. Similar to a vintage house I saw up the street from my building lot. The posts and railings on the one up the street were more complex so I had kinda written it off, but your pics make it feasible. I'm saving the pics for later as a possibility. That's a lot of balusters to route though :-) Personally I don't think they are too thick. Maybe if they were spaced just a little wider. I always have my trim carps space balusters on exterior rails closer than they are used to although in the pic it looks like yours might be spaced tighter than the size of the baluster stock - which I have never done... The subject porch is very similar to the one in your pic size wise and the way it is oriented on the front of the house.
One thing - can you give me a bit more details on how you first routed the balusters & post bases with the OG bit. The chamfer part is easy... but the OG I'm not sure about at all.
Hi Matt,Sorry for the delay getting back. Gotta make a living one of these days. Been taking too much time off over the holidays.Anyway here's a little sketch.I used a big combo machine with a sliding table but sketched here for simplicity as if it was a little table and a mitre guide.First I ran a chamfer on all four edges of the balluster, using stops to make sure the chamfer only went to about 6 inches or whatever from the ends of the ballusters. Then I made a jig that would hold the baluster against the cross-cut (mitre) guide out of a 45 degree block of wood. Then you find the right size ogge bit for the lamb's toungue. It's probably going to be a bit with a guide bearing, so you have to remove that. Then you set the depth of the ogge bit to cut just deep enough with the balluster set 45 degrees on edge that the cut bottoms out at the chamfer cut. Set your rip fence as a stop, put balluster into place, push over bit, roll balluster 90 degrees, do all four edges this way, then flip end over end and do the other end of it.Steve
Edited 1/10/2008 11:34 pm by mmoogie
Edited 1/10/2008 11:35 pm by mmoogie
Gotcha....
removing the bearing from the Ogee bit was the key piece I was missing. That and using a router table...
thanks
I think the same as mmoogie - normally Victorian rails were much lower so the turned part of the column was much longer. I wouldn't add a trimmed out base, but there were often brackets in line with the railing below.
Here's another source for you - they'll customize wood species and turned length too - http://www.cinderwhit.com/ plus they're really nice to deal with.
(nice porch mmoogie - did you make a jig to do the chamfer-into-lamb's tongue?)
Jeff
Edited 1/9/2008 11:31 pm ET by Jeff_Clarke
Thanks Jeff, yes we did a little jig that allowed us to run the material crosswise rocked up at 45 degrees over an ogee router bit, then finished the chamfer like normal with a chamfer bit. The ballustrade took while...Steve