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Showing posts with label Custom metal railing woodworking blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Custom metal railing woodworking blogs. Show all posts

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Rounding Up The Railings

Rounding Up The Railings

Sam and I have recently had a number of new requests for metal railings, both indoor and outdoor. The pictures that we have on the web are scattered throughout our blog and website and I thought it best to organize at least most of them here for a good quick overview ...
Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Follow the underlkined links for more info ...
A contemporary railing with fabricated tapered posts and floor mounted post flanges.
A typical hand drawing for a railing project proposal

A typical CAD drawing for a stair and balcony railing
Plasma cut 3/8ths" thick tapered spindles
Railing from the CAD drawing above

One inch twisted balusters, 1 per step, with fabricated metal base collars.
The Rupert, Vermont, Town Hall
I just happened to catch these as Sam was painting over the primer on the back side... I thought it was a cool look ... We don't have a picture of the full railing installation yet ..
The JK Adams gas heater railing/guard
Straight, twist and repeat
This is an antique railing from Boyertwon, PA ...Cast elements similar to these are still readily available ..
While not like the railings above, the photos show some other metalwork Sam has completed in the last year ...

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Resonator Guitar

The Resonator Guitar

Well .... what can I say ..... it came out Great and sounds Fantastic .... I missed it's first night out at the Manchester Bar & Grill last night, but plan to catch it's second night out at open mic at The Barn in Pawlet, tomorrow night ... Can't wait ...


Well, there was still a lot of stuff to do after the photos posted in June, and it was summer and there wasn't a lot of "spare" time, but Will is really in the home stretch now. All the finish is on and now he has to wait a week for it to cure before he can rub it out, shine it up and put it all back together. After some experimentation, he decided to go with a rubbed finish which exposed the stained wood underneath the black (second photo) . Since it is a kit and the body is plywood, I think the rubbed finish is a great choice. I can't wait to see it all back together .... and, I really can't wait to hear it .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

All top coats on

The understain .... The body is stained with an aniline dye from W.D. Lockwood ...

First notes 6 28 08 .... A smiling Mom looks on ... still lots of work left to do ...


My younger son Will has been working on a resonator guitar in his 'spare' time for a couple months now. It's actually a kit from Stewart MacDonald guitar supply. We bought it a while back but it seemed like kind of a daunting project so it had to sit for a while until he was ready to tackle it. Coming down the home stretch now ... the first strings were filed into the nut tonight .... It's been many hours of patient and careful work. The next one will go much faster I'm sure ....

6/20/08 first strings going on. The resonator cone is off to the left ...

The simple, elegant peghead star inlay in mother of pearl

Gluing the top onto the sides

Gluing the kerfed backing strips to the sides to reinforce the joint between the sides and the top and back

The fingerboard is glued to the neck after installing the frets and dots

Tuners installed on the peghead

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Another Custom Railing

Another Custom Railing


6/20/08 Sam's had a busy week. He whipped up a table/island base for a local cabinetmaker, has been working with Jim on the grill parts and finished up the tapered, trapezoidal posts and bases for a custom contemporary railing that he's working on. The 'feet', (steel plates with threaded supports) will be lagged through the treads and into the stringers and and then the posts will be bolted to them giving them a clean contemporary look. After mounting them and making patterns on Monday he'll fabricate the railing sections and weld them in place on site.... The top detail will also be confirmed after the posts are in place. There's a ladder involved somewhere to get to the skylight above but I'm not sure where that's going now ...

CAD drawing

The hollow trapezoidal posts and half post bolted to their respective plates
Photo to the right shows the post mounting brackets
The finials
The half finial against the wall
Finials on the posts, anatomy of a half post and half finial