Help laying out a railing

admin

I have a railing to build on some wooden stairs. I've attached a small sketch of them. The lower stairs and landing as well as the upper stairs where the railing will end into a wooden post. The railing will turn 90° on the landing.I've got all the length measurements and degrees of the stair stringers. The customer wants the bottom rail 3" off the top of the stair stringer and for the vertical posts to lag into the sides of the stringers.I can on-site and get all the measurements I need, but can not fabricated anything on-site. So I will have to build it all in the garage and install.Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Reply:Test fit the railing before you paint it. Don't assume that the landing turns 90 degrees. Don't assume that the landing, or anything else is plumb or level, including the sides of the stringers. Get rise and run numbers on the stringers, and use them to check that your length and angle numbers are correct. I often tig weld things in the field, even over finished surfaces, and right up against walls with a piece of sheet metal as a heat shield. Make sure your hands are clean if you are working in a finished home, a greasy hand print is harder to fix than a bad weld. My favorite tools for measuring stairs: digital angle finder, 4' level, tape measure, self leveling laser, digital protractor.Ian TannerKawasaki KX450 and many other fine tools
Reply:Measure everything, twice. Take pictures of the stairs/landings, draw them out on work surface (table or floor) and layout your railing on the drawing (see pic).As said, test fit before paint in case you have to make modifications. Attached ImagesGraysOrnamentalIron.com
Reply:I second the notion of laying it all out on the floor---similar to boat lofting where everything is drawn out full scale.  It takes a LOT of care to get it drawn out properly and square (assuming the real thing is square) but it can really pay off in the end.  There are many times when I've discovered changes that had to be made which would not be apparent without lofting the unit.  All layout takes is a good chalk line, a flat floor, and some very careful measuring.These days I'd probably use solidworks and do the whole thing in 3D CAD instead but I still prefer the feel of working full size on the floor.
Reply:If your layout is good, you will have no issues. Double measure everything and take extra measurements of everything. Piece of cake.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720